CHICAGO — A federal grand jury has indicted the president of an environmental services company for allegedly obstructing an investigation into the grant funding of a hotel demolition project in the Chicago suburb of Harvey, Ill. CARL FIORAVANTI, 55, of Lansing, Ill., is charged with one count of obstruction of justice, according to an indictment returned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.  The charge is punishable by up to 20…

CHICAGO — Three former board members of the failed Washington Federal Bank for Savings in Chicago have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to falsify bank records to deceive the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. WILLIAM M. MAHON, 56, of Chicago, and GEORGE F. KOZDEMBA, 73, of Fort Myers, Fla., pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge during a hearing Monday before U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall.  Mahon’s guilty…

BENTON, Ill. – A U.S. district judge sentenced the former executive director of the Jefferson County Housing Authority to spend 10 months in federal prison after he converted more than $20,000 in authority funds for personal expenses. In addition to the prison sentence, Thomas J. Upchurch, 53, now of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, was ordered to pay $20,150 in restitution back to the housing authority, and he will serve one year of supervised…

URBANA, Ill. – A Champaign, Illinois, man, Lekevie C. Johnson, formerly of the 2000 block of Clayton Boulevard, was sentenced on April 10, 2023, to 10 months of imprisonment and ordered to pay $59,358.90 restitution following his December 2022 guilty pleas to financial crimes including federal program misapplication, student loan misapplication, and false statement in bankruptcy. Johnson was formerly the pastor of Mount Calvary Missionary…

CHICAGO — A federal jury has found a former Illinois attorney and real estate developer guilty on two counts of embezzlement, six counts of bankruptcy fraud, and eight counts of tax fraud following a nearly four week-long trial in Chicago. Evidence at trial revealed that ROBERT KOWALSKI, 61, of Chicago was a close associate of John Gembara, the former President of Washington Federal Bank for Savings (“WFBS”), a small bank in Chicago’s…

DETROIT – Three family members of the former executive director of the St. Clair Housing Commission, Lorena Loren, were sentenced today to federal prison after having pleaded guilty to various federal offenses due to their involvement in Loren’s fraudulent scheme to steal money from the Section 8 program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced. Ison was joined in the…

DETROIT – Three family members of the former executive director of the St. Clair Housing Commission, Lorena Loren, were sentenced today to federal prison after having pleaded guilty to various federal offenses due to their involvement in Loren’s fraudulent scheme to steal money from the Section 8 program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced. Ison was joined in the…

URBANA, Ill. – Lekevie C. Johnson, 47, formerly of the 2000 block of Clayton Boulevard in Champaign, Illinois, pleaded guilty on December 1, 2022, to Federal Program Misapplication, Student Loan Misapplication, and False Statement in Bankruptcy. Sentencing for Johnson has been scheduled on April 10, 2023, at the U.S. Courthouse in Urbana, Illinois. In court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Eric I. Long, Johnson admitted that he was formerly the…

CHICAGO — A former employee of the Cook County Land Bank Authority used “straw buyers” to fraudulently purchase and resell properties from the agency on his behalf, according to a federal fraud charge filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago. MUSTAFAA SALEH, 36, of Chicago, is charged with one count of wire fraud.  The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.  Arraignment in U.S. District Court in…

DETROIT – Three family members of the former executive director of the St. Clair Housing Commission, Lorena Loren, pleaded guilty today to various federal offenses due to their involvement in Loren’s fraudulent scheme to steal money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced. Ison was joined in the announcement by Machelle L. Jindra, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S.…