Saturday, February 13, 2016

FBI seizes nearly $300K from former Winnebago County purchasing director's bank accounts

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  • By Isaac Guerrero
    Staff writer

    Posted Feb. 13, 2016 at 4:50 PM

    ROCKFORD — The FBI has seized nearly $300,000 from bank accounts belonging to former Winnebago County Purchasing Director Sally Claassen and her husband as part of an ongoing federal investigation of county spending.
    The forfeitures were made on Dec. 11 and were disclosed today on a U.S. Department of Justice website. Agents seized $272,490.08 from Claassen's account at Chase Bank, 401 E. State St. Additionally, $8,126.90 and $11,907.63 was taken from two joint accounts at the same bank belonging to Claassen and her husband.
    The scope of the nearly six-month-old FBI investigation is not clear, and no one has been charged with a crime. However, Claassen is accused of spending taxpayer money on personal vacations, gift cards, new cabinets and countertops, furniture, and other appliances for her home, according to a draft insurance claim prepared by county officials.
    Claassen's attorney, Chuck Prorok, declined to comment.
    News of the FBI forfeiture of Claassen's bank accounts came as a surprise to John Sweeney, the County Board Republican majority leader. The federal investigation has been such a distraction that he and other board members held a news conference last month to reassure the public that they're doing all they can to tighten financial controls and be more transparent about how the county spends taxpayer dollars.
    Federal agents have seized county bid documents, financial records and even a sauna that was purchased for an employee wellness program and kept in County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen's home for a year.
    The County Board has taken several steps to tighten internal controls. A toll-free hotline was rolled out this week allowing county employees and the public to anonymously report instances of fraud, ethics violations or misappropriation of funds. The board lowered the threshold — from $30,000 to $12,000 — for spending by county department heads without the board's approval, and purchasing card spending limits were lowered for employees who are authorized to use them.
    Sweeney, R-16, said he even requested that State's Attorney Joe Bruscato ask the U.S. Attorney's Office whether there are any additional steps that the County Board could take to ensure that more problems don't arise.
    Bruscato said he had told Assistant State's Attorney David Kurlinkus to make the call and that “Dave was told by the U.S. Attorney's Office that they cannot discuss an ongoing investigation.”
    Not knowing the scope of the FBI probe or how long it will continue understandably provides little peace of mind, Bruscato said, but that's the nature of investigations such as this.
    “There's two things I wish could be over — the primary and this investigation,” said County Board member David Boomer, R-4.
    Boomer, like Sweeney, faces a challenge in the March 15 primary.
    “Once the investigation and the primary are over, then the board can go on about its business and just focus on our jobs as County Board members,” Boomer said. “What I fear, though, is that whatever comes of this investigation, it's going to tarnish the image of the board for years. That's the bad part about all of this.”
    Auditor Bill Crowley and Finance Director Bryan Cutler audited five years of county transactions associated with Claassen and submitted their findings to the FBI. The auditor and finance offices also reviewed 2015 spending of the county's 1 percent public safety sales tax fund, searching specifically for transactions "charged incorrectly" by Claassen.
    The internal investigation revealed that Claassen had falsified purchasing invoices, though county officials have declined to say how the documents were falsified. The findings were given to the FBI. The county's auditing firm, Sikich LLP, is performing additional tests of the county's checks and balances on spending.
    Isaac Guerrero:
  • ABOVE IS FROM:  http://www.rrstar.com/news/20160213/fbi-seizes-nearly-300k-from-former-winnebago-county-purchasing-directors-bank-accounts/?Start=2
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