Washington Park Illinois needs a blog dedicated to it. Today’s installment of Petty Corruption for $1000 Alex is:
Dozens of people regularly used the general fund of the bankrupt village of Washington Park to pay their monthly bills, including those for cell phones, utilities and mortgages, authorities say.
Most of the money changed hands electronically – through an online bill-paying service. With a few clicks of a computer mouse, money flowed from Washington Park’s bank account to pay off personal bills at scores of businesses.
The scam continued from September 2002 until last December. The loss is put at $150,000, and a federal criminal investigation is under way.
Authorities said the scam was relatively indiscreet, with the names of suspected scammers appearing month after month on bank statements.
But it gets better:
Washington Park officials showed bank statements to a Post-Dispatch reporter that contained the names of 38 people who had used the village’s general fund to pay their bills.
But that isn’t all:
According to one official, it’s often the practice in Washington Park when one account runs low to move money from other accounts to cover the shortfall, rather than examine the account’s transactions.
The estimated $150,000 loss from the scam is close to what the village spends on its fire department each year.
It is amazing how well this story holds up even if you delete “Park” from “Washington Park” and if you substitute “military contractors, petrochemical companies, and energy interests” for “monthly bills.”
Well, except for that “federal investigation” part.
I don’t think this quite beats the time they couldn’t enforce an ordinance about the number of strip clubs in town because somebody stole the original out of a locked desk at city hall.
The truly amazing thing is that there was an extra $150,000 in city funds to loot.
Kevin–two ways to take the comment on the cash
1) That someone hadn’t stolen it before
2) that there was that much
I find one much better for comedic value.
well, it’s both. how does a “bankrupt” city — a poor one with almost half the people living below the poverty level — have an extra $150,000 around to loot? And with “dozens” (at least 38) of people doing the looting, I’m surprised nobody got greedy and contented themselves with a mere $4,000 a head. And for a city of just over 5,000 people, how do 38 people have access to city funds? It’s hard to believe that there are that many on the payroll, let alone with access.
It kind of reminds me of when one schoolboard in East St. Louis was replaced for stealing money, the following one was discovered swiping the school supplies – that was all that was left to steal.