Department considers this month’s theme as a call to action

Springfield, IL – What does it mean to blaze a trail? To the Illinois Department on Aging (IDoA), blazing a trail means evolving to better meet the needs of our growing older adult population and creating a sustainable path for older adults in Illinois – today and for many more years to come. As we celebrate Older Americans Month, IDoA is embracing this year’s theme – Blaze a Trail – and using it as our call to action.

“Older Americans Month is an important month for us to celebrate the contributions of older adults and raise awareness about the issues facing our community,” remarked IDoA Director, Jean Bohnhoff. “We’re being challenged to keep pace with technology and a growing aging population; the Department is meeting that challenge head on and, working with the Rauner Administration, we believe we’ve found the right solution to avoiding premature institutionalization while maintaining the sustainability of critical programs,” she continued.

Director Bohnhoff is a trailblazer in her own right, coming from the provider community and joining IDoA earlier this year. She encourages IDoA staff to think outside the box and develop innovative and creative new ways to interact with providers and advocates across the network and improve service delivery for our clients.

IDoA recognizes the contributions of local trailblazers year-round through awards programs such as the Senior Hall of Fame and our Caregiver Awards.

“Blazing a trail means taking action, moving forward and paving a way for others to follow. We’re doing that at IDoA and we’re optimistic about what that means for our state and our older adult population,” said Bohnhoff.

Grassroots Collaborative is Action Now, American Friends Service Committee – Great Lakes Region, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Chicago Teachers Union, Enlace Chicago, Illinois Hunger Coalition, Jane Addams Senior Caucus, ONE Northside, Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois Indiana

Attorney General Alleges Fraud by Former Board Members of Wilmette Bank against U.S. Treasury Fund, First Midwest Bank

CHICAGO, IL — Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan  joined with the Special Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to announce new charges against two former members of the board of directors of the Wilmette-based Premier Bank for defrauding First Midwest Bank and the Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

Madigan announced the new charges against Zulfikar Esmail and his wife Shamim Esmail, both of Evanston, following indictments last year for a scheme to defraud TARP of $6.8 million and which cost the FDIC $64.1 million when the bank failed on March 23, 2012. The new charges allege more fraud was committed during the pair’s time on the Premier Bank board – an $8.1 million loan from First Midwest Bank in 2009 and additionally, Shamim Esmail’s obtaining more than $1 million in TARP funds reserved for banks in distressed communities.

“As these new charges allege, the defendants fraudulently secured federal aid funds at a time when the country’s economy and its major financial institutions were on the brink of disaster,” Madigan said. “Their illegal scheme ultimately resulted in the failure of the bank at a great cost to the bank’s customers and American taxpayers.”

Zulfikar Esmail was indicted on Oct. 16 in DuPage County on two counts of financial institution fraud and one count of loan fraud for fraudulently obtaining a more than $8 million loan from First Midwest Bank in 2009, which was a recipient of TARP funds. The Esmails were charged together with defrauding First Midwest Bank in a workout agreement after they defaulted on the loan.

Shamim Esmail was also indicted on additional charges in Cook County of two counts each of theft and wire fraud for defrauding TARP’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. Premier Bank fraudulently received more than $1 million in funds in 2010 and 2011 from two programs under the CDFI Fund which were designed to assist banks in providing banking services to economically distressed communities.

Madigan previously charged the Esmails and two co-defendants, who were also members of the bank’s board of directors, alleging that from 2006 until the bank’s failure, they hid the poor financial condition of the bank from state regulators. Madigan alleged Zulfikar Esmail engaged in a criminal shakedown scheme, soliciting and demanding bribes in connection with applications made for business loans and lines of credit.

Over a six-year period, the indictment alleged the bank officers submitted numerous fraudulent reports to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, misrepresenting the financial condition of the bank’s numerous loans and lines of credit. To cover up the true condition of the bank, the indictment alleged money from third parties was used to make payments on several loans that were past due, including payments from a limited liability corporation owned in part by Zulfikar Esmail’s children.

The public is reminded that the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

This case was investigated by the Office of the Special Inspector General for TARP and the Office of the Inspector General of the FDIC. Bureau Chief Edward Carter and Assistant Attorneys General Edward Snow and Anshuman Vaidya are handling prosecution of the case for Madigan’s Special Prosecutions Bureau.

A Chicago man who robbed and assaulted a 78-year-old senior citizen in his own back yard has been sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to armed robbery charges in connection with the 2012 attack, according to the Office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

Dalvin Rayford, 20, of the 2500 block of east 72^nd Pl., pled guilty to armed robbery for the December 2012 attack on the 78-year-old South Side man, who died weeks after the assault due to complications from a hip fracture he sustained after being pushed to the ground by the defendant.

According to prosecutors, Rayford was armed with a handgun when he entered the back yard and approached the 78-year-old victim in the 10200 block of East Bensley Avenue.  Rayford then demanded money from the victim and knocked the man to the ground.  Rayford proceeded to strike the victim while rummaging through his pockets and taking the victim’s keys and money.

A nearby neighbor witnessed the incident and called police and then yelled for help, at which time Rayford fled the scene.  Rayford was apprehended a short distance away after police observed him running through an alley, clutching something on his side.  The arresting officers recovered the handgun and some clothing worn by Rayford which had been discarded nearby.  Rayford was positively identified by both the victim and the witness.

Rayford pled guilty to armed robbery on Oct. 30^th during a hearing before Cook County Judge Michael McHale, who handed down the 28-year sentence.

State’s Attorney Alvarez thanked Assistant State’s Attorney Sherie DeDore and the Chicago Police Department for their work on this case.

Patrol car video shows cops lied in testifying against Joseph Sperling, said judge

CHICAGO, IL – Five Glenview and Chicago veteran police officers who lied in sworn testimony, according to a judge, are themselves facing a federal lawsuit today by a motorist who says they violated his constitutional rights in unlawfully arresting him.

Sperling and his attorney, prominent civil rights lawyer Jon Loevy of Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law, will speak at 2:30 PM press conference today at Loevy & Loevy’s Near West Side office, 312 N. May Street, Suite 100.

Sperling was the subject of a June 2013 traffic stop a few blocks from his home in Glenview. According to today’s suit, all five of the officers lied about five specific facts of the case after having been sworn to tell the truth. One of the Chicago officers allegedly told the Glenview officers to turn off their dashboard cameras, but one of them failed to do so, thus recording the incident and showing that their later police reports and testimony were false.

“All their testimony [against Sperling] was a lie,” said Cook County Circuit Court Judge Catherine Haberkorn in a March 31 hearing. “So there’s strong evidence it was a conspiracy to lie in this case, for everyone to come up with the same lie. . . Many, many, many, many times they all lied.”

Loevy says all too often police officers lie in drug cases to secure convictions, but are rarely called to account for it. He is the author of a frequently-cited article on false testimony by police, or “testilying” in criminal justice slang, a practice that criminal defense attorneys say “has become so endemic in criminal cases that it has become the norm. The prosecutors know they are lying, the judges know they are lying, and yet the police lie anyway.”

Today’s suit charges that the officers engaged in a “conspiracy” to violate Sperling’s rights, and that “the videotape showed that each of the five Defendant Officers lied in precisely the same ways, proving that the five Defendants and the Assistant State’s Attorney had deliberately and maliciously concocted a false story to provide to the judge.”

Loevy & Loevy is the largest civil rights law firm in the Midwest and has won more multi-million dollar jury verdicts than any other civil rights law firm in the entire country over the past decade. Copies of today’s suit and Jon Loevy’s article on “testilying” are available by calling Andy Thayer at 773.209.1187 or emailing andy@loevy.com