A Glenview man who was hired by the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office after purportedly loaning $15,000 to a company controlled by the Clerk’s husband lied under oath when testifying about it before a grand jury, according to a federal indictment announced today.
In August 2014, SIVASUBRAMANI RAJARAM purportedly loaned $15,000 to Goat Masters Corporation, whose president was the husband of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk. The following month, Rajaram was hired by the Clerk’s Office as a level four Senior Clerk. Rajaram had previously worked in the Clerk’s Office but had been living in India for several years.
On or about Oct. 1, 2015, Rajaram testified before a federal grand jury that was conducting an investigation of possible criminal violations in connection with the purchasing of jobs and promotions within the Clerk’s Office. During his testimony, Rajaram said he had not spoken to the Circuit Court Clerk after his 2014 hiring. He also testified he had only spoken to another high-ranking employee of the Clerk’s Office “three or four times” since returning to Chicago from India, and that the conversations were not by phone.
The indictment alleges that both statements were false. According to the indictment, Rajaram spoke with both the Clerk and the high-ranking employee after being re-hired in 2014. His conversations with the high-ranking employee occurred dozens of times via cell phone, according to the indictment.
The indictment was returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Rajaram, 48, of Glenview, was charged with one count of making false declarations before a grand jury. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The Court has not yet scheduled an arraignment hearing.
The indictment was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney; Patrick M. Blanchard, Cook County Inspector General; and Michael J. Anderson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Thursday, December 03, 2015
Former St. Thomas More Priest Sentenced to Prison for Stealing Money from Parish
Edward Belczak, 70, the former priest of St. Thomas More Church in Troy, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for stealing $572,775 from his parish, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced.
McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division and Chief Gary Mayer of the Troy Police Department.
During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow
, Belczak was sentenced to 27 months in prison and a two year term of supervised release based on his plea of guilty to mail fraud for devising and executing a scheme to steal and divert $572,775.32 from St. Thomas More Church over several years, and then creating yearly false financial reports that were mailed to the Archdiocese of Detroit that concealed his theft and diversion of the money for his own benefit.
At the time of his plea, Belczak admitted that in March 2005, he used $109,570.80 from St. Thomas More’s bank account to pay the down payment on a Wellington, Florida condominium. According to court records, in April and May 2006, Belczak diverted two checks totaling $420,200 payable to St. Thomas More from the estate of a deceased parishioner. In order to conceal his illegal conduct, Belczak opened an unauthorized business bank account in the name of “St. Thomas More c/o Edward Belczak” and deposited both checks into that account. Belczak used most of the money bequeathed to St. Thomas More for his own personal use, benefit and enrichment. From May 2008 through May 2012, a St. Thomas More parishioner donated money each year to the church, totaling $43,000, for the needs of the church. Each year, Belczak deposited the check made payable to St. Thomas More into the business bank account in the name of “St. Thomas More c/o Edward Belczak.”
In addition to the custodial sentence, the funds on deposit in Belczak’s Merrill Lynch and TD Ameritrade accounts and his Florida condominium were forfeited. Belczak also was ordered to pay restitution of $572,775.32 to St. Thomas More.
“Father Belczak’s crime was not an isolated incident or a momentary lapse of judgment, but an orchestrated scheme perpetrated over time to defraud the people he claimed to serve. It is a sad day when someone in a position of trust betrays that relationship, but it is important to ensure that no one is above the law,” McQuade said. “This sentence demonstrates that individuals will be held accountable when they steal significant sums of money that are entrusted to them.”
“The actions taken by Mr. Belczak represent a shocking betrayal of the faith and trust the public places in our clergy”, said Special Agent in Charge Gelios. “Secular or otherwise, the FBI is committed to the investigation of anyone who abuses their position for personal gain.”
McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division and Chief Gary Mayer of the Troy Police Department.
During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow
, Belczak was sentenced to 27 months in prison and a two year term of supervised release based on his plea of guilty to mail fraud for devising and executing a scheme to steal and divert $572,775.32 from St. Thomas More Church over several years, and then creating yearly false financial reports that were mailed to the Archdiocese of Detroit that concealed his theft and diversion of the money for his own benefit.At the time of his plea, Belczak admitted that in March 2005, he used $109,570.80 from St. Thomas More’s bank account to pay the down payment on a Wellington, Florida condominium. According to court records, in April and May 2006, Belczak diverted two checks totaling $420,200 payable to St. Thomas More from the estate of a deceased parishioner. In order to conceal his illegal conduct, Belczak opened an unauthorized business bank account in the name of “St. Thomas More c/o Edward Belczak” and deposited both checks into that account. Belczak used most of the money bequeathed to St. Thomas More for his own personal use, benefit and enrichment. From May 2008 through May 2012, a St. Thomas More parishioner donated money each year to the church, totaling $43,000, for the needs of the church. Each year, Belczak deposited the check made payable to St. Thomas More into the business bank account in the name of “St. Thomas More c/o Edward Belczak.”
In addition to the custodial sentence, the funds on deposit in Belczak’s Merrill Lynch and TD Ameritrade accounts and his Florida condominium were forfeited. Belczak also was ordered to pay restitution of $572,775.32 to St. Thomas More.
“Father Belczak’s crime was not an isolated incident or a momentary lapse of judgment, but an orchestrated scheme perpetrated over time to defraud the people he claimed to serve. It is a sad day when someone in a position of trust betrays that relationship, but it is important to ensure that no one is above the law,” McQuade said. “This sentence demonstrates that individuals will be held accountable when they steal significant sums of money that are entrusted to them.”
“The actions taken by Mr. Belczak represent a shocking betrayal of the faith and trust the public places in our clergy”, said Special Agent in Charge Gelios. “Secular or otherwise, the FBI is committed to the investigation of anyone who abuses their position for personal gain.”
Chicanery in Chicago?
This week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago sacrificed police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in order to save himself, as anger raged about the killing of Laquan McDonald in what read to many as a politically motivated effort to cover up video of that killing.
As John Kass of the Chicago Tribune put it regarding the firing of McCarthy: “City Hall protects the Queen Bee to keep the honey flowing. It isn’t personal. It’s business.” But that whole hive is ablaze. Emanuel many not be able to save himself. Everything about the killing of McDonald over 400 days ago, including the slithering about of Chicago officials in their efforts to suppress video of his murder, stinks to high heaven. There is the $5 million settlement with the family, the timing of that settlement, the strenuous efforts to keep the tape from public view, the long delay in charging the officer who did the shooting.
It all makes one ask: How much is the life of a teenager worth? To what length would officials go to bury visual evidence that he had been shot down in the street like a dog? Are officials so desperately afraid of losing their jobs that they would conceal details about the loss of a boy’s life?
Professor Bernard E. Harcourt of Columbia argued this week in a New York Times Op-Ed that many of the city leaders had a motive to cover up the shooting: “Mayor Emanuel was fighting for re-election in a tight race. Superintendent McCarthy wanted to keep his job.” Furthermore, the Cook County prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, “needed the good will of the police union for her coming re-election campaign and probably wished to shield the police officers who bring her cases and testify in court.” But as Harcourt noted: “None of that alters the fact that these actions have impeded the criminal justice system and, in the process, Chicago’s leaders allowed a first-degree murder suspect, now incarcerated pending bail, to remain free for over a year on the city’s payroll.” But more than having people in power lose their jobs, someone has to take a long, hard look at Chicago’s police review process, which I would posit, if it were functioning properly, would have had some bearing on this case and on many before it. It has to be determined whether the system is indeed broken, so that there will be fewer McDonalds in the future.
The N.A.A.C.P. issued a statement this week calling for a “Justice Department Review of all Chicago police oversight agencies,” and tried to detail the scope of the problem:
“A 2008 study by a University of Chicago law professor found more than 10,000 complaints were filed against officers from 2002 to 2004 alone — more than any city in the country. Only 19 of the 10,000 complaints resulted in significant disciplinary action, and complaints were dismissed without interviewing the officer in 85 percent of cases.”
The statement continued:
“The Independent Police Review Authority, (IPRA) was created to be an independent agency that investigates police shootings and misconduct cases. Currently, this process isn’t truly independent because cases are sent back to Chicago Police Department to approve. The process needs to provide IPRA with true independent authority with referral rights to an independent prosecutor.”
To fully understand the depths of the problem on a human level, take the July findings by the Chicago public radio station WBEZ. The station reported at the time:
“A Chicago investigator who determined that several civilian shootings by police officers were unjustified was fired after resisting orders to reverse those findings, according to internal records of his agency obtained by WBEZ.”
The fired investigator was Lorenzo Davis, himself a former police commander who had served in the Chicago Police Department for 23 years and held a law degree. His firing was announced to staff by Scott M. Ando, who had been promoted by Emanuel to chief administrator of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority.
As WBEZ reported:
“Davis’s termination came less than two weeks after top IPRA officials, evaluating Davis’s job performance, accused him of ‘a clear bias against the police’ and called him ‘the only supervisor at IPRA who resists making requested changes as directed by management in order to reflect the correct finding with respect to O.I.S.,’ as officer-involved shootings are known in the agency.”
According to the station:
“Davis says he helped investigate more than a dozen shootings by police at the agency. He says his superiors had no objections when his team recommended exonerating officers. The objections came, he says, after each finding that a shooting was unjustified. He says there were six of those cases.”
Davis told the station, “I did not like the direction the Police Department had taken.” He continued, “It appeared that officers were doing whatever they wanted to do. The discipline was no longer there.”
Something is amiss in the Windy City. Police officers “doing whatever they wanted to do” with no worry about repercussions or accountability? That is the very nature of corruption and abuse of power. The federal government will have no choice but to step in if it cares at all about public confidence in the local officials in America’s third largest city.
Thanks to Charles M. Blow.
As John Kass of the Chicago Tribune put it regarding the firing of McCarthy: “City Hall protects the Queen Bee to keep the honey flowing. It isn’t personal. It’s business.” But that whole hive is ablaze. Emanuel many not be able to save himself. Everything about the killing of McDonald over 400 days ago, including the slithering about of Chicago officials in their efforts to suppress video of his murder, stinks to high heaven. There is the $5 million settlement with the family, the timing of that settlement, the strenuous efforts to keep the tape from public view, the long delay in charging the officer who did the shooting.
It all makes one ask: How much is the life of a teenager worth? To what length would officials go to bury visual evidence that he had been shot down in the street like a dog? Are officials so desperately afraid of losing their jobs that they would conceal details about the loss of a boy’s life?
Professor Bernard E. Harcourt of Columbia argued this week in a New York Times Op-Ed that many of the city leaders had a motive to cover up the shooting: “Mayor Emanuel was fighting for re-election in a tight race. Superintendent McCarthy wanted to keep his job.” Furthermore, the Cook County prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, “needed the good will of the police union for her coming re-election campaign and probably wished to shield the police officers who bring her cases and testify in court.” But as Harcourt noted: “None of that alters the fact that these actions have impeded the criminal justice system and, in the process, Chicago’s leaders allowed a first-degree murder suspect, now incarcerated pending bail, to remain free for over a year on the city’s payroll.” But more than having people in power lose their jobs, someone has to take a long, hard look at Chicago’s police review process, which I would posit, if it were functioning properly, would have had some bearing on this case and on many before it. It has to be determined whether the system is indeed broken, so that there will be fewer McDonalds in the future.
The N.A.A.C.P. issued a statement this week calling for a “Justice Department Review of all Chicago police oversight agencies,” and tried to detail the scope of the problem:
“A 2008 study by a University of Chicago law professor found more than 10,000 complaints were filed against officers from 2002 to 2004 alone — more than any city in the country. Only 19 of the 10,000 complaints resulted in significant disciplinary action, and complaints were dismissed without interviewing the officer in 85 percent of cases.”
The statement continued:
“The Independent Police Review Authority, (IPRA) was created to be an independent agency that investigates police shootings and misconduct cases. Currently, this process isn’t truly independent because cases are sent back to Chicago Police Department to approve. The process needs to provide IPRA with true independent authority with referral rights to an independent prosecutor.”
To fully understand the depths of the problem on a human level, take the July findings by the Chicago public radio station WBEZ. The station reported at the time:
“A Chicago investigator who determined that several civilian shootings by police officers were unjustified was fired after resisting orders to reverse those findings, according to internal records of his agency obtained by WBEZ.”
The fired investigator was Lorenzo Davis, himself a former police commander who had served in the Chicago Police Department for 23 years and held a law degree. His firing was announced to staff by Scott M. Ando, who had been promoted by Emanuel to chief administrator of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority.
As WBEZ reported:
“Davis’s termination came less than two weeks after top IPRA officials, evaluating Davis’s job performance, accused him of ‘a clear bias against the police’ and called him ‘the only supervisor at IPRA who resists making requested changes as directed by management in order to reflect the correct finding with respect to O.I.S.,’ as officer-involved shootings are known in the agency.”
According to the station:
“Davis says he helped investigate more than a dozen shootings by police at the agency. He says his superiors had no objections when his team recommended exonerating officers. The objections came, he says, after each finding that a shooting was unjustified. He says there were six of those cases.”
Davis told the station, “I did not like the direction the Police Department had taken.” He continued, “It appeared that officers were doing whatever they wanted to do. The discipline was no longer there.”
Something is amiss in the Windy City. Police officers “doing whatever they wanted to do” with no worry about repercussions or accountability? That is the very nature of corruption and abuse of power. The federal government will have no choice but to step in if it cares at all about public confidence in the local officials in America’s third largest city.
Thanks to Charles M. Blow.
Wednesday, December 02, 2015
Sinatra: The Chairman
Just in time for the Chairman’s centennial
, the endlessly absorbing sequel to James Kaplan’s bestselling Frank: The Voice—finally the definitive biography that Frank Sinatra, justly termed “The Entertainer of the Century,” deserves and requires. Like Peter Guralnick on Elvis, Kaplan goes behind the legend to give us the man in full, in his many guises and aspects: peerless singer, (sometimes) powerful actor, business mogul, tireless lover, and associate of the powerful and infamous.
In 2010’s Frank: The Voice, James Kaplan, in rich, distinctive, compulsively readable prose, told the story of Frank Sinatra’s meteoric rise to fame, subsequent failures, and reinvention as a star of live performance and screen. The story of “Ol’ Blue Eyes” continues with Sinatra: The Chairman, picking up the day after Frank claimed his Academy Award in 1954 and had reestablished himself as the top recording artist in music. Frank’s life post-Oscar was incredibly dense: in between recording albums and singles, he often shot four or five movies a year; did TV show and nightclub appearances; started his own label, Reprise; and juggled his considerable commercial ventures (movie production, the restaurant business, even prizefighter management) alongside his famous and sometimes notorious social activities and commitments.
, the endlessly absorbing sequel to James Kaplan’s bestselling Frank: The Voice—finally the definitive biography that Frank Sinatra, justly termed “The Entertainer of the Century,” deserves and requires. Like Peter Guralnick on Elvis, Kaplan goes behind the legend to give us the man in full, in his many guises and aspects: peerless singer, (sometimes) powerful actor, business mogul, tireless lover, and associate of the powerful and infamous.
In 2010’s Frank: The Voice, James Kaplan, in rich, distinctive, compulsively readable prose, told the story of Frank Sinatra’s meteoric rise to fame, subsequent failures, and reinvention as a star of live performance and screen. The story of “Ol’ Blue Eyes” continues with Sinatra: The Chairman, picking up the day after Frank claimed his Academy Award in 1954 and had reestablished himself as the top recording artist in music. Frank’s life post-Oscar was incredibly dense: in between recording albums and singles, he often shot four or five movies a year; did TV show and nightclub appearances; started his own label, Reprise; and juggled his considerable commercial ventures (movie production, the restaurant business, even prizefighter management) alongside his famous and sometimes notorious social activities and commitments.
U.S. @SecretService Officer, Assigned to the @WhiteHouse, Indicted for Attempting to Send Obscene Images to a Minor
A federal grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware, indicted a resident of Church Hill, Maryland, on one count of attempting to transfer obscene materials to a minor, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III of the District of Delaware announced today.
Lee Robert Moore, 37, was employed by the U.S. Secret Service-Uniformed Division and was assigned to the White House at the time of his arrest. Moore was arrested on Nov. 9, 2015, and has remained in custody since that time.
According to the indictment and court documents filed in the case, Moore allegedly maintained a profile on the social media application “Meet24,” which provides a mobile-based platform for exchanging digital images, as well as voice and text messages. Delaware State Police Detectives with the Delaware Child Predator Task Force created a profile on this site, posing as a 14-year-old girl, with whom Moore allegedly engaged in a number of online chat sessions, via the “Meet24” and “Kik” mobile apps over a two-month period, including while Moore was at work. A number of the online chats allegedly between Moore and the supposed female minor were sexual in nature and, on several occasions, Moore allegedly sent pictures of himself, including one depicting his penis.
Lee Robert Moore, 37, was employed by the U.S. Secret Service-Uniformed Division and was assigned to the White House at the time of his arrest. Moore was arrested on Nov. 9, 2015, and has remained in custody since that time.
According to the indictment and court documents filed in the case, Moore allegedly maintained a profile on the social media application “Meet24,” which provides a mobile-based platform for exchanging digital images, as well as voice and text messages. Delaware State Police Detectives with the Delaware Child Predator Task Force created a profile on this site, posing as a 14-year-old girl, with whom Moore allegedly engaged in a number of online chat sessions, via the “Meet24” and “Kik” mobile apps over a two-month period, including while Moore was at work. A number of the online chats allegedly between Moore and the supposed female minor were sexual in nature and, on several occasions, Moore allegedly sent pictures of himself, including one depicting his penis.
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