FBI Investigates Corruption Allegations — Including Forged Checks — Against Illinois Mayor

• An Illinois Mayor is accused of forging checks with the village Clerk's stamp
• The Mayor is also accused of wrongful termination of employees who refused political work
• The FBI has been brought in to investigate

Unfortunately, politics and corruption seem to go hand-in-hand. The US is ranked number 24 out of 180 nations in terms of political corruption worldwide according to according to Transparency International -- we have certainly seen that there are some people in the world that take advantage of their position.

This leads us to the community of Dolton, Illinoi, where they are currently dealing with possible corruption in the Mayor's office, fueled by check fraud.

Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard has been sued by Dolton Village Trustees Jason House, Brittney Norwood, Kiana Blecher, and Tammy Brown, and the Village Clerk Alison Key, alleging, among other things, that Mayor Henyard forged checks by using the Clerk’s stamp on village check without authority, and for failing to or refusing to provide access to village financial records, including credit card statements, and for removing the Clerk’s access to the bank account information without approval.

The mayor is also accused of wrongful termination of employees who refused to engage in political work.

The FBI confirmed it was conducting a court-authorized action at Dolton Village Hall Friday.

In a statement, an FBI spokesperson said agents were "conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in that area." They declined to comment on the nature of the raid or any investigation they may be conducting, citing Department of Justice policy.

Check Fraud Front and Center

As related at the Illinois Leaks website, the complaint lists the following:

• Henyard issued checks using the signature stamp of the village clerk without authorization
• Henyard has not presented checks for signature for Oct and Nov 2023, leaving approved bills unpaid or simply issuing checks without the clerk’s signature
• Henyard has refused to issue payments for invoices approved by the village board
• Henyard caused the clerk’s name to be removed from bank account access and caused other names to be added without the approval of the clerk or the board
• Henyard has restricted access of the trustees to certain financial information of the village and failed to provide monthly financial reports and credit card statements to the trustees

When examining the evidence provided, we can see that there were several key internal policy issues within the administration -- particularly, allowing the mayor to control financial accounts. Henyards ability to add and remove access is concerning, and this is something that businesses should keep in mind when setting up their financial accounts. This type of power without checks and balances can lead to dysfunction; additionally, Henyard should not have access to the checks or have the ability to create one, as this can lead to more opportunities to create forgeries.

As for the forged stamped checks and the checks without signatures, banks need to deploy an image analyzer that detect a missing or forged signature. Furthermore, these accounts should require multiple signatures to further protect the account from this type of corruption. While much of the industry focuses on alterations and counterfeits -- and rightly so -- forged checks can cause much more damage as they are on legitimate check stock which, without the right detection capabilities, can be difficult to identify.