Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- A Chicago attorney who overbilled a small south suburban village for millions of dollars in legal work that was never performed has pled guilty and was sentenced to six years in prison today, according to the Office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
Mark McCombs, 50, an attorney for more than 25 years and a shareholder at an international law firm, pled guilty to one count of Theft of Government Funds in excess of $100,000, a Class X felony. McCombs was investigated and charged by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in connection with his work as a special counsel for the Village of Calumet Park. In that position he was responsible for drafting as well as filing all reports as required by state law for the village’s Tax Increment Financing District.
According to prosecutors, in order to be paid for his services, McCombs was required to present an itemized bill to the village government for approval. He would then receive a payment voucher to present to the bank holding the TIF’s accounts. Prosecutors charged that McCombs circumvented this process and obtained payment for services he never performed. Additionally, it is alleged that he also increased his fees up to $600 an hour without properly notifying the village and without filing TIF reports with the state as required by law.
“We will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute this type of public corruption at the local level which has a devastating impact on local governments and the taxpayers,” Alvarez said. “This case should send a strong message that this type of criminal conduct has very serious consequences.”
The defendant’s scheme was discovered in 2010 when another governmental agency that shared TIF money with the village found discrepancies in a presentation McCombs had put together regarding the fiscal health of the fund. When contacted, McCombs allegedly offered to transfer TIF money to that agency in exchange for them dropping their inquiry. Alarmed by McCombs’ response, administrators contacted Calumet Park Officials who obtained several years worth of records and uncovered that McCombs has billed the fund for approximately $2 million dollars worth of work since 2007 without the completion of any economic development projects.
McCombs pled guilty today when he appeared before Judge Jorge Alonso at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California. He was immediately taken into custody to begin serving his sentence.
Alvarez thanked Assistant State’s Attorneys Michael Golden and John Mahoney from
the Public Corruption and Financial Crimes Unit for their hard work on the case.
