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Wm. B. Sullivan Realty & Co.
RAVINIA
"A Great time in a
Wonderful Place" SJC
Adopt a Pet, Come for a Visit
CAGIS Archaeological
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Wm. B. Sullivan Realty & Co.
RAVINIA
"A Great time in a
Wonderful Place" SJC
Adopt a Pet, Come for a Visit
CAGIS Archaeological
Consulting Services
April 18, 2008
Past Superintendent of District 97 Buildings and Grounds Has Been Charged with Felony Theft Perhaps in Access of Three Quarters
of a Million Dollars.
by Ed Vincent
Mr. Jerry Malatesta, aged 61, past superintendent of buildings and grounds for elementary school district 97
of Oak Park, has answered a warrant for his arrest by appearing in Chicago to be booked on charges of bilking taxpayers and the community of Oak Park out of some reported $750,000.00 estimated losses. In these times of
cost cutting at many local school districts a loss of usable funds of this size is particularly acute in its effect on planning and providing for children's futures. The District 97 school board is planning to charge Mr. Malatesta with
a civil suit to address some of these direct impacts to the community.
Hired in 1988 Jerry Malatesta was a liked well enough by
his co-workers and many were shocked to hear of the charges, but many knew that something was amiss when
FBI agents came through the schools months ago and
began interviewing people and staff about certain individuals. The FBI wanted to know if people had seen any of the individuals in the schools who were alleged to have done work that was paid for by the district. Our interviews found no staff that had seen any of the men, whose photos were shown by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
It is reported that one of the two contractors, who were involved in these charges of billing for work that was
never done was sending monthly checks for $12,000
(half of $24,000 for imaginary work). There is plenty
of noted evidence to show a strong record of the funds
being used for these acts of felony theft.
Mr. Jerry Malatesta was hired by the district in July of
1988 and fired this past September of 2007. The charges currently being applied are only for a few short years (3)
of alleged theft. When we questioned District 97 spokesperson Gale Crantz she told us that the years prior
to that had not been investigated yet, but that would probably follow. The year of 2000 had over $100,000,000.00 of funds coming into the system from the
Build Illinois Program, of then Governor George Ryan. There could have been plenty of potential for fraud and
theft to have happened in that time when Mr. Malatesta
had been in charge of the same functions.
We spoke with IRS criminal investigators yesterday, who often work with the FBI on cases like this and they are
very keen to look into the potential for even larger
funds in question during the construction phase in Oak Park, as well as the current indictments. It was income tax evasion that put Alphonse Capone in jail, and even
if you have stolen funds you are also required to pay
tax even on that income.
It was sometime last April that things began to appear
amiss and now the only good thing that has come from this is perhaps a potential referendum for more school funds
may be smaller since the district may have saved lots of money by removing Mr. Malatesta from the payroll.
A point of interest to our friends who enjoy linguistics
and perhaps linguini, is that Malatesta in Italian means "Bad Brain".
Chiao
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