Chicago City Wire

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his wife, M.K., paid a contractor to purposely remove five toilets from their Gold Coast mansion to make it look “uninhabitable” so they could save $330,000 on their property taxes.

That’s what Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard determined in Oct. 2018, declaring the Pritzkers’ actions were “a scheme to defraud” taxpayers. He accused the Pritzkers of perjury and presented back-up, documentary evidence.

Yet four years later, the Pritzkers have still not been prosecuted for their fraud scheme.

Gov. Pritzker himself said he was unaware of the scheme and pointed the finger at his wife, who he blamed as the one responsible. Blanchard said sworn affidavits presented by M.K. Pritzker included lies about the mansion’s actual conditions, and the Pritzkers motives in removing the toilets.

“The evidence indicates that the use of these affidavits was part of a scheme for obtaining money by means of false representations,” Blanchard wrote in his report.

Blanchard uncovered an email from Bulley and Andrews, the Pritzkers’ contractor, detailing the scheme.

“M.K is going to have the house reassessed as an uninhabitable structure,” wrote a project manager. “To do this, she would like to have us pull all toilets and cap all toilet lines in the house.”

“Then, after the assessment, she would like us to put the 1st floor toilet back in and have this as the one functioning bathroom in the place (she will then be finishing out the front room for J.B.’s hangout/meeting area.”

Blanchard also reported that the false affidavits, which swore the property had been “uninhabitable” since 2012, were notarized by Beth Stolberg, J.B. Pritzker’s personal assistant. 

The scheme not only led to a reduction in go-forward property taxes for the Pritzkers, but also refunds from previous years.

“The County ultimately fell victim to (the Pritzkers) scheme to defraud, executed in part through the use of the (false) affidavits, and which resulted in (the Pritkers) ultimately receiving property tax refunds totaling $132,747.18 for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 as well as additional tax savings of $198,684,85 for the years 2015 and 2016,” Blanchard wrote.

The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, which recently endorsed Pritzker for re-election, said the evidence of the governor’s fraud scheme was clear and unarguable.

“Not an accident. Not an oversight. Not something to be shrugged off. Again: A “scheme to defraud,” it wrote. “If not for Blanchard’s report: Pritzker would have saved $330,000. Which is chump change to him, we imagine, but not to most other property taxpayers in the county. 

“And guess who’d have to make up that $330,000? That’s right: every other taxpayer in Cook County. That’s how the system works. If your neighbor pays less, you and everyone else pay more,” the Tribune said.

No prosecution

Despite Blanchard’s comprehensive, 31 page presentation of evidence that the Pritzkers committed property tax fraud and perjury, no prosecutor-- neither Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx nor U.S. Attorney John R. Launch, Jr.--  has taken up the case.

Less prominent Cook County property tax scofflaws haven’t always been so lucky.

In 1980, the U.S. Attorney's office and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) put together "a group of 14 lawyers, FBI agents, and IRS agents in a 20-month investigation" that investigated a scheme with similarities to that of the Pritzkers'. 

Cook County Board of Review officials would solicit property owners to file knowingly false assessment reduction complaints like the Pritzkers did. They would be fraudulently processed and their property tax bills lowered, with the first year savings to be shared among staff.

Chicago attorney Richard Ginsburg, who received property assessment reductions like the Pritzkers' for his clients, was charged and convicted of mail fraud and racketeering. He would pay $225,000 In fines and serve 1,000 hours of community service.

Another lawyer, Samuel Chaimson of Highland Park, was found guilty of benefiting from fraudulent tax complaints and sentenced to one year in prison and fined $40,000.

Donald Erskine, the commissioner who took the bribes, pleaded guilty to fraud charges and was sentenced to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

More recently, in June, a Cook County assessor’s office employee Lavdim “Deme” Memisovski was charged with accepting bribes to lower property taxes. He was threatened with five years in prison before pleading guilty and paying a $20,000 fine.

In 2014, two Cook County Board of Review analysts were sentenced to federal prison for lowering a Chicago Police Officer’s property taxes by $10,000. Thomas Hawkins received 24 months in prison; John Racasi was sentenced to 18 months.