A former police chief of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department has been indicted for lying to the FBI during a corruption investigation.
Daniel Murchek, 57, of Schereville, Indiana, was indicted Friday for making false statement to federal authorities about illegally transferred campaign funds in 2016, according to the U.S. State’s Attorney’s Office.
Murchek was elected Deputy Chief of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department in 2011 and, while serving the position, knowingly accepted illegal campaign donations from a source that was working undercover for the FBI, prosecutors said.
Murchek denied he received a “structured campaign donation,” in which one person donated to his campaign in the name of another to bypass contribution limits, according to prosecutors.
The undercover source recorded conversations in which Murchek acknowledged he was breaking Indiana campaign finance laws, prosecutors said. The source and Murchek had used an Indiana towing company to reroute the $500 donation.
A plea agreement by Murchek had been filed Friday, but had not yet been scheduled, according to prosecutors.
“Mr. Murchek lied to FBI agents who sought truthful information from him in connection with what was then an ongoing public corruption investigation of which he was aware,” U.S. State’s Attorney Thomas Kirsch said.
“Mr. Murchek did so purely to protect his self-interest and conceal his criminal conduct from the FBI,” Kirsch said. “Mr. Murchek was a police officer, sworn to uphold the law, at the time he told the lies, making his conduct particularly egregious.”
