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Friday, April 26, 2024
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Tim Novak

Watchdogs reporter

Tim Novak is an investigative reporter exposing government corruption in the state of Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago. His stories include a four-year investigation into a homicide that led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, resulting in Mayor Daley’s nephew pleading guilty to manslaughter in 2014. A six-month investigation in 2004 brought down Daley’s Hired Truck program, in which city agencies spent $40 million on private trucking companies owned by mobsters and politically connected insiders that were often paid to do nothing. The ensuing federal investigation ended with the indictments of 49 people, including 29 city employees.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign has returned more than $50,000 in contributions, much of it from city contractors.
The Watchdogs
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign returns contributions improperly accepted from city contractors
Johnson’s campaign fund held on to other questionable contributions. Sitting mayors are barred from accepting contributions from city contractors and city lobbyists.
By Robert Herguth and Tim Novak
 
Former Chicago Ald. Edward Burke waves and wears a brown coat as he leaves federal court.
The Watchdogs
Ed Burke is still in line for millions in payouts from pension, campaign funds after corruption conviction
The Chicago City Council icon turned felon is entitled to more than $540,000 he paid into a city pension fund — and a nearly $2.5 million payout from his campaign fund.
By Mitchell Armentrout and Tim Novak
 
Mustafaa Saleh, a former Cook County Land Bank Authority official, on Friday at the Dirksen Federal Building, where he was sentenced to a year in prison for defrauding the agency.
The Watchdogs
Ex-Cook County Land Bank Authority official gets a year in prison over secret land deals
Mustafaa Saleh admitted he secretly bought county-owned homes and resold them for a profit. He was convicted of fraud involving the county agency.
By Tim Novak
 
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has gotten campaign contributions from more than a dozen unions with which City Hall negotiates contracts.
The Watchdogs
Brandon Johnson’s campaign fund has accepted millions from unions with City Hall contracts
The campaign contributions are legal, but failed mayoral candidate Willie Wilson wants them banned in mayoral races, and 36th Ward Ald. Gilbert Villegas wants them limited.
By Robert Herguth and Tim Novak
 
Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose administration has inherited a massive amount of unpaid fees, fines and other debts — $6.4 billion. That’s money that could have been used to bolster the city’s cash-strapped coffers.
The Watchdogs
Chicago City Hall is owed billions of dollars it hasn’t managed to collect
A Sun-Times analysis finds that thousands of scofflaws — many from the suburbs — have dodged city debts over the years, depriving City Hall of a massive sum of money as Mayor Brandon Johnson faces steep budget challenges.
By Mitchell Armentrout and Tim Novak
 
A Brackenbox dumpster on North Cannon Drive in Lincoln Park.
The Watchdogs
In crooked Bridgeport bank case, investigators are looking into longtime city contractor
They’re looking at ties between a dumpster company, owned by James W. Bracken III, and a former city official who was on the bank’s board, the Sun-Times has learned.
By Tim Novak
 
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is returning $46,500 in campaign contributions, blaming an “oversight” for having taken the money despite an executive order imposed by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel that bars Chicago mayors from accepting campaign money from city contractors.
The Watchdogs
Brandon Johnson wasn’t supposed to take campaign money from city contractors, but he did
A campaign aide calls it an “oversight” and says $46,500 is being returned, agreeing that the ethics rule is “a sound and necessary policy to ensure a fair government.”
By Robert Herguth and Tim Novak
 
Edward H. Gobbo outside his home. His bankruptcy saw him get out of having to pay $4 million he owned on loans from Washington Federal Bank for Savings. One month after getting out of bankruptcy, Gobbo again was getting the first of what ultimately was millions of dollars more in loans from the Bridgeport bank that ended up being shut down for fraud.
The Watchdogs
Client of crooked Bridgeport bank got out of $4 million owed by going bankrupt, then got millions more in loans
A month after Edward H. Gobbo got out of bankruptcy, Washington Federal Bank for Savings CEO John F. Gembara starting giving him loans of millions, records show. When the bank went bust, Gobbo or his immediate family owed more than $3.8 million on 27 residential loans, some of them years overdue.
By Tim Novak and Robert Herguth
 
The now-defunct Washington Federal Bank for Savings at 2869 S. Archer Ave.
The Watchdogs
Crooked Bridgeport bank used these people’s CDs to fuel embezzlement scheme — ‘We were all victims’
Washington Federal Bank for Savings customers had no idea the high interest rates that attracted them were feeding the fraud. The bank’s “smooth operators” lured them in, the daughter of one victim says.
By Tim Novak