Chicago Fire Department official convicted of hiding cash from feds to buy homes in south suburbs

A fire marshal with the Chicago Fire Department has been convicted on federal charges for depositing nearly $350,000 in violation of federal reporting requirements.

Antuane King, 49, was convicted Wednesday on two counts of structuring a currency transaction, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois said in a statement. Each count is punishable by up to five years in federal prison.

King, who remains licensed in Illinois as a real-estate broker, made at least 30 deposits of less than $10,000 each in the Chicago Firefighters Credit Union and other financial institutions between March 2015 and February 2016, federal prosecutors said.

He later combined all of the money to purchase three homes in Markham, Lynwood, and Homewood, prosecutors said.

Financial institutions must report any deposits of more than $10,000 to the government.

Evading federal reporting requirements is called “structuring,” the crime for which former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was sent to prison in 2016.

A spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department said the department did not know about King’s conviction until they were called by a Sun-Times reporter.

As of Thursday, King was still on CFD’s payroll as an employee of the Office of Fire Investigation, the spokesman said.

“That will be the case until we review the conviction,” the spokesman said.

King joined the department in 1999 and is paid a $99,324 salary as a fire marshal, according to city records.

King, who was initially charged in 2018, could not be reached for comment.

He is due for sentencing June 12.