Dolton, Ill. police officer charged in federal court with bankruptcy fraud

Date: Aug. 12, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

CHICAGO - A police officer for the Village of Dolton, Ill. was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Chicago on bankruptcy fraud charges for allegedly engaging in a scheme to conceal assets and income from creditors and prevent payment of the settlement of a lawsuit.

A nine-count indictment returned this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Chicago charges Lewis A. Lacey of Matteson, Ill., with bankruptcy fraud, making false statements and declarations in a bankruptcy case, and perjury. Each count is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. Arraignment has not yet been scheduled.

The indictment was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI) Chicago Field Office, Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, Ruth M. Mendonça, Inspector-in-Charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Hannibal Ware, Inspector General of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Trustee Program. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason A. Julien and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian P. Netols.

The officials noted that Lacey was indicted as part of an ongoing federal investigation.

According to the indictment, Lacey since the 1980s has filed numerous personal bankruptcy cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, including petitions in 2019 and 2020. The recent petitions automatically stayed enforcement of a settlement agreement Lacey had reached in 2017 with the plaintiff in a lawsuit in state court. The indictment alleges that Lacey filed the 2019 bankruptcy petition shortly after the plaintiff moved to enforce the settlement agreement, accusing Lacey of still owing $43,000 of the $55,000 settlement.

The indictment alleges that Lacey made several materially false and fraudulent representations in oral statements and documents submitted in the bankruptcy cases, including underreporting his monthly income and concealing bank accounts that he controlled. Among other things, Lacey falsely represented that he was separated from his spouse and that she did not reside with him or contribute to his monthly income and mortgage, the indictment states. The false representations allowed Lacey to fraudulently calculate his monthly income for purposes of repayment of his creditors as substantially less than it should have been if his spouse's contributions were included, the indictment states.

During the charged fraud scheme, Lacey served as a police officer for the Dolton Police Department.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.

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