A formal complaint was lodged against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s campaign committee Wednesday alleging it did not properly report a $10,000 contribution that federal authorities have alleged Ald. Edward Burke illegally solicited from a business owner in his district.
The complaint, filed by Jesus Martinez, alleges Preckwinkle’s county campaign committee violated election law by not reporting the contribution within five business days after it was received in January 2018 and by not reporting that the campaign had subsequently returned the money. It’s not clear whether Martinez, who was listed on the complaint with a Chicago address, is affiliated with a political campaign and he could not immediately be reached for comment.
The complaint filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections and obtained by the Tribune, also alleges Preckwinkle did not provide enough proof that it returned the $10,000 contribution to the donor.
State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich confirmed the complaint was filed.
“We will be scheduling a closed preliminary hearing after which a hearing officer will make a recommendation to our board,” Dietrich said. “The board will then hear the case at a monthly board meeting.”
Federal authorities last week charged Burke with attempted extortion. In the criminal complaint, authorities accused Burke of shaking down a restaurant magnate for a financial contribution to Preckwinkle’s campaign. At the time, Preckwinkle was running for re-election as county board president and now she’s running for mayor.
Preckwinkle’s mayoral campaign said she personally didn’t know about the donation or the alleged extortion efforts. She has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Her campaign did not immediately comment on the filing with the state elections board.
Prosecutors alleged Burke illegally solicited a $10,000 campaign contribution for an unnamed politician from restaurant company executives in December 2017. Sources familiar with the investigation said the campaign contribution was intended for Preckwinkle, and the executives owned a Burger King at 4060 S. Pulaski Road, the Tribune reported. According to the criminal complaint, the politician since identified as Preckwinkle kept $5,600 of the donation and did not report the contribution to state election officials. State law requires all political contributions to be reported by candidates.
Burke was released last week on a $10,000 unsecured bond. He has yet to enter a plea, but his attorney, Charles Sklarsky, said the allegations were meritless.
Preckwinkle’s campaign confirmed the donor was Shoukat Dhanani, the CEO of Tri City Foods, which owns the Burger King franchise in Burke’s ward in addition to hundreds of other fast-food locations across the country. The campaign said it received a $10,000 contribution from Dhanani but returned the entire amount because it was over the state contribution limit of $5,600 for an individual.
The campaign said records from its bank, software company and internal database all showed the entire $10,000 had been returned but declined to make the records public. Preckwinkle’s campaign also released a screen shot of a credit card transaction from its financial software, showing a $10,000 donation from Dhanani being deposited and a credit back to the same account six days later.
Preckwinkle amended her campaign report with state officials last week to reflect the year-old contribution and refund, as required by law.
The election complaint filed this week takes issue with the timing as well as the explanations Preckwinkle’s campaign have given on the matter. The complaint asked the elections board for a full audit of Preckwinkle’s campaign committees.
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January 9, 2019 at 08:45PM
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