HR1013 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1013 LRB098 20912 MST 58545 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives have been made aware of a situation in the City of Chicago where a clerk at City Hall embezzled nearly $750,000 by depositing checks payable to Chicago into a personal bank account; and

WHEREAS, The embezzlement scheme lasted from August of 2008 until January of 2014, and was only discovered when bank officials noticed unusual activity in a supposed "business account"; and

WHEREAS, The budgets of many Illinois local governments are stressed and every dollar matters to determine what services can be offered to their citizens; governments have a responsibility to their taxpayers and should make every effort to track and control their cash flow; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge all Illinois financial institutions that offer checking accounts to take immediate steps to ensure, as a condition of the act of depositing money into an account by paper check or electronic payments, that the entity into which the money is deposited is the payee entity intended by the initial payor; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge the Illinois Banking Association, the Community Bankers Association of Illinois, and the Illinois Credit Union League to study the issue raised by this alleged act of embezzlement, including consultations with experts in the fields of forgery detection and electronic security, and make recommendations to the General Assembly as to whether the Illinois public sector should be mandated, in the future, to take steps that payors making payments to the public sector by paper checks or electronic payments be required to spell out the full name of the intended payee; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the President and CEO of the Illinois Banking Association, Linda Koch, the President of the Community Bankers Association of Illinois, Robert J. Wingert, and the President and CEO of the Illinois Credit Union League, Dan Plauda.