| It could come back to haunt you one day! By: John Gabriel/TW | jgabriel@timesweeklynews.com Click here to email our writer |
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Mayor Tim Murphy’s campaign committee must file reports of the contributions he receives and how he spends those funds, the reports are D-2 forms. Money sitting in a candidate’s bank account can become a temptation, especially when the candidate is pressed for personal cash. The election law prohibits a candidate from spending political contributions for personal use; that money must be spent on campaign activities. Greedy politicians will sometimes scheme to take money out of the campaign bank account for themselves, assuming they will not be caught, but someone is always watching.
There are penalties for violating the election laws, but the most serious penalties are not imposed by the Board of Elections but by federal authorities. They can pursue a conviction under the Mail Fraud statutes, which include mail fraud, wire fraud, etc. Such convictions can result in sentences up to 20 years in federal prison multiple charges make it easy to catch a long sentence. Filing a false D-2 form by computer violates those federal statutes. One campaign law makes it illegal to make payments on a personal vehicle. A vehicle can be leased or purchased with campaign money but the vehicle must be used “primarily” for campaign purposes. It is legal to hire people to work on a campaign, but records are required to track how much they are paid, and the amount of payroll taxes that were deducted for income tax, F.I.C.A., etc., and for state of Illinois income tax. Violations could bring charges of income tax evasion on top of wire fraud charges and state tax charges. Mayor Tim Murphy’s D-2 form filed on January 18, 2008, is an interesting document. Murphy’s D-2 is interesting for several reasons. Murphy ran for office in 2005; should he choose to run again, he will do so in 2009, in the meantime, there is no campaign and some things in his report make little sense. He reported receiving $23,035 in contributions and that he spent $12,905.70 on campaign expenses from July 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007. Among those expenses was the cost of a fundraiser at the Outpost Pub & Grill that cost $3,202 and brought in $4,835, contributions received after the fundraiser are included because they might have been the result of it. That fundraiser netted Murphy $1,633; he was more successful soliciting contributions from people who do business with the city. There have been rumors that Murphy is experiencing cash flow problems. He owns a white Lexus SUV that he uses for all of his personal use. No reasonable person could be convinced that it comes under the legal definition of a campaign vehicle, but according to Mr. Murphy’s D-2 report, he dipped into his campaign funds to make a vehicle payment to Lexus Financial, Carol Stream, IL in the amount of $698 on October 22, 2007. Then on December 4, 2007, he made another $698 vehicle payment to Lexus in Carol Stream. He reported $295.31 expenses for gasoline he purchased at the Jewel Express. He is entitled to be paid mileage. In what sounds similar to resigned Romeoville Mayor Dewald’s alleged spending habits, Murphy paid $452.42 on bar bills which he called political entertainment. Who did he entertain? Rumor says Kelly Zizzo is Murphy’s girlfriend; Murphy’s D-2 indicates she works for his campaign committee and was paid $3,676 between September 1st and October 30th, for campaign work but he won’t run again until 2009. Kelly Zizzo has a job with ReMax on Wolf Road, in Orland Park. The Murphy D-2 does not show any payments made for Federal Income Tax that Murphy should have withheld from Kelly Zizzo’s checks, no F.I.C.A. payments, no state income tax deductions, no taxes period! Why were there no taxes withheld from her checks and why were no taxes paid to the IRS or to the State of Illinois? Did Kelly Zizzo report that $3,676 on her income tax return for 2007? Would she risk going to prison for Murphy? Kelly Zizzo refused to be interviewed when she was telephoned at ReMax. |
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