IL Dem Indicted on Bank Fraud

This morning, the sun rose in the East. At the end of the day it will set in the West. In between, another Illinois Democrat has been indicted for fraud. Just another day in the erstwhile “Land of Lincoln.”

A state legislator from Chicago was indicted Thursday on federal charges he made false statements to a bank to obtain a $500,000 increase on a line of credit.

LaShawn K. Ford, 40, was charged with using the money to pay for personal expenses rather than to rehab properties in the city as he had claimed he would to the bank, prosecutors said.

Ford was first elected in 2006 to represent the 8^th House District on Chicago’s West Side and several western suburbs.

The charges allege that Ford fraudulently obtained $373,500 in advances from the line of credit to rehabilitate six real estate properties on the West Side. But he used part of that money to pay off car loans, credit cards, mortgages, casino debts and expenses for his 2006 campaign, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, Ford submitted false tax returns that inflated his personal and business income to increase the line of credit to $1.5 million at ShoreBank.

ShoreBank should be familiar to BigGovernment readers. It was a bank largely designed and promoted by the Left to foster their own policy initiatives. Fitting that a leftist Democrat official has now tried to defraud the bank. 

Here’s hoping, at some point, Illinois voters tire of being the butt of the nation’s political jokes. 

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