Illinois governor hopeful JB Pritzker 'defrauded'
Post# of 65629
Billionaire J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic nominee for governor in Illinois, improperly received more than $300,000 in property tax breaks in a “scheme to defraud” taxpayers, according to a new watchdog report.
Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard found Pritzker was able to receive more than $331,000 in property tax breaks on a mansion he owns in Chicago as “part of a scheme for obtaining money by means of false representations.”
The county, Blanchard said, “ultimately fell victim to a scheme to defraud.”
The inspector general’s report included an email from a project manager who said M.K. Muenster Pritzker, his wife, requested workers remove all toilets from the house in order for it to be considered an “uninhabitable structure” in 2015.
Then, after the house was to be reassessed, a toilet was to be put back in on the first floor, according to the email’s instructions.
Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt hotel chain, said the report was “leaked for political purposes in this last month of a campaign.” He said his family “sought a reassessment like other people do” and blamed the “flaws in the property tax system” in Cook County, the Chicago Tribune reported.
University of Illinois political science professor Dr. Brian Gaines expects Pritzker to stick to his message and agree to pay back the money if he’s asked to do so, as Blanchard recommended in the report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/illinois-gov...chdog-says