Page 5 - Johnf Gembara News Today

His guilty verdict for claiming deductions for interest he never paid to a failed Bridgeport bank, Washington Federal Bank for Savings, isn’t the only time he’s had trouble with the IRS.

A jury heard roughly three-and-a-half days of testimony last week, mostly from government witnesses. The trial began nine months after the feds hit Thompson with an indictment charging him with two counts of lying to regulators and five counts of filing false federal income tax returns.

Federal prosecutors sought to undermine the notion that Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson had forgotten about $109,000 he received from a Bridgeport bank or that he didn’t pay attention to his tax returns during closing arguments in his trial Monday.

CPA Robert Hannigan said last month he’d found a note indicating he first spoke to Thompson about amending his tax returns four days after federal agents visited Thompson’s home.

Thompson accountant Robert Hannigan of Bansley & Kiener could also be called to the stand after he gave surprise testimony at a hearing last month.

Thompson is charged with filing false federal income tax returns for the years 2013 through 2017. He is also charged with lying to federal regulators in early 2018 about the amount of money he owed Washington Federal Bank for Savings in Bridgeport.

Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson’s tax fraud case opens Monday. He’ll be the first from Chicago’s Daley political family to face trial and the first sitting Chicago City Council member on trial in more than two decades.

He stayed on at City Hall for a month after being charged. His boss Cole Stallard got a mortgage from Washington Federal Bank for Savings while Mahon was on the bank board.

A Chicago city administrator responsible for accountability faces charges of falsifying bank loans, lying to regulators and taking a $130,000 personal loan he never repaid while on the bank’s board.

William M. Mahon, who was once suspended for helping rig city job applicants’ test scores, now faces charges over his role as a Washington Federal Bank for Savings board member.