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Byline: Rick Jervis
Jan. 27--Warnings of misuse of funds, overspending and financial fraud at the Harvey Park District were sent to district administrators, the president and board in a series of e-mails, memos and faxes for more than six months last year -- but were ignored or discarded by administrators, documents indicate.
The Park District, which oversees the city's 20 parks and ballfields, has been the target of a federal probe since December, when FBI agents raided the district office and confiscated several boxes of payroll and bank records. Park District officials have not commented, and Harvey officials say they do not know what is being looked at. An FBI spokesman confirmed agents executed a search warrant at the offices.
But a series of e-mails and internal memos obtained by the Tribune show a pattern of escalating warnings by the district's outside accountants, Mokena-based O'Neill & Gaspardo, that include allegations of misuse of district funds for personal expenses and paying non-working relatives of district workers.
The district later fired three employees who alerted the accounting firm to some of the ...
Source: HighBeam Research, Harvey park execs warned.