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Carolina Amesty campaign |
Amesty got thousands of dollars in loans, complaint says
Carolina Amesty, the former west Orange County state representative, is facing accusations of defrauding the federal loan program for organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court Thursday says Amesty and a relative filed 15 applications on behalf of several entities she has ties to through several Economic Injury Disaster Loan program applications in 2020, receiving thousands of dollars in loans meant to help businesses and nonprofits hut by the pandemic.
However, investigators say in applications for at least two of those organizations, the Carolina Amesty Foundation Inc. and Dinocar Auto Sales LLC, Amesty misrepresented information, including their gross revenues, number of employees, and when the entities were even incorporated.
Investigators also say that Dinocar Auto Sales did not have a license to operate as a car dealer in Florida. The business allegedly submitted a dealer registration form for another company, and invoices showing the purchase of vehicles by the company.
However, investigators say they interviewed that company’s owner and he says his dealer license was used to buy vehicles at auction for a relative of Amesty’s, but he did not recognize Dinocar Auto Sales LLC. --->READ MORE HERECOVID-era public health chief fined $150K for ethics violation:
Former Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who led state health policy during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, will pay a $150,000 fine for violating a state anti-corruption law.
Ezike violated the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act's "revolving door" provision in 2022 by accepting a job as CEO of Sinai Chicago, a hospital based on Chicago's West side.
The state's former top doctor admitted to state investigators she was guilty of the violation, according to a report released Friday outlining the almost three-year-long investigation by the state's Executive Ethics Commission into her taking that job. Ezike could not be reached for comment.
Under the Ethics Act, a high-level state employee, like Ezike was, can't take a job with an organization that was subject to certain contracts, licensing or regulatory decisions from the state within one year of leaving their government position.
Sinai Health System received $4.2 million in grants from IDPH in the year before Ezike left and was the subject of IDPH regulation.
According to a statement from her legal team in the report, Ezike sought opinions from counsel and an ethics officer for the governor's office before accepting the position. That counsel told Ezike not to consider the money Sinai Chicago received in grant funding from the IDPH to be "contracts."
"She thought she was able to accept the job," Ezike's legal team wrote in its filing to investigators. "Dr. Ezike accepts responsibility and appreciates the Office of the Attorney General's role in settling this matter. She also asks the Commission to recognize the challenges for employees navigating the revolving door prohibition." --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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