The woman accused of stowing away on a Delta flight from New York to Paris was arrested again, this time while reportedly trying to get into Canada.
Svetlana Dali had been given an ankle monitor with GPS monitoring after her bond hearing in the stowaway case. She’d been ordered not to leave Philadelphia, except to attend court or meet with her lawyer or attend pre-trial services in New York. But Dali allegedly cut off her ankle monitor and was on a bus to Canada when she was arrested again, the New York Times reported.
FBI in Buffalo on Monday confirmed Dali had been arrested again and was in custody in Buffalo. Dali was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon.
Dali last month had sneaked onto a Delta flight without a boarding pass. Surveillance footage shows Dali at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Nov. 26. According to a criminal complaint, Dali tried to get in a line at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, but was turned away when she was unable to show a boarding pass. A short time later, she successfully sneaked through after allegedly “entering through a special lane for airline employees masked by a large Air Europa flight crew.”
On Dec. 4, the TSA noted, “This is the only reported case of unauthorized access when over 18 million passengers were screened at TSA security checkpoints during the busiest Thanksgiving travel season ever. No one has ever fully breached the TSA security screening process.”
Dali boarded a plane around 10 p.m. on Nov. 26 without presenting a boarding pass.
“Delta agents, who were busy helping ticketed passengers board, did not stop her or ask her to present a boarding pass before she boarded the plane,” according to the criminal complaint.
Delta employees realized Dali was on the plane before the flight landed. They notified French law enforcement, who met Dali at the gate at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Nov. 27. They determined Dali didn’t have a passport or a boarding pass and detained her.
Dali flew back to New York on Dec. 4, and was then taken into custody by authorities in the U.S. During an interview with the FBI, Dali admitted to stowing away and to intentionally evading security officials and Delta employees, according to the criminal complaint.
She faces charges of obtaining transportation on an aircraft without consent or permission.
Dali is in the U.S. on a green card, according to a person familiar with the incident. The French Ministry of the Interior identified her as a Russian national.
Aliza Chasan
Aliza Chasan is a Digital Content Producer for “60 Minutes” and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo. Aliza covers trending news, often focusing on crime and politics.
MINNEAPOLIS — Three days after Matt Eberflus was fired, Bears president Kevin Warren thought he was settling the Ryan Poles matter at the press conference to address Eberflus’ firing. And there was just one hitch — no one believed him.
“[The] next item I want to make sure we’re clear about is Ryan Poles is the general manager of the Chicago Bears and he will remain the general manage of the Chicago Bears,” Warren said on Dec. 2 at Halas Hall. “I’m confident in Ryan. My faith remains strong in him.”
As any veteran observer of these episodes knows all too well, they believe in you at Halas Hall until they don’t. Warren’s endorsement belied the optic of Poles looking like a subservient junior partner in the Bears’ hierarchy next to Warren’s dominant pose on the podium that day.
With the coaching search underway, Poles’ future with the team is unsettled, with one year left on his original four-year contract. So there are three scenarios that could ensue after this season:
Warren signs Poles to a contract extension. It’s unlikely any coaching candidate with other options is going to hitch his wagon to a GM who himself is on a contract year. So Warren is going to have to back up his endorsement with a financial commitment to a general manager he did not hire.
Warren fires Poles and aligns himself with his own GM, and a head coach that he endorses, if not hires, through his own evaluation process. That still leaves the new GM and coach with an inherited franchise quarterback, but with Caleb Williams, that’s an upgrade over Matt Nagy inheriting Mitch Trubisky and Poles and Matt Eberflus inheriting Justin Fields.
With his authority diminished and the original working dynamic altered, Poles resigns to better position himself for a second shot that fired general managers rarely get.
With the firings of Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron already this season, the Poles situation is all-too-typical Halas Hall tumult. Poles is third general manager hired by the. ‘Bears in the last 13 seasons, following Phil Emery (2012-14) and Pace (2015-21).
So here we go again — should the Bears fire Poles? Should they extend him? The good news — as it relates to the Emery and Pace firings — is that there is nothing the Bears have to do.
Emery’s departure was a no-brainer following two years of dysfunction after he hired Marc Trestman over Bruce Arians. Pace had one winning season in seven years, a deteriorating roster, a bad salary cap situation, sub-standard draft capital and the ever-fireable albatross of trading up to draft Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes. It was time. For many Bears fans, his firing was a year (or more) too late.
Poles’ has used up most if not all of the cushion he had from the trade with the Panthers for the 2023 No. 1 overall pick that produced wide receiver DJ Moore and Williams. Most of all, hiring Eberflus, doubling down on him after last season and firing him this season cast the most doubt on Poles’ judgment — and his qualifications for hiring the next coach.
But extending Poles could be a solution to the Bears’ problems as much as firing him. He’s upgraded the roster, has a franchise quarterback in place and still has plenty of draft capital and salary-cap space. Arguably, he deserves a chance to hire a second coach and prove he can learn from his mistake.
And likewise, firing Poles could give the Bears a chance to find a general manager who can build on Poles’ roster upgrades, improve on his weaknesses and give Williams the support he needs — the offensive line and the coach — to take the Bears to the next level.
This time, it’s a tough call. And that might be the bigger issue — that people above Ryan Poles at Halas Hall have to make it.
A man was wounded in a shooting in Rogers Park on Monday afternoon, Chicago police said.
The man, 37, was in a verbal altercation that became physical with another man in the 1400 block of West Morse Avenue at 4:50 p.m. when he was shot several times, police said. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in fair condition.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Bears have nothing left to play for in the standings anymore at 4-9, but they they’re still looking to upend the Vikings on “Monday Night Football.” It’s imperative that rookie quarterback Caleb Williams plays well over the final four games, and the Bears get a chance to hurt a division rival in its bid for playoff seeding.
The Vikings go into the game at 11-2 and have a chance to pull even with the NFC-leading Lions, who lost Sunday to the Bills.
The Bears are relatively healthy for this point in the season, and running back D’Andre Swift will play despite a groin injury that prevented him from going through a full practice leading up to the game.
Left tackle Braxton Jones is out with a concussion, leaving the Bears to likely start rookie Kiran Amegadjie.
Here are the Bears’ inactives:
LT Braxton Jones (concussion) RB Roschon Johnson (concussion) OL Ryan Bates (concussion) S Ameer Speed LB Noah Sewell DT Gervon Dexter (knee)
The Vikings have won six in a row and most recently demolished the Falcons.
Jared Goff matched a career high by throwing five touchdown passes for the NFC North-leading Lions (12-2), whose loss gives the Vikings a chance to pull into a tie for the division lead with a win against the Bears on Monday night at home.
A man was hospitalized after being stabbed Monday afternoon in Chicago Lawn, Chicago police said.
The man, whose age wasn’t known, was inside a residence in the 3400 block of West 62nd Place at 3 p.m. when he was stabbed in the stomach, police said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition.
After weeks of acrimony, the City Council approved Mayor Brandon Johnson’s revised $17.3 billion budget — minus a $68.5 million property tax increase — averting what would have been the first budget shutdown in its history.
The 27-23 vote on the 2025 spending plan and $165.5 million tax package did not come easy.
Johnson managed to secure a victory on the most important Council vote of the year — but only after making several rounds of changes and calling off a vote last Friday last Friday that he was destined to lose.
Monday’s meeting got off to a rocky start after raucous protests — described by Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) as “anti-Trump and anti-facist” — continued in the public gallery — even after Johnson pleaded for calm. The mayor then asked the sergeant-at-arms to clear the chamber, prompting a recess.
Clearing the chamber took a few minutes. The meeting reconvened at 2:25 p.m. with some members of the public allowed to return.
Southwest Side Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) opened the debate by declaring two reasons he planned to vote ‘no.’ First, Quinn said, “We haven’t made enough cuts. We haven’t cut positions that are redundant. We keep spending. … As a result, we’ll be faced with the same challengers next year.”
The second reason: Johnson’s decision to ignore the longstanding demand to divide the Chicago Lawn police district to create a new Southwest Side police district. That would, supporters argue, speed response time. The Chicago Lawn district now serves the second-largest geographic area in the city, but has the fewest officer per capita.
“Residents of the 13th Ward feel you are working against them, Mr. Mayor. They need a new police district and they’ve been vocal about it,” Quinn said, citing the 88% support in a recent referendum.
“They can’t keep giving more when they have real asks that are being ignore.”
‘Show some courage’
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), Public Safety Committee chair, said his goal was to defeat a property tax increase, but “we did not defeat it. We simply delayed it. We kicked the can down the road. … We will be right back here next year … and it will be worse.”
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) ridiculed his colleagues for flexing their newfound political muscle, only to cave before reaching the goal line. Beleaguered Chicago taxpayers are crying out for deep spending cuts. Johnson’s final budget, Beale said, doesn’t even scratch the surface.
“To ignore the will of the people, you all, is something everybody in this room is gonna have to reckon with in a couple of years,” Beale said, referring to the 2027 aldermanic election.
“When you’re staring down an opponent, you can say, ‘I sold my vote for a little bit of this and a little bit of that with a letter committing extra resources we know we don’t have.’ … We have to stop this train wreck. We have to stop this spending. … Stand up and do what your people are asking you to do. Don’t take the easy route. Show some courage. Don’t go along just to get along.”
But Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), the mayor’s hand-picked Housing Committee chair, praised the Johnson for delivering what Chicago taxpayers and their elected representatives demanded: a budget that freezes property taxes.
That “was not done in previous administrations,” Sigcho-Lopez said — so where, he wondered, were all the calls for Council courage then?
“I wish some of my colleagues” had the courage “to tell Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in 2016, `no’ to a $600 million property tax increase. We needed that courage then,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
“I wish some of my colleagues could go back in time and stop themselves from privatizing the parking meters for 75 years — that has been costly to the taxpayers.”
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) ridiculed his Chicago City Council colleagues for flexing their newfound political muscle but then caving in. Chicago taxpayers want deep spending cuts, he argued, and he believes Mayor Brandon Johnson’s final budget doesn’t even scratch the surface.
Even Progressive Caucus unhappy
But not all the Council’s progressive colleagues were as happy with the outcome.
Alderpersons Andre Vasquez (40th) and Maria Hadden (49th) may co-chair a Progressive Caucus that forms the core of Johnson’s support, but they admonished the mayor for a series of budget missteps that created a deep distrust between Johnson and an emboldened City Council.
“Mr. Mayor, we have heard a lot about your progressive values throughout this process and I don’t doubt them. But how we do things is just as important as what we do. And how you’ve led this process has left the City Council fractured, Chicagoans less trusting in government and it’s left our city in an extremely vulnerable position … with the promise of attacks from a new presidential administration,” Hadden said.
“We are not prepared and the fault lies squarely with you and your administration. … This budget may have some progressive outcomes. But the process to get here was anything but progressive.”
Vasquez agreed a “lack of leadership and collaboration” from the Johnson administration “made a difficult budget even harder.”
”This budget process has left many Chicagoans, including many members of this Council, feeling a lack of confidence and a lack of trust in the city’s government,” Vasquez said.
“Chicago has a history of making financial decisions in the interest of short-term political expediency that lead to disastrous long-term consequences and this budget represents more of the same,” he added, referring to a plan to restructure the debt the city still owes on the site of the now-demolished Michael Reese Hospital.
“By choosing to skip a payment to retire a $40 million debt for a … short-term fix, this administration is saddling the city with even more debt that will make future budgets worse. Chicago’s structural revenue percentage will go down from 78% to 69%, which will likely lead to a credit downgrade that will cost future taxpayers billions of dollars,” Vasquez said.
“We cannot continue down this path that undermines the progressive movement, that undermines the ability to govern responsibly, and that further erodes the public’s confidence in government. Chicagoans don’t have any more patience for excuses, for hollow, evasive answers, and for obliviousness from their mayor. Chicagoans deserve serious, responsible, and focused leadership to address the challenges ahead.”
Backing off a property tax hike
The mayor originally proposed a $300 million property tax increase that broke his campaign promise to hold the line on property taxes, then he agreed to cut the increase in half after the Council took the extraordinary step of rejecting it by a unanimous vote. He then tried for a $68.5 million property tax hike, to no avail.
Johnson also proposed a 34% increase in the liquor tax, then agreed to scrap it altogether after an outcry from the hospitality industry and alderpersons whose bars, restaurants and liquor stores could lose business to surrounding suburbs.
The mayor agreed to restore 162 Chicago police jobs tied to implementing a consent decree outlining the terms of federal court oversight of the Chicago Police Department after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul threatened to ask a judge to hold the city in contempt.
And he cut $90 million worth of spending from federal pandemic relief funds, in part, by scrapping a second round of guaranteed basic income and a small-business assistance program.
With all of those changes, he was still seven votes short of the 26 needed for passage. Friday’s delay forced the mayor back to the drawing board to hunt for more votes over the weekend.
To get those votes, he scrapped the $68.5 million property tax increase. So although Chicago property owners bracing for reassessments have been spared a double-whammy, the Chicago Board of Education will once again hit them with a property tax increase that amounts to the maximum allowed by state law.
The mayor’s revised budget also would hit Chicagoans in the wallet in a host of other ways, such as adding an amusement tax on streaming services; higher taxes on cloud computing, business software and equipment leases; and higher taxes on parking and downtown congestion.
In the case of the loan used to buy the Michael Reese Hospital site, Johnson’s administration argues that restructuring that debt is estimated to save $40 million on next year’s budget. And it’s not the first time that the city has refinanced the Reese debt.
When he was mayor, Rahm Emanuel lightened the load of the financial albatross — twice.
The city saved $14.5 million with a refinancing that reduced a fixed interest rate of 7.5% to 5.95%.
Then, six years later, Emanuel reduced the burden again by paying off the outstanding promissory note with MRL Financing and refinancing the debt with PNC Bank at a fixed interest rate of 3.55%.
That saved taxpayers $4.25 million, reducing the principal and interest still owed from $120.7 million to $116.5 million. The city bought that site to turn it into an Olympic Village for the 2016 Games that eventually went to Rio de Janeiro.
Still not good enough, says Council’s ‘Common Sense Caucus’
For 15 members of the so-called “Common Sense Caucus,” the mayor’s final offer barely scratched the surface.
They demanded $823.7 million in cuts that include eliminating the $61.3 million-a-year Office of Public Safety Administration and scrapping Johnson’s $50 million plan to create 2,000 more summers jobs and increase spending to combat homelessness. They also wanted to cut the $435,000-a-year budget for the office of the vice mayor, a post held by 27th Ward Ald. Walter Burnett.
For all the concessions Johnson was forced to make, Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson was not impressed.
The budget version up for a vote on Monday reflected an effort to “avoid actually doing anything other than get to 26 votes,” he said.
“We are at the end of the runway, and the city has to get busy about its structural problems,” Ferguson added.
“The measures taken here … do not put us in any better situation for 2026, where the challenge will be even greater. That is what the rating agencies want to see. They’re not looking at whether or not we have a budget by Dec. 31,” Feguson said of the all-important bond rating that determines city borrowing costs.
“They’re looking at whether or not that budget goes in reverse with regard to bad practices … and manifests an intention through substantive measures to begin to address the true structural challenges the city has. This doesn’t do it. … This is largely a revenue and one-time solutions budget. There is no leaning into the expenditure side. No leaning into the revenue side.”
Jason Lee, senior advisor to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, attends a news conference Friday where Johnson addressed the media after the City Council meeting adjourned. Alderpersons return Monday to again consider passing a 2025 budget.
Some ‘mistakes,’ aide says, but a ‘good process’ in the end
Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee said “there are always mistakes,” and the Johnson administration made a few that may have contributed to contentious negotiations and distrust with a Council emboldened by the mayor’s anemic public approval ratings.
But the sometimes messy process was no different than what goes on all of the time in “every other body of government,” Lee said.
And he denied Johnson will pay a political price for his stumbles.
“We’re paid to do a job. It can be difficult. It can be easy. Whatever. If I’m the public, the only thing I want to know is … what was the outcome? What did we achieve? What does that mean for me as a resident of the city of Chicago,” Lee said.
“This was a negotiation. And the outcome is not bad at all given the realities that we face. There are major efficiencies in this budget. There’s investments in this budget. There’s some new revenue in this budget. Fiscal obligations are met in this budget. What is the outcome that people should be upset with?” he asked.
Lee denied it was a mistake for the mayor to introduce a budget that included a $300 million property tax increase at a time when property owners have or will be hit by reassessment increases.
Property taxes are “the most widely known predictable revenue currently available to municipal governments in the state of Illinois,” and therefore, it made sense to propose it to chip away at the city’s structural deficit, Lee said.
“What we said from day 1 is, we can work with the Council on finding other forms of revenue to help us meet our obligations, fund our government, make some investments and not have to cut services. … That was achieved in this budget,” he said. “By having a structural placeholder like property taxes, that created the space for a conversation on revenue that was available to us. Ultimately, that was a good process.”
The great thing about holiday perennials is that they sometimes take a break, and then return so that those of us who never saw them in the first place can get a chance to enjoy them. (Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s not actually how perennials work. I’m a theater geek, not a botanist, so cut me some slack.) At any rate, having never seen Hell in a Handbag’s Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, which was their go-to holiday show for years until their parody Golden Girls franchise and other camp explorations of the season took over, I’m delighted they’ve brought it back for its 25th anniversary. (That year, like my understanding of plants, is also fungible, according to playwright and artistic director David Cerda.)
Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer Through 1/5: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Wed 12/18 7:30 PM and Mon 12/30 7:30 PM (industry night); Fri 12/20 and Sat 12/21 7 PM; Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, handbagproductions.org, $45 general admission, $50 door, $52 advanced VIP/reserved seating with no drink ticket, $60 advanced VIP/reserved seating with drink ticket; 12/20-12/22 is a benefit weekend with preshow parties beginning Fri–Sat 6 PM and Sun 2 PM, $60 general admission (includes sweet treats), $125 VIP/reserved (includes reserved seating, sweet treats, drink ticket, and gift bag)
Now playing at Center on Halsted under Anthony Whitaker’s direction, Cerda’s spoof of the story of misfit Rudolph (Peter Ruger) recasts the Donners’ son as a cross-dresser who doesn’t understand why he can’t be his own fabulous self in Christmas Town. He’s joined by Kelly Bolton’s Herbie, who isn’t fabulous enough to fit in with the other elves. (The rules are different for reindeer and the out-and-proud toymakers—as Michael Hampton’s marketing-obsessed Santa says, “Nelly reindeer don’t fit our target demographic!”)
Highlights include Caitlin Jackson’s gloriously dipsomaniacal Mrs. Claus (local treasure Jackson also kills it as Dolly, the depressed rag doll), Cerda and Terry McCarthy as catty cast members of The Real Housewives of the North Pole, Matt Sergot’s pissed-off Sam the Snowman, and Lori Lee’s addled-but-good-hearted Yukon Cornelia. It’s a recipe for a sweet, sardonic, filthy-minded show that, like Handbag’s Golden Girls outings, knows how to blend what makes the original so popular with clever asides and a just-earnest-enough plea for acceptance at the holidays and year-round.
One thing that hasn’t changed, as Cerda noted opening night, is Scott Lamberty’s sprightly original arrangements of the songs (the cast sings live to recorded instrumental tracks). “Christmas Makes Me Bitter,” the first act’s blistering finale, should be everyone’s antidote to Mariah Carey.
Reader Recommends: THEATER & DANCE
Reader reviews of Chicago theater, dance, comedy, and performance arts.
Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day shows us how we got here.
The Totality of All Things examines the national divide through a high school hate crime.
Lauren Gunderson’s Little Women premieres at Northlight.
Trap Door’s Fraudulent LLC hits almost too close to home.
Blake Montgomery’s comedic solo take on A Christmas Carol returns.
& Juliet is a heartfelt coming-of-age jukebox musical.
Kerry Reid (she/her) has been the theater and dance editor at the Chicago Reader since 2019.
Graduating from Columbia College in 1987, she worked with several off-Loop theater companies before beginning her arts journalism career by writing pro bono for Streetwise.
She spent most of the 90s in San Francisco, writing about theater for Backstage West and the East Bay Express, among other publications, and returned to Chicago in 2000.
Reid was a freelance critic for the Chicago Tribune for 17 years, and has also contributed to several other publications, including Windy City Times, Chicago Magazine, Playbill, American Theatre, and the Village Voice.
She taught reviewing and arts journalism at Columbia and is currently adjunct faculty at the Theatre School at DePaul University.
In a past life, Reid also wrote about ten plays or performance pieces. She is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and the recipient of two 2020 Lisagor Awards.
Reid lives in Rogers Park. She speaks English and is reachable at [email protected].
A suburban pizzeria owner has been sentenced to four years in prison for pulling off the largest sales tax evasion uncovered by authorities in state history.
Despite the hefty sentence, Sam Cirrincione of South Barrington is expected to be paroled from Stateville Correction Center before Christmas. That’s thanks to Cirrincione serving over two years on home electronic monitoring while his case dragged through the Cook County court system.
Cirrincione, 60, pleaded guilty on Nov. 12 to a felony count of continuing a financial criminal enterprise. Prosecutors accused him of failing to report over $104 million in income from a chain of family-owned pizza restaurants and businesses in Chicago and the suburbs.
It is “the largest amount ever discovered during a sales tax evasion investigation in Illinois history,” the Illinois Department of Revenue said in a news release Monday.
Sam Cirrincione
Illinois Department of Corrections
Cirrincione has paid back $10.5 million in restitution to the state from eight restaurants and businesses he owned, according to court records.
The businesses, some of which are now listed as closed, include Pizza Pete, Biago Cirrincione Inc., Mr. B’s Stuffed Pizza, Suparossa on Western, Suparoosa Woodridge, 86 Food Source, Mia Café and Bella Donna.
Authorities with the state’s revenue department carried out a search warrant of Cirrincione’s home in June 2019, prosecutors said at Cirrincione’s 2022 arraignment, according to the news website Patch. Authorities allegedly found about $118,500 in cash marked by date and restaurant.
At the time, prosecutors said Cirrincione underreporteed gross revenue of his restaurants by more than $100 million between 2010 and June 2019.
The charges were the result of a long-term investigation that focused on five of Cirrincione’s restaurants, prosecutors said in the hearing.
Cirrincione was indicted in August 2022 on a half dozen counts, including tax fraud, forgery, theft over $100,000 and other counts.
Cirrincione received 680 days of credit for time served on home electronic monitoring, according to court records. He is expected to be paroled on Dec. 20 from Stateville Correctional Center, where he is incarcerated, according to public records from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A message with Cirrincione’s attorney was not immediately returned.
Seven years ago, a crooked Bridgeport bank president was found dead with a rope wrapped around his neck in the Park Ridge bedroom of his “right hand man.”
On Monday, a federal judge sentenced John F. Gembara’s “right hand man,” Marek Matczuk, to nearly 13 years in prison for embezzling nearly $6 million from the century-old bank, an institution with ties to Chicago’s Daley family and its political organization.
Matczuk, 61, was also ordered to pay nearly $6 million in restitution to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is still attempting to recover $90 million lost in the collapse of Washington Federal Bank for Savings. Matczuk was also one of Washington Federal’s customers.
“The amount of loss in this bank collapse is staggering,” U.S. District Court Chief Judge Virginia Kendall said, giving Matczuk the second longest prison sentence in the bank collapse.
“The evidence at trial showed you had daily contact at the bank with Mr. Gembara. Whatever Mr. Gembara wanted, you would do to make him happy…You were benefiting from it,” Kendall added. “It enabled you to go to the casino. It enabled you to go on vacations.
“Sadly, at the end of his life, he chose to be by the person he trusted the most, which is you.”
As federal regulators discovered the massive embezzlement scheme in which so-called “Friends of John” got loans without any collateral or expectation to repay the money, they pushed the bank’s board of directors to suspend Gembara, who was also the bank’s CEO and largest shareholder, on Nov. 29, 2017.
Gembara sought a place to hide, prosecutors say, ending up at Matczuk’s million-dollar home which was — and still is — in foreclosure.
Matczuk and his wife put Gembara up for the weekend in their main bedroom. They say they found him dead Dec. 3, 2017, sitting in a chair with a green rope wrapped around his neck and a spiral staircase. Matczuk’s son and Gembara bought the rope the previous day to hang Christmas decorations at Gembara’s Palos Hills home.
John Gembara, who ran Washington Federal Bank for Savings
Twelve days later, federal regulators closed the bank, which the Gembara family had run for three generations.
Park Ridge police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office concluded Gembara killed himself, but his family and others involved in the case have expressed doubts that he committed suicide.
“When that man took his own life, he raised his hand against himself at my house. At that time, a party for my children was taking place,” Matczuk told Kendall with the aide of a Polish translator.
“The thought that I wanted to finish off that guy or that I was ok with him finishing himself in my house is not true.”
Gembara loaned Matczuk millions to build a couple of million-dollar-homes in the Wicker Park neighborhood, but the homes were never completed. Prosecutors says Matczuk gave them away for no money after the bank failed.
Gembara relied on Matczuk, a large man known as “Shrek,” as a driver, handyman and bodyguard who used some of the embezzled money to pay Gembara’s bills, prosecutors said.
Matczuk, who suffered a stroke shortly after federal investigators questioned him in early 2019, is among 16 people charged in connection with the bank failure. Fourteen have been convicted. Seven await sentencing, including five bank employees who cooperated with investigators.
Gembara’s longtime friend, Robert M, Kowalski, an attorney and contractor, is serving a 25-year prison sentence for embezzling $7.2 million, the stiffest sentence anyone linked to the bank scandal has received.
Then-Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, whose grandfather and uncle are Chicago’s longest-serving mayors, got a four-month prison sentence for lying to federal regulators about the money he owed the bank and cheating on his taxes.
It’s one of numerous ties the Daley family had with the bank. Its board of directors included William M. Mahon, a high-ranking City Hall official who was also a member of the 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization run by the Daleys for decades. Mahon got an 18-month prison sentence for falsifying bank records to keep regulators from discovering the scheme.
The bank had loaned money to many Daley loyalists as well as the Daley family’s 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, which got a loan to make repairs on its headquarters a few weeks before the bank collapsed.
Washington Federal’s collapse shocked the Bridgeport community, where many residents have lost money they may never recover. But Gembara’s widow and his former chief financial officer were aware of the bank’s questionable loans — and alerted law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office, years before the bank failed.
On a cold morning, a hot breakfast is a cozy way to start the day. But the time to prepare one isn’t always available.
Oatmeal and cereal-to-go cups allow for the best of both worlds — steamy breakfast in a matter of minutes. In addition, starting the day with oatmeal can fuel your morning with a head start on your daily fiber, protein, antioxidants, and a variety of vitamins and minerals.
Oats are often considered one of the original superfoods. They contain a unique fiber called beta-glucan. This fiber can help prevent blood sugar from rising after meals, lower total cholesterol and boost gut health. In addition, fiber in general helps you feel fuller longer. That can be especially helpful when trying to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
For anyone needing to avoid gluten, oats are an ideal fiber-rich ingredient to include in your diet. However, because of growing conditions, some oats may contain trace amounts of gluten. To be safe, read the food label for the gluten-free label. Fortunately, there are a handful of oatmeal-to-go cups that meet the gluten-free criteria.
Consider these tips when making your on-the-go oats:
— Extra! Boost the nutrition of your hot breakfast by adding extras like chia or hemp seed, or choose brands that already include them.
— Natural. While the flavors are yummy, they often come with a hefty dose of added sugar. Consider adding your own fruit, nuts, and spices for deliciousness without the extra sugar.
— Bone builder. For extra protein and calcium, swap out the added water for low-fat milk. FYI, it may take a little longer to cook with the milk, but the creaminess is worth the wait.
Environmental Nutrition is the award-winning independent newsletter written by nutrition experts.
