COVID relief fraud probe includes over 50 employees in Cook County Clerk of Court Iris Martinez’s office
Other city and county agencies also have been looking into employees’ loans under the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
than 50 employees of Cook County Clerk of Court Iris Martinez are suspected of defrauding a federal program intended to help small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesman said Friday.
The clerk’s inspector general is working with Cook County’s inspector general’s office, which is conducting a separate investigation of employees who work for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, according to Martinez spokesman James Murphy-Aguilú.
Interim Cook County Inspector General Steven Cyranoski has provided Martinez’s investigators with a list of clerk’s employees who’ve obtained loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Cyranoski’s office also subpoenaed bank records of those workers on behalf of Martinez’s investigators, who don’t have that authority.
“She’s not going to tolerate any amount of corruption in our offices, given the public trust that is required from our employees,” Murphy-Aguilú said of Martinez.
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