Federal investigators have joined county officials in a probe of operations at Du Page Airport, according to an internal airport authority memo.
The memo, dated last Wednesday and written by airport director Thomas H. Fawell Sr. to employees of the West Chicago facility, noted that investigators from “the United States attorney’s office are examining certain operations of the Du Page Airport Authority.”
Fawell, while not specifying what those operations were, told employees in the memo that “it is the policy of the Authority to fully cooperate and assist this examination,” and he urged employees to cooperate. The memo also provided a reminder that the employees have access to legal counseling should they request it.
Though airport officials now acknowledge the existence of probes of airport authority activities, they say they are unaware of the focus of the federal inquiry.
“I have no idea,” Fawell said Monday when asked about the nature of the investigation. “You’d have to ask them.”
Barbara Lazarus, a spokeswoman with the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, said officials had no comment.
The disclosures about a federal inquiry come after reports last week that investigators from the Du Page state’s attorney’s office have begun questioning individuals with business ties to the airport.
State’s attorney’s officials have declined to comment on their activities, but some individuals who have spoken with county investigators say those agents have expressed an interest, in part, in the authority’s use of aircraft it owns.
In May, County Board Chairman Aldo Botti alleged that the authority, which owns nearly two dozen aircraft, has used some of those planes for non-airport business.
Botti charged that authority planes were used in more than 50 such flights and requested that both state and federal officials investigate.
The airport authority has denied any wrongdoing and labeled Botti’s allegations as politically motivated.
But last week, James Moxley, a Carol Stream resident and mechanic for a business at the airport, stepped forward with allegations that in 1990 an authority pilot using an authority aircraft flew a retired federal official to Minnesota. Moxley, who said he has discussed the incident with investigators, said he overheard an airport employee discuss how he would write off the expense of the flight as pilot training.
The official, who confirmed the trip, said he was never billed for the flight. Airport officials, who say records from that period are sketchy, were unable to produce any record of the trip.
Although there was no official comment from federal prosecutors Monday, several people who said they were interviewed said the questions they were asked by those agents involved a party held by the airport authority in January 1992 to commemorate the opening of two $55 million runways.
More than 300 officials and politicians attended the party, which cost about $31,000.
In May, the Tribune reported that after the party ended, airport employees said they were directed by airport director Fawell to solicit donations from contractors who conduct business at the field. That money was then sent to a special account established by the Illinois Public Airport Association, a trade association in Springfield. Checks issued by the association were used to pay some of the bills for the party.
