The watchdog agency conducting the investigation into alleged contract fraud by a top aide to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger made another foray into his office suite last week, officials said.
“We brought out information,” Inspector General Patrick Blanchard said Friday, declining to be more specific. “We were in there on Thursday.”
The fifth-floor County Building suite includes the offices of Stroger, former Deputy Chief of Staff Carla Oglesby, spokesman Eugene Mullins and Stroger’s recently installed chief of staff.
Earlier this month, Oglesby was charged with felony theft, money laundering and official misconduct for allegedly steering taxpayer-funded no-bid contracts to herself and others who did no work for the money. She is out on bond pending trial.
When Oglesby was charged, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said the investigation into contract fraud was continuing. Documents that prosecutors filed in the case said Oglesby “and others engaged in a scheme to defraud the people of Cook County through a series of sham vendor contracts.”
Stroger spokesmen said Friday that shortly after Oglesby was arrested, a search warrant was executed on her office. They declined to say what was looked at or if anything was removed.
Blanchard would not specify what areas of Stroger’s suite investigators focused on Thursday, but said the efforts were related to the ongoing probe of contracts below a $25,000 threshold that triggers review by the full County Board. Prosecutors say Oglesby handed out several of those so-called 24-9 contracts.
Blanchard on Wednesday gave a report on his investigation to Stroger, whose administration is weighing how much of it to release to news organizations, a decision that could come this week.
