A whistleblower in City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin’s office filed a wide-ranging ethics complaint against her late last year, alleging the congressional candidate’s political staff pushed a questionable plan to boycott U.S. Treasury bonds in protest of President Donald Trump, despite internal objections over its financial prudence.
Mauricio Banuelos, a treasurer’s office portfolio manager, sent an eight-page complaint to the public integrity units of both the Illinois attorney general and U.S. Department of Justice in November, pointing to conduct that “may jeopardize public funds or undermine the integrity of government operations,” according to a copy of the document obtained by the Tribune.
Conyears-Ervin’s announcement to not buy U.S. Treasuries has not led to any material changes so far because the city does not have any in its portfolio, making her anti-Trump stance largely symbolic. Banuelos alleges interference from her political campaign shows the proposal was “messaging, not a legitimate investment-policy action.”
His complaint says his “duties place me in a unique position to observe conduct within the Treasurer’s Office that implicates federal, state, and municipal laws, including potential misuse of office for campaign purposes, political influence over fiduciary matters, and retaliation for protected compliance activity.”
Banuelos declined to comment. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul spokesperson Annie Thompson confirmed his office received the complaint but declined to elaborate, citing a policy of not commenting on potential investigations. A message left with the Justice Department’s press office last week was not answered.
Through her campaign spokesperson Tom Bowen, Conyears-Ervin denied the allegations and defended her idea to divest from U.S. Treasuries in the wake of the Trump administration’s federal crackdown by “out-of-control” U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agents.
“As I said then, and I so strongly believe now, Chicagoland is under attack by the authoritarian regime of Donald Trump, and we have to fight back with every tool at our disposal,” Conyears-Ervin, who is running for the Democratic nomination to succeed outgoing U.S. Rep. Danny Davis in the 7th Congressional District, said in a statement. “Our actions were responsible, sent a message, and I’ll continue to fight for our community unapologetically.”
Conyears-Ervin last fall vowed to boycott U.S. Treasury Department securities and introduce an ordinance to further divest from money market funds that include such securities.
Ahead of the splashy announcement, her government staffers privately fretted over its political nature potentially opening the city up to liability, according to Banuelos.
“I observed multiple instances where Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin’s congressional campaign directly influenced — and at times commandeered — the official operations of the City Treasurer’s Office,” his complaint says. “These actions materially compromised the Office’s independence, fiduciary obligations, and internal-control integrity.”
Banuelos names Bowen as the political operative who allegedly pressured city staffers. In his statement to the Tribune, Bowen denied playing any role beyond advising the treasurer on a “responsible approach to use the tools of her office to send a message that what ICE is doing is completely unacceptable and Chicago will not sit idly by.”
An employee at the city treasurer’s office since 2017, Banuelos is the latest Conyears-Ervin staffer known to allege ethical violations during her tenure leading the office responsible for managing Chicago’s roughly $11 billion investment portfolio.
Governments are required to exercise “fiduciary prudence” in managing public funds under the Illinois Public Funds Investment Act. The city treasurer’s investment policy also requires that all decisions “ensure the safety of principal, while managing liquidity requirements of debt service and other financial obligations of the City, using authorized investment instruments providing the highest risk-adjusted investment return, while promoting economic development in the City.”
According to a copy of a Nov. 10 email thread obtained by the Tribune, Banuelos’ boss, Chief Investment Officer Craig Slack, forwarded a draft from Bowen of Conyears-Ervin’s prepared remarks to his staff.
“This is what the Treasurer’s Team has prepared,” Slack wrote. “This is despite my persistence that, even with changes to Ordinance, managing the City’s liquidity without the use of (money market) Funds that use (U.S. Treasury) Securities is not practical. I want to discuss other ways to present this.”
Portfolio manager Hector Dox responded with warnings that the boycott would be “financially irresponsible and operationally unfeasible” because U.S. Treasury-backed money market funds are the most liquid and stable options for public investors.
“As fiduciaries of the City of Chicago, it is paramount that we properly inform Treasurer MCE on this matter and strongly advise against it,” Dox wrote. “Attempting to execute this policy would jeopardize the safety, liquidity, and performance of Chicago’s investment portfolio directly undermining the Treasurer’s fiduciary duty to protect taxpayer funds.”
Banuelos added in an email the next morning that the boycott plan needed a formal legal review. Without it, “non-financial or political reasons could be interpreted” and open the office up to violations of state and city codes on public fund investments, not to mention scrutiny from federal authorities.
In his complaint, Banuelos says that on Nov. 12, Slack told him about a conversation he had with Bowen even though, per Slack, “I know I’m not supposed to be talking with them.”
Banuelos then alleges Slack relayed that he told Bowen there were objections within the treasurer’s office about the divestment plan and Bowen responded, “We aren’t actually gonna do it.”
But Conyears-Ervin did go ahead with the announcement, grabbing national headlines as well as criticism that she was pulling a political stunt for her congressional bid. Since then, the decree has led to no material change to the city’s portfolio.
The city was already not invested in U.S. Treasuries at the time, though it did hold over $200 million in those instruments within the past three years.
Meanwhile, the money market holdings that mostly earn interest from Treasury Department securities make up a $2 billion stake in the city’s portfolio, Conyears-Ervin said during the hearing. Divesting from those funds would require the City Council passing an ordinance, but she so far has not introduced such legislation.
Banuelos’ complaint adds that after Conyears-Ervin delivered her remarks, her government media manager, Denae Hill, told him “she had objected to the political nature of the Treasurer’s remarks and had been pressured by campaign operative Thomas Bowen to distribute campaign-aligned messaging through official channels.”
Hill allegedly told Banuelos she had prepared a nonpolitical version “to cover herself,” but Conyears-Ervin used a “campaign-driven version,” according to the complaint.
In his statement, Bowen said he did speak with the treasurer’s staff about the rollout, as outside advisers to elected officials are allowed to do, but denied that he was improperly dictating their duties.
“Non-government advisors routinely engage with government staff to help shape the public-facing message of elected leaders and have been doing so routinely in Illinois, in accordance with all rules and laws,” Bowen wrote. “The final policy and speech reflected the collaboration and differing opinions of staff, experts, and advisors, but was ultimately the decision of the Treasurer. It was a responsible approach to use the tools of her office.”
Other allegations Banuelos flagged in his complaint with the Illinois attorney general and Department of Justice include compliance issues that culminated in an auditor warning, on top of promoting a now-scrapped minority investment initiative for Bally’s Chicago.
He said he raised concerns in January 2025 over a minority-exclusive investment opportunity with Bally’s, the company behind Chicago’s first casino, claiming that unspecified treasurer staffers were uncomfortable with her promotional plans for it.
His complaint says Conyears-Ervin “blurred the boundary between fiduciary management and political marketing” in directing city employees to make fliers on informational sessions about the IPO, which she praised on her personal social media account as a “groundbreaking endeavor.”
The investment opportunity was deemed by the prospectus as a “highly risky” offering at the time, but Bowen pushed back in a statement and said her involvement with the Bally’s offering was within the scope of her office.
“The City Council and Mayor agreed that this investment opportunity for Black residents and women was worthy of inclusion in the Bally’s winning bid,” Bowen wrote in response to the allegations. “It was appropriate to promote the opportunity and give people who are almost never included in financial opportunities like this a chance to participate.”
Bally’s ultimately scrapped the minority requirements in April 2025 and refiled the IPO following federal lawsuits alleging the offering discriminated against white men.
And Banuelos’ complaint says that in June 2025, external auditors warned the treasurer’s office had insufficient staffing to maintain internal controls required under the city’s investment policy, but the recommended corrective action was not taken. The issues include a shift in late 2019 that “redirected all staff efforts toward public-relations and ‘economic-development’ initiatives,” he alleges.
“At internal meetings she stated: ‘This isn’t a 9-to-5 job; I expect you out and about spreading the message,’” per his complaint, which goes on to say that an expansion of her intergovernmental affairs and Financial Education and Empowerment divisions essentially “functioned as personal advance and logistics teams-handling press coordination, errands, chauffeuring, and event support.”
Banuelos was given a seven-day suspension in October after refusing what he said was unlawful work due to concerns that accounts governed by bond indentures required a comprehensive legal review before he could proceed with setting up their investments, per his complaint. He has since filed a union grievance.
Asked about these matters, Bowen in a statement wrote, “We are confident that these allegations dating back seven years do not accurately reflect on the performance of this office and its staff.”
Conyears-Ervin was first elected city treasurer in 2019. Her tenure has been dogged by ethical issues, leading to a $30,000 fine she agreed to pay last fall after the Chicago Board of Ethics found she misused taxpayer resources for personal and political purposes and improperly fired whistleblowers.
Though she agreed to pay the fine after the determination she violated the city ethics ordinance 12 times, Conyears-Ervin has denied all wrongdoing.
The Tribune’s Robert Channick contributed.
