A former Monee village clerk and her husband pleaded guilty Monday to loan fraud, a year after they were arrested on charges of defrauding the government through a COVID-19 relief program.
The felony charges of wire fraud, income tax fraud, loan fraud and theft of between $500 and $10,000 were brought less than a month before an April 2025 village election in which Doneshia Codjoe challenged Monee’s incumbent mayor, Therese Bogs. Codjoe lost that challenge in a landslide, with Bogs receiving 91.5% of the vote, according to Will County’s election results, and Michelle Powell-Jackson took over as village clerk.
After losing the race, Codjoe wrote in a social media post that she stayed true to herself while “attacks came from every angle and pure hate was shown.”
“I will continue to endure, til the end!” she wrote. “I slept last night as I was at PEACE. I’m still SMILING! I’m not bitter, I’m BETTER.”
Codjoe pleaded guilty to loan fraud of between $500 and $10,000, a Class 3 felony, while her husband, Ebeneezer Codjoe, pleaded guilty to loan fraud of between $10,000 and $100,000, a Class 2 felony. In exchange, all other charges were dismissed, according to Will County court records.
Both were sentenced to two years of probation, with Doneshia Codjoe qualifying for Illinois’ second chance probation program, which allows first-time, nonviolent offenders to avoid a felony conviction for certain charges, the Will County state’s attorney’s office said.
She also owed the court about $9,000 in restitution, which she has since paid, and $1,050 in other costs and fines. Ebeneezer Codjoe owes about $21,000 in restitution, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Illinois State Police in 2022 launched an investigation into the couple, who allegedly separately took out business loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program in May 2021 by misrepresenting the businesses’ finances.
Ebenezer Codjoe allegedly received a loan of about $21,000 for Father and Sons Grassheads by falsely stating the nonprofit company had seven employees, gross revenues of about $25,000 and operation costs of $4,500 in the previous year, the criminal indictment filed by the state’s attorney’s office alleged.
Doneshia Codjoe similarly received about $9,000 by falsely claiming Cili By Design made about $42,000 the previous year, the complaint said.
Both Doneshia and Ebenezer Codjoe were able to get the loans forgiven by claiming most of the money covered payroll costs, according to the complaint.
Neither Codjoe nor the attorney representing the couple responded to requests for comment Thursday.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
