Former City of Rochelle Employee Charged With Fraudulently Obtaining at Least $150,000 From a Non-Profit Business Association

 ROCKFORD — A former employee of the City of Rochelle was charged today with fraudulently obtaining at least $150,000 from a non-profit business association.

SCOTT KOTESKI, 58, of Rochelle, is charged with one count of wire fraud, according to a criminal information filed in U.S. District Court in Rockford.  Arraignment has not yet been scheduled. 

The charge was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.  The Illinois State Police assisted in the investigation.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott R. Paccagnini.

According to the information, Koteski was selected by the city to sit on the board of directors of a non-profit business association that provided broadband internet technology to smaller municipalities in northern Illinois.  Starting in 2011, Koteski was selected as the treasurer of that association.  As treasurer, Koteski handled the invoicing and billing of the member municipalities, and as of February 2012 had signatory authority on the association’s bank account.  According to the information, from September 2012 through April 2018, Koteski fraudulently obtained from the association at least $150,000, which he used for his own benefit without the association’s knowledge or consent.  Koteski allegedly wrote numerous checks to himself from the association’s bank account and deposited them into his personal bank account for his personal benefit. 

Koteski concealed his acts by writing false information on the memo line to make it appear the checks were for reimbursement of personal monies Koteski spent for the association when, in fact, Koteski was not entitled to reimbursement, the information states.  In 2018, Koteski made online payments from the association’s bank account to a credit card company to pay balances on his personal credit card, and to an online loan financing company to pay balances on Koteski’s loan, the information states.

Wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.  If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal sentencing statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The public is reminded that an information is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.