Tag Archives: schaumburg

Suspect in custody in case of strangled Schaumburg woman

Apr 20, 2017 | WLSAM Staff

(SCHAUMBURG) A person is in custody in connection with the strangulation of a 33-year-old woman whose body was found on Sunday in a northwest suburban Schaumburg apartment.

Officers went to the apartment Sunday in the 2600 block of Clipper Drive to check on Tiffany Thrasher, and found her body inside, according to Schaumburg police.

An autopsy Monday found she died of strangulation and her death was ruled a homicide, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

On Wednesday, police announced a male suspect was in custody in connection with the case. More information is expected to be released at a press conference Thursday morning in Schaumburg.

Police believe Thrasher was strangled and possibly sexually assaulted between 8 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday. Detectives said they believed the suspect entered Thrasher’s apartment through a ground floor window which was unlocked.

“The Detective Division is coordinating with the Major Case Assistance Team (MCAT) to further ensure all resources are being utilized in this investigation,” a statement from police said.

Police also issued a community alert to residents of the northwest suburb Tuesday afternoon and said the number of patrol officers and detectives in the area has been increased.

Anyone with information should call detectives at (847) 882-3534 or 911. Anonymous tips can be called into (847) 348-7055.

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Schaumburg contractor charged with underpaying union workers

May 19, 2016 | WLSAM Staff

(CHICAGO) The owner of a northwest suburban Schaumburg construction company has been charged with fraud for allegedly underpaying union employees and underfunding their pensions.

Joseph Lampignano, 43, of Itasca, is charged with one count of mail fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said Lampignano, co-owner of A Lamp Concrete Contractors Inc., assigned workers to government-funded road construction projects without paying them the union-negotiated wage rate. He is accused of underpaying workers by more than $1.5 million between 2008 and 2013.

Over the same period, Lampignano submitted false reports to the union’s pension and welfare funds which underreported the number of hours some of the laborers worked, according to prosecutors. These reports lowered the amount of contributions the company was required to make to the funds by more than $1 million.

Lampignano and his superintendent, 46-year-old Giovanni “John” Traversa of Bartlett, are also accused of making employees repay the company part of the settlements they received from a civil lawsuit over unpaid wages, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The company paid $545,357 to 24 employees as part of a lawsuit brought by the union, prosecutors said. Prosecutors claim Lampignano and Traversa used their positions of authority to solicit kickbacks totaling at least $64,000 from employees who received settlement funds.

The fraud charge against Lampignano is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said. Traversa was also charged with one count of making false statements to the FBI and the U.S. labor department’s inspector general’s office, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Both men are scheduled to be arraigned before U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis on May 24.

© Copyright 2016 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Head of Schaumburg health care company convicted of fraud

Apr 19, 2016 | WLSAM Staff

(CHICAGO) The head of a home health care company based in northwest suburban Schaumburg was convicted by a federal jury Friday night of more than 20 counts of Medicare fraud.

Diana Jocelyn Gumila, 46, of Streamwood was convicted after a two-week trial of 21 counts of health care fraud and three counts of making false statements in a health care matter, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Gumila was the manager of Suburban Home Physicians, which did business as Doctor at Home, according to federal prosecutors. She directed employees to perform in-home visits with patients who were physically capable of leaving their homes and were not in need of in-home treatment. She also inflated the costs incurred by Medicare by directly employees to bill the treatment at the most elevated levels, even though the visits were typically routine.

In a secret recording played at Gumila’s trial, she can be heard telling a new doctor to “paint the picture” of patients so as to make them appear confined to their homes, according to prosecutors. An email from Gumila presented to the jury also referred to a physician who did not read orders before signing them as “the type of doctor we need [b]ecause he will just do what we tell him to do,” according to the statement.

Two other defendants, Chicago physician Alan Newman and nurse James Ademiju, were previously convicted in the federal investigation into Doctor at Home, according to the statement.

Gumila is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Charles P. Kocoras on July 26. Each count of federal health care fraud is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and each false statement count carries up to a five-year sentence.

© Copyright 2016 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Schaumburg real estate executive pleads guilty to tax evasion

Mar 17, 2016 | WLSAM Staff

(CHICAGO) A northwest suburban real estate appraisal executive pleaded guilty Wednesday to failing to pay more than half a million dollars in income taxes.

William Daddono, 59, pleaded guilty to one count of willfully attempting to evade and defeat the payment of federal income tax, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Daddono, owner of Schaumburg-based Advanced Appraisal Group and American Appraisal Consultants, admitted in the plea agreement that he failed to pay taxes on more than $1.92 million from 2005 to 2010, prosecutors said.

He tried to conceal his earnings in a corporate account under the name of a defunct business he previously owned, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. His unpaid taxes amounted to more than $550,000.

Daddono, who lives in Palatine, is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman June 10 for a sentencing hearing, prosecutors said. His conviction carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum fine of either $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.

© Copyright 2016 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Schaumburg woman charged with giving daughter fatal overdose

Jun 5, 2015 | WLS-AM Staff

(SCHAUMBURG) A northwest suburban woman has been charged with murder for forcing her daughter to take a fatal overdose of various drugs last month at their Schaumburg home, according to police.

Bonnie R. Liltz, 55, is charged with first-degree murder, according to a statement from Schaumburg police.

Authorities were called about a medical emergency about 3:15 p.m. May 27 at Liltz’s home in the 1100 block of South Springinsguth Road, police said. Paramedics and officers were met by someone who had come to the house to check on the residents after they couldn’t be reached by phone.

Bonnie Liltz and her daughter, 28-year-old Courtney Liltz, were found unconscious in their beds, and officers found evidence of apparent overdoses of various medications, police said. Both women were taken to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village.

Further investigation indicated that Bonnie Liltz tried to end her daughter’s life and then commit suicide, according to police.

Courtney Liltz never regained consciousness, police said. She was pronounced brain-dead at Alexian Brothers Medical Center at 6:43 p.m. June 1, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She was removed from life support early Friday morning.

Bonnie Liltz was charged after being released from medical treatment on Thursday, police said. She was expected to appear in bond court in Rolling Meadows on Friday afternoon.

© Copyright 2015 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Man may have tried to lure children in Schaumburg

Apr 30, 2015 | WLSAM Staff

(SCHAUMBURG) Police are searching for a man who may have tried to lure two children into his vehicle Tuesday afternoon in northwest suburban Schaumburg, police said.

Police released a surveillance photo of a pickup truck thought to be involved in a possible child luring in Schaumburg. | Schaumburg Police Department
Police released a surveillance photo of a pickup truck thought to be involved in a possible child luring in Schaumburg. | Schaumburg Police Department

About 5:45 p.m., a white man in his 30s was in a parked, black pickup truck near Jaycee Park, 922 Cornell Ln., when he said to a pair of school-aged children, “You want a ride?” Schaumburg police said.

The children, who had been walking in that area, ran home, and the pickup drove off, police said.

The man was wearing a bright orange cap, police said.

Any one with information is asked to contact Schaumburg police’s Investigations Division at (847) 882-3534.

© Copyright 2015 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

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