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November 11, 2024

Former IL Senator Sam McCann Federally Indicted For His Use of Campaign Funds –

By John Kraft & Kirk Allen

On February 3, 2021

Springfield, IL. (ECWd) –

We first reported on illegal donations to McCann’s Campaign in July of 2016, and again the following day after we learned he received campaign donations from a County-owned Hospital.

Press Release

Former Illinois State Senator, Gubernatorial Candidate Sam McCann Indicted for Alleged Fraudulent Use of Campaign Funds, Money Laundering, Tax Evasion

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A grand jury today indicted former Illinois State Senator Sam McCann on charges of fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion related to his alleged misuse of campaign money for personal expenses. The indictment alleges that from May 2015 to June 2020, McCann engaged in a scheme to convert more than $200,000 in contributions and donations made to his campaign committees to pay himself and make personal purchases, and that he concealed his fraud from donors, the public, the Illinois State Board of Elections and law enforcement authorities.

The indictment was announced by Central District of Illinois U.S. Attorney John C. Milhiser; FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean M. Cox, Springfield Division; and, IRS Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge David Talcott, St. Louis Field Office.

William Samuel McCann, Jr., 51, of Plainview, Ill., served as a state senator for the 49th District of Illinois from 2011 to 2013, and for the redrawn 50th District from 2013 to January 2019. McCann formed the Conservative Party of Illinois and in 2018, launched an unsuccessful bid for Illinois Governor. McCann previously lived in Carlinville, Ill., and owned and operated two construction related businesses.

McCann organized multiple political committees that were registered with the Illinois State Board of Elections: Sam McCann for Senate; Sam McCann for Senate Committee; McCann for Illinois; and, Conservative Party of Illinois. According to the indictment, from April 2011 to November 2018, McCann and his political committees received more than $5 million in campaign donations.

The indictment alleges multiple instances when McCann used campaign funds to purchase personal vehicles, pay personal debts, make mortgage payments, and pay himself, including the following:

  • McCann allegedly used more than $60,000 in campaign funds to partially fund the purchases of a 2017 Ford Expedition in April 2017 and a 2018 Ford F-250 truck in July 2018, which he titled in his own name and used for his personal travel. McCann then used campaign funds for loan payments on the F-250 and for fuel and insurance expenses for both vehicles, while at the same time using campaign funds to reimburse mileage expense claims which he did not incur.
  • In April 2018, McCann allegedly used $18,000 in campaign funds to purchase a 2018 recreational travel trailer, and in May 2018, used $25,000 in campaign funds to buy a 2006 recreational motor home, both of which McCann titled in his personal name.
    McCann established an online account with a recreational vehicle rental business in Ohio and listed the vehicles for rent identifying Sam McCann as the owner. McCann then established a second account with the same rental business and identified himself as William McCann, a potential renter, with a different residential address and email than those he listed as the owner. From approximately May 2018 to June 2018, McCann, while representing himself as the renter, William, rented both the travel trailer and motor home from Sam, the owner, through the RV rental business. McCann caused a total of approximately $62,666 in campaign funds be used to pay the rental cost of the vehicles. The rental business retained approximately $9,838 for commission and paid McCann, as the owner, approximately $52,827 by direct deposit to McCann’s personal checking account. McCann reimbursed the campaign accounts $18,000, resulting in more than $77,000 in campaign funds used to buy and rent from himself.
  • On or about Oct. 4, 2016, McCann allegedly used a $20,000 cashier’s check funded by a campaign account and issued to himself to pay off a personal loan, including legal fees, that had originally been issued to him as an equipment loan in 2011 and was in collection by the bank due to non-payment.
  • From May 2015 to August 2020, McCann allegedly used campaign funds to pay approximately $64,750 on two separate personal mortgage loans that were secured by his former residence in Carlinville and an adjoining property used as an office for his construction business.
  • In November 2018, after an unsuccessful campaign for Governor of Illinois, when he was no longer a candidate for office and did not financially support any other candidate, and continuing to June 2020, McCann allegedly caused the Conservative Party of Illinois to issue approximately $187,000 in payments to himself personally and an additional $52,282 in payments for payroll taxes. Using a payroll service, McCann was allegedly able to conceal himself as the payee for the expenditures from the campaign account.
  • The indictment also alleges that approximately $50,000 in campaign funds were used for personal expenses including Green Dot credit card payments related to a family vacation in Colorado and other personal expenses, charges from Apple iTunes, Amazon, a skeet and trap club, Cabela’s, Scheels, Best Buy, a gun store, and cash withdrawals.

In addition to wire fraud and money laundering, the indictment charges McCann with one count of tax evasion related to his joint return for calendar year 2018. McCann allegedly failed to report income from his 2018 rental payments to himself for the RV trailer and motor home. In addition, in March 2018, McCann used a $10,000 check issued by a campaign account to make a down payment to a Shipman, Ill., business for a motor home. When the purchase was not completed, the business issued a $10,000 refund check payable to William McCann, which he deposited to his personal checking account and failed to report as income received.

McCann is scheduled to appear via telephone conference on Feb. 16, 2021, at 2:00 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tom Schanzle-Haskins for arraignment.

For the period of the alleged fraud scheme, from May 2015 to June 2020, the estimated loss is more than $200,000. If convicted, the statutory penalty for each count of wire fraud (seven counts) and one count of money laundering is up to 20 years in prison. For tax evasion, the statutory penalty is up to five years in prison.

The charges are the result of investigation by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy A. Bass is representing the government in the prosecution.

Members of the public are reminded that an indictment is merely an accusation; the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

mccann_efiled_indictment_doc_1

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4 Comments
  • Greg
    Posted at 09:14h, 08 February

    These legislators are ALL corrupt in one way or another! Sam got caught! He’ll do his time in the barrel ! Boss Madigan’s time is coming!

  • Sam McCann is Corrupt
    Posted at 04:32h, 07 February

    I abhor all political corruption regardless of the party of the perpetrator. Former State Senator Sam McCann is a Republican and I typically vote Republican, but that won’t stop me from calling him out and hoping that he receives an appropriate and severe punishment for his corruption.

    I knew there was something wrong with McCann in 2018 when he ran for governor under the Conservative Party of Illinois, which he formed.

    I received several campaign fliers from McCann encouraging me to vote for Democrat Monica Bristow over Republican Mike Babcock for state representative for the 111th District.

    I thought that it was strange that a Republican state senator who was running for governor under the so-called Conservative Party of Illinois would be campaigning for a Democrat and against a fellow Republican.

    I always wondered if perhaps McCann was corrupt and the Democratic Party or Mike Madigan paid him under the table to campaign for Democrats and against Republicans.

    There is also the obvious fact that he was running for governor against then Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner. As McCann was running as a conservative, he acted as a spoiler who syphoned votes away from Rauner.

    Rauner was already weak with conservative voters due to his support for taxpayer subsidized abortion among other concerns.

    It warrants investigation to determine if there was a corrupt deal between McCann and the Democrats that enticed McCann to campaign against Babcock and run against Rauner.

  • GW ONE
    Posted at 19:48h, 04 February

    If Mr. McCann has been indicted, why not former House Speaker Mike Madigan?
    Madigan bankrupt Illinois and left State Pensions under funded. Face it, many Illinois Governs have spent time in federal prison. Is Madigan so powerful that gets a “pass?”

    • PK
      Posted at 13:37h, 05 February

      Surely, former Speaker Madigan’s claim that he did nothing wrong when pressed by indictments over Com-Ed discounts his role in causing droves of people to leave for greener pastures. As a key spokesperson for instituting the Illinois State Lottery, he has most certainly failed to deliver!

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