Three ex-DuPage forest district employees charged in kickback scheme
SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE September 6, 2012 10:54AM
From left, Mark McDonald, David Tepper, Arif Mahmood. | Photo courtesy DuPage County State's Attorney's office
Updated: September 6, 2012 1:36PM
Three former Forest Preserve District of DuPage County employees have been charged with using their position to defraud the government out of more than $150,0000 in multiple schemes.
Mark McDonald, 53, of the 1000 block of Childs Street in Wheaton, and David Tepper, 49, of the 300 block of Franklin Avenue in River Forest, each face one count of felony theft, felony official misconduct, felony unlawful participation and felony kickbacks, according to a release from State’s Attorney Robert Berlin’s office.
Arif Mahmood, 37, of the 400 block of Greenbriar Drive in Glendale Heights, was charged with one count of felony theft and felony kickbacks, the release said.
McDonald was a Forest Preserve District director, while Tepper was a manager and Mahmood was a contractor, the state’s attorney’s office said.
The men are accused in two schemes that stole more than $100,000 from government over a six-year period.
Between July 2005 and November 2007, Integrated Design Solutions, a company co-owned by McDonald and Tepper, billed and received more than $90,000 from the district for equipment and services that were never delivered, Berlin’s office said.
In another scheme, Mahmood-owned Alamach Technologies overbilled the district for contract work performed between February 2010 and November 2011, the release said. Mahmood is also accused of subcontracting with Integrated Design Solutions and overbilling for services never rendered.
The state’s attorney’s office said McDonald and Tepper received more than $64,000 in kickbacks from the scheme.
Tepper and Mahmood were each released on bond, the state’s attorney’s office said, and are scheduled to appear in court Oct. 1. McDonald was held in DuPage County Jail Wednesday night and appeared Thursday morning in bond court, where Judge Elizabeth Sexton set his bond at $300,000. He is due in Judge Blanche Fawell’s courtroom on Sept. 20.
