IL-Gov: On Tuesday, local public radio station WBEZ, relying on an unnamed law enforcement source, reported that Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, his wife M.K. Pritzker, and his brother-in-law, Thomas Muenster, were all under federal investigation over an alleged scheme to defraud the Cook County government to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes. This same issue had dogged Pritzker's campaign last fall, but he nevertheless easily prevailed in this blue state against his deeply unpopular predecessor, Republican Bruce Rauner.
Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that in 2007, Pritzker purchased a second Chicago mansion right next to the one he lived in, though his family did not move into the new home. Instead, they let their new property fall into disrepair and disconnected and removed the toilets. The Pritzkers went on to argue that the second home was "vacant and uninhabitable," which allowed them to get a $331,000 property tax break after their attorneys convinced the Cook county's assessor's office to dramatically slash the property's value from $6.25 million to just $1.1 million.
WBEZ reports that Muenster repaid the $331,000 to the county treasurer's office after a Sun-Times story on Pritzker’s “toilet tax break” came out last October and also sent a letter to the treasurer averring that the repayment was "in no way an admission of wrongdoing." Meanwhile, Pritzker's attorney, Marc Elias, contends that "[n]either the governor nor the first lady have been contacted by law enforcement regarding the property tax appeal." Additionally, current and former employees of the county assessor's office say they haven’t been contacted by federal investigators.
A federal investigation might not be the Pritzker's only problem, though, since Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office previously disclosed it had opened its own investigation last October. However, a Foxx aide didn't confirm or deny the existence of the probe when WBEZ attempted to find out if the investigation remains active.