Dolton official accused of bankruptcy fraud

Federal prosecutors leveled a bankruptcy fraud indictment Tuesday against a high-level official in the south suburb of Dolton, where Mayor Tiffany Henyard is already under fire.

Keith Freeman, 45, of Orland Park, is accused in the 11-page document of hiding his assets and sources of income before and after filing for bankruptcy in January. He has served as village administrator in Dolton since January 2022, according to the indictment.

Freeman has also served as municipality manager of Thornton Township, prosecutors say. Last July, he allegedly created an entity known as Government Staffing Advisors Inc. and opened an account for it with Coastal Community Bank.

The feds say he then stopped using a separate account at BMO Bank and moved his banking to Coastal Community.

After he filed for bankruptcy in January, Freeman allegedly only disclosed his single BMO checking account but didn’t disclose the Coastal Community account — or the money deposited there from his job at Thornton Township.

Freeman also allegedly claimed his debts totaled only $174,763 but failed to list the Village of Robbins as a creditor, depriving it of an opportunity to participate in the bankruptcy case despite a claim it had against him. The feds say Freeman failed to report his employment with Dolton and underreported his gross income as $45,186 for 2022 and $99,647 for 2023.

His gross income actually amounted to about $140,000 and $195,000, respectively, prosecutors say.

Dolton’s Board of Trustees earlier this month hired former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to lead an investigation into Henyard and allegations of “misappropriation and misspending” by her office over the past two years.

Specifically, the board tasked Lightfoot with investigating a May 2023 trip to Las Vegas by Henyard and other village employees, as well as Henyard’s allocations of federal relief funds through the American Rescue Plan Act, the hiring of contractors and making payments to vendors without approval, and paying a village attorney more than $900,000 over two years.

Henyard and Dolton Trustee Andrew Holmes were also sued this month over the alleged sexual assault of a village employee in Las Vegas.

Contributing: Sophie Sherry and Kaitlin Washburn