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An employee of a private company contracted by the City of Chicago has pled guilty to engaging in an overbilling scheme that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s ongoing crackdown on local public corruption, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced today.

Fannie Weinshenker, 58, of Chicago Ridge, pled guilty today to one count of theft of government funds and was sentenced to three years in prison at a court hearing this morning.

Weinshenker previously worked for an industrial supply company that was awarded a contract to supply garbage bags to the City of Chicago. According to prosecutors, Weinshenker engaged in a scheme that overbilled the city by more than $180,000 on the contract.

The charges against Weinshenker are part of “Operation Cookie Jar,” the State’s Attorney’s ongoing investigative operation targeting public or government employees accused of corruption at the local level.  

"Cookie Jar continues to successfully hold accountable those people who seem to believe that they can use taxpayer funds as their own personal piggy banks," Alvarez said. "We will continue our efforts to prosecute those who share this mind set and root out corruption wherever we find it."

Under the scheme and in order to boost profits, prosecutors alleged that Weinshenker directed the companies that manufactured the garbage bags to reduce the amount of bags per box that where being supplied. At the same time, the defendant did not inform the city of the change and continued to bill them at full price for fewer bags.  The company’s suppliers became suspicious when Weinshenker directed them to leave quantity labels off of the boxes or to mislabel the boxes with a higher amount than was actually being supplied.  The State’s Attorney’s Office worked with the City of Chicago’s Inspector General to conduct the joint investigation.

Since Alvarez took office, her Special Prosecutions Bureau has prosecuted 90 defendants for public corruption offenses, including ‘Cookie Jar,’ which has focused on public employees, union officials and government contractors. Weinshenker is the 13th ‘Cookie Jar’ defendant to be convicted and the fourth to be sentenced to prison. State’s Attorney Alvarez thanked the City of Chicago’s Inspector General and Assistant State’s Attorney Russ Baker from the Public Corruption and Financial Crimes Unit for their work on the case.

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