Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune - July 2, 2006
Andrew L. Wang, alwang@tribune.com and Lisa Black, lblack@tribune.com, Tribune staff reporters
DeChant, executive producer of the HIV Talk Radio Project, and Kim Leffert, a member of the charitable group's board of directors, improperly signed 21 checks between February 1999 and April 2004 from the HIV project's account, according to the lawsuit filed Friday.
The suit alleges that the defendants wrote the checks as payable to New World Media, a fictitious company, and deposited them into bank accounts in that name "ostensibly to conduct business on his own behalf or for his own benefit."
DeChant, Chicago host and producer of "Aware Talk Radio," could not be reached.
Leffert, also of Chicago, said she had not served on the HIV Talk Radio Project board for at least a year and was unaware of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that after investigators for Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan's office inquired, DeChant and Leffert turned over minutes to a May 1998 board meeting that showed members approved a deal with New World Media for services.
But according to affidavits from other board members, the minutes the defendants turned over "contained falsehoods and untrue statements," the suit alleges. The investigation later uncovered the actual minutes, which mentioned no arrangement with New World Media, officials said.
New World Media was a "fictitious name not registered with any state or local authority in Illinois," according to the suit.
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