Robbed Blind
That day Halperin called in the league’s auditing firm, Pandolfi, Topolski, Weiss & Company. The auditors, led by former city comptroller Ron Picur, spent three weeks combing through the league’s financial records and finally delivered some shocking news to Halperin and the board’s executive committee: over several years a longtime league employee had allegedly undertaken a systematic embezzlement totaling at least $200,000. According to Picur, the league’s annual audits failed to uncover anything because such examinations aren’t designed to ferret out fraudulent activity.
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Halperin characterizes the alleged perpetrator as someone she’d grown to trust and respect: “We had shared personal stories and confidences.” Others involved in league business say the person kept a Bible at her desk and even fasted on Wednesdays, perhaps to atone for her moral turpitude. According to sources at the league, she was confronted with the evidence and confessed to a pattern of wrongdoing that dated back at least to 1998. Halperin says the league turned over its evidence to Randall E. Mehrberg, its counsel at the law firm of Jenner & Block, who has passed it along to the state’s attorney. According to Mehrberg, state prosecutors will investigate and decide whether to press criminal charges; a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office said late last week that no charges had yet been filed.
In January 1996, Sertich was ousted as executive director after the board overruled his firing of marketing director Michael Pauken and Hot Tix manager Phil Lombard, both of whom were rehired while a search committee looked for a new director. Pauken says he doesn’t recall ever having looked at the league’s bank statements during his nine or ten months as senior staff member in charge of the office; all financial matters were handled by the league’s bookkeeper–its only remaining full-time employee–along with various board members who came in on occasion. Halperin took over as executive director on January 1, 1997. Formerly a deputy press secretary for Mayor Daley and the marketing director for the Chicago Park District, Halperin was expert in marketing and public relations, while sources say that Sertich was more adept at mundane matters of finance. Says Pauken, “They went in a 180-degree different direction when they chose Marj.”
