Board of Review’s probe into bribes for tax breaks is stymied by employee’s ‘inability to recall passcode’ to county-issued cellphone

A Cook County Board of Review employee allegedly counts thousands of dollars in bribe money for lowering property assessments, according to a photograph attached to a federal affidavit obtained by the Sun-Times. The Sun-Times is not naming the employee and has pixelated his face; he is not charged. (U.S. District Court records)

An employee of the Cook County Board of Review under investigation for accepting bribes to lower property taxes stymied a law firm hired to look into the matter by refusing to be interviewed and claiming he forgot the passcode to his county-issued cellphone.

Attorneys with Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP were hired by the Board of Review in response to a Sun-Times story published last year that pulled back the curtain on a sting operation in which an individual secretly cooperating with the FBI allegedly paid the Board of Review employee cash bribes in exchange for lower property assessments.