“I’m taking responsibility for what’s happened to me,” Thompson said during a hearing this past week held by a panel of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, which will make a recommendation on a suspension, though the Illinois Supreme Court will ultimately decide.
But mostly Thompson continued, as his lawyer did during his trial last year, to try to deflect blame and deny he knowingly did anything illegal.
Thompson was convicted of income-tax fraud for claiming mortgage-interest deductions on his 2013 through 2017 tax returns for interest he never paid and lying about how much money he’d gotten from Washington Federal Bank for Savings, which federal regulators shut down in December 2017 after discovering widespread embezzlement of bank funds.
He didn’t testify during his trial. But he did at the disciplinary commission hearing, largely blaming his accountant for using bad information to prepare his tax returns.
Thompson’s lawyer Stephanie Stewart asked whether he’d put together the tax materials himself. “Never,” he answered.
That drew an objection from Scott Renfroe, a lawyer for the disciplinary commission. “This is him attempting to re-litigate” the criminal case he lost, Renfroe said — a court result that the agency is required to accept.
Then, asked by Stewart whether he should have been more careful with his income-tax returns, Thompson said, “Yes, absolutely.”
Asked what he’s doing differently now, Thompson said, “I got rid of the accounting firm.”
He said his tax returns had errors and that, “Yes, everyone is responsible for their forms.”
Thompson’s hearing came as Robert M. Kowalski, a major customer of Washington Federal, is on trial, accused of embezzling $8 million from the bank, hiding assets when he pursued bankruptcy court protection and cheating on his income taxes. He’s one of 14 people indicted in connection with the bank’s collapse.
The criminal case against Thompson centered on $219,000 he got from Washington Federal, which was ordered closed days after John Gembara, its chief executive officer and major shareholder, was found dead in a customer’s $1 million Park Ridge home.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled his death a suicide, and federal authorities have said they have determined that Gembara was a key figure in a scheme that saw tens of millions of dollars stolen or misappropriated through bogus or questionable loans.
Asked by his lawyer at the hearing Wednesday whether he knew of any wrongdoing involving Gembara and his bank, Thompson said he didn’t. Asked whether he had a personal or social relationship with Gembara, he said, “Never.”
Thompson told the disciplinary commission he’d first asked Gembara about getting a Washington Federal loan during a conversation on a golf course. He said he needed $110,000 of the money he ended up getting from the bank to put up as his stake to become an equity, or ownership, partner in a law firm he was joining: Chicago’s Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella P.C., whose late partner James Serritella was known for decades for representing the Catholic church in priest sex abuse cases.
Jeff Warren, the chairman of the law firm, was among the character witnesses Thompson had testify at his law license hearing. Warren said he “found him to be a very sophisticated strategic thinker” but that “attention to details” was not his strong suit.
Thompson — a grandson of one former mayor, the late Richard J. Daley, and nephew of another, Richard M. Daley — entered politics in 2012 by winning a seat on the board of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. In 2015, he won a Chicago City Council seat representing the 11th Ward, the Daley family’s longtime political base, centered in Bridgeport.
Warren said Thompson’s attention to politics “hurt his productivity as an attorney in our firm. As his productivity went down . . . we reduced his compensation.”
Asked by Stewart whether Thompson expressed remorse about his criminal case, Warren said: “Yes, he has. He’s very upset with himself . . . ‘I was careless, I should have read all the fine print, I signed those tax returns, my accountants put them together . . . I’m the guy left holding the bag.’
“He’s paid an enormous price for those mistakes,” Warren said.
And what about Thompson possibly returning to the firm?
“I’d be surprised if he came back,” Warren said, if Thompson regains his law license, which for now is on an interim suspension. “The practice he had” — real estate matters — “is gone. We just don’t have the work for him to do.”
Thompson, describing how his family views holding elected office as “a noble calling,” said, “I do like the political arena.”
Before his legal troubles, Thompson was seen by some as a possible future candidate for mayor. But he told the attorney disciplinary panel that higher office was never his ambition.
“No, you hear all the stories, everyone somehow thinking what I was thinking or what I wanted to do,” Thompson said.
Now, with a criminal conviction, he said, “I can’t ever again be an elected official.”
But he said he hopes to work again as an attorney so he can “rebuild my life.”
