Simms pleads guilty to fraud

KANKAKEE — The former executive director of the region's wastewater treatment plant and Kankakee's Environmental Services Utilities department has entered a guilty plea to a federal fraud charge.

Richard Simms, formerly of Kankakee and currently a resident of Marietta, Ohio, will be sentenced at a 2:30 p.m. June 28 hearing in U.S. District Court in Urbana.

The guilty plea was entered Monday.

He is eligible for a federal prison sentence ranging from 30 to 37 months and to repay the approximate $1,257,000 paid from the ESU and $768,000 from Kankakee River Metropolitan Agency, the region's wastewater treatment plant, from the timeframe of October 2014 to April 2018. ESU is the Kankakee department which oversees Kankakee's public works and sewer system.

Simms, 73, who retired from these positions in April 2018, also agreed to three years of supervised release in the plea deal.

Read more: https://www.daily-journal.com/news/local/simms-pleads-guilty-to-fraud/article_67099e26-7b76-11eb-ba57-0f7a194ef477.html
(Kankakee Daily-Journal)