Chicago not-for-profit leader charged with misusing $200,000 in state money

CHICAGO - The leader of a Chicago not-for-profit has been hit with a 15-count federal indictment alleging he misused at least $200,000 in grant money from the state of Illinois.

The indictment against Yesse Yehudah, 71, is charged with landing three grants totaling $575,000 from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity between 2013 and 2016, federal prosecutors said.

Two were meant to develop commercial properties in Dolton, and the third was intended for a weatherization jobs training program, prosecutors said. The case against Yehudah involves the not-for-profit he ran known as Fulfilling Our Responsibilities Unto Mankind, or FORUM.

The indictment describes several of alleged false statements, including when Yehudah represented to the DCEO that FORUM had spent almost all of a $100,000 grant on construction work, when, in fact, no actual construction work had begun, prosecutors said.

Yehudah, of Chicago, is charged with eight counts of bank fraud and seven counts of wire fraud.  An arraignment has not been scheduled.