By Greg Halbleib and Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Indictments against five managers of the firm that used to run downtown Bloomington’s sports arena allege they came up with an elaborate plan to defraud the city and its taxpayers.
Those charged include the top two executives of Central Illinois Arena Management, John Butler, 58, of Bloomington and Bart Rogers, 47, of Morton. Also charged are three of the firm’s employees, Jay Laesch, 37, of Heyworth, Paul Grazar, 50, of Normal and Kelly Klein, 57, of Bloomington.
The allegations include charges they withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to utilities, taking cleaning supplies and equipment which the city had purchased, and disguising price discounts on concessions to avoid paying commissions to the city.
McLean County State’s Attorney Jason Chambers spoke with WJBC’s Sam Wood and discussed how, even with multiple agencies investigating, there was much work to be done.
“In this situation the investigation was done primarily by state investigators, state police and the state revenue service,” Chambers explained. “We’re going through thousands of pages of documents. It took them over a year.”
The investigation started about the time CIAM’s contract expired to run the arena that used to be known as U.S. Cellular Coliseum.
State police report Butler, Laesch and Grazar are charged with theft of goverment funds, money laundering, tax evasion and conspiracy to commit tax evasion. Butler and Laesch are also charged with tax fraud and wire fraud.
Klein is charged with theft of government funds and money laundering. Rogers is charged with theft of government funds.
Bond for Butler was set at 300-thousand dollars, while the bonds for Rogers are $100,000, Laesch $250,000, Grazar $50,000, and Klein $200,000.
The indictments were returned Wednesday and sealed until all five were taken into custody. The charges follow an investigation by State Police and the Illinois Department of Revenue that began in May 2016 after authorities were asked to investigate possible mismanagement of funds. Central Illinois Arena Management operated the arena from its opening in 2006 until mid-2016.
