Forensic review finds no obvious fraud but flags large transfers and accounting gaps in Villa Park finances

Baker Tilly told the Villa Park Village Board on March 9 that its interim forensic accounting review found no clear evidence of fraud but left several open questions about how some funds were recorded and reconciled.

"Based on our midpoint so far with our interim results, there weren't any red flags in the accounting data and financial transactions," Michael Articlio, senior manager and project lead for Baker Tilly, told trustees during a remote briefing. He said the firm reviewed five years of vendor payments, employee credit card expenses, payroll records and bank transactions and used 2025 check images as a cross‑reference sample.

Trustees pressed whether the check‑image sample was sufficient. "We looked at every payment that your village made for five years," Articlio said, but added that only the 2025 check images were used for image cross‑reference because earlier images were not yet available; he said Baker Tilly can review earlier check images if the village provides them.

Why it matters: trustees said their principal concerns center on earlier years when pension liabilities and other long‑running errors first emerged. "I'm concerned about the years prior to 2025 because that's where the pensions weren't paid," Trustee Kumar said, asking for a broader five‑year review and trend analyses to support future planning.

Open items that Baker Tilly flagged include reconciliation between the village's budget and pension‑fund entries, and a set of transactions labeled as a trust transfer. Articlio said the firm is awaiting additional documents to complete those items: "We want to show you the money that actually went from the county tax revenue — those funds went directly to the pension funds," he said, and added that Baker Tilly is still gathering county tax revenue statements and pension statements to confirm flows and posting.

Articlio also advised the board that insurance premiums continued to be paid after some employees left, representing an estimated loss to the village "of about $100,000"; he offered to provide an exact figure after confirming the detailed calculation.

A separate large bookkeeping question remains unresolved: Baker Tilly identified a US Bank credit that was labeled internally as '777' and categorized as a trust incoming transfer to the village's BMO account for roughly $70,000,000. "That is an incoming credit," Articlio said, "and we're yet to receive confirmation from the finance director on what exactly that is." He characterized the '777' code as an internal identifier and said the firm had removed the code label for clarity while awaiting validation.

Village Manager Bridal (who was introduced earlier in the meeting) told trustees that property tax receipts are posted first to the village's Illinois Funds account and then transferred into the BMO disbursement account to pay bills; she said that pattern explains many transfers but that she would review five years of specific transactions to confirm the trust entries. "From my perspective, for the few transactions I looked at, those are transfers from the Illinois Funds account into our disbursement account," she said.

The board also discussed a separate proposal for a detailed contract and budget review of the Lions Park Recreation Center, which trustees said ran materially over the originally budgeted amount. Baker Tilly said contract‑level, construction‑project reviews were not included in the forensic scope it was originally engaged to perform but that the firm could perform such a review as a separate engagement.

Auditor Melissa Junitinen of Lauterbach and Amen said her audit team was proceeding with the 2024 financial audit and expected to finalize it in the coming weeks; she explained that the firm had delayed issuing an audit opinion until it was comfortable with the forensic work's results because the forensic review overlapped the financial period under audit.

Several trustees asked Baker Tilly for additional analyses the firm can perform without reopening the entire engagement — including expanded trend analyses of payroll and vendor payments and, if the board wants, a deeper check‑image review for 2020–2024. Articlio said the project remains open for follow‑up requests and that the firm can perform further analyses now that it has assembled the dataset.

The board closed the public‑comment period after one resident urged faster answers, then unanimously approved a motion to adjourn at 6:55 p.m.

What comes next: Baker Tilly plans a follow‑up briefing after it receives outstanding bank and pension statements; the board directed staff to provide earlier check images and asked the village manager to produce the five‑year transaction review for the Illinois Funds transfers. The Lions Park contract review remains a separate, pending scope request.