Orland Man, Former Aide To Dolton Ex-Mayor Pleads Guilty To Bankruptcy Fraud: Report

ORLAND PARK, IL — A Orland Park man and former senior administrator for both the Village of Dolton and Thornton Township has pleaded guilty in a personal bankruptcy case, WGN reports.

Keith Douglas Freeman was indicted in April 2024 in connection with a bankruptcy fraud scheme involving making false statements in his bankruptcy petition to hide his assets and sources of income from creditors and a significant claim against him, Patch previously reported.

Freeman was charged with one count of bankruptcy fraud, which carried a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. He has since pleaded guilty.

His plea indicates he's cooperating with authorities, WGN reports. His plea deal dictates that his sentence be determined following his cooperation on other cases, WGN said.

According to the indictment, in January 2024, Freeman filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. The petition included a Schedules and Statement of Financial Affairs, a document in which the debtor is required to identify, among other things, all of his assets and sources of income, as well as any claims against him.

The indictment alleged that Freeman made several materially false statements and omissions in the document, including knowingly underreporting income he derived from his employment as both the Village Administrator for Dolton and the Municipality Manager for Thornton Township, as well as fees he received from his private consulting business.

Freeman also allegedly concealed that the Village of Robbins had filed a claim against him related to approximately $90,396 that Freeman received in excess of his authorized salary while he was the village administrator for Robbins, a position he held from 2017 to 2021.

Freeman also furnished the Chapter 7 Trustee with a purported copy of his 2022 individual income tax return, which represented that Freeman’s total income from employment was $45,186. The indictment states that Freeman knew he had not filed an income tax return for that year and that his actual income, which included a $100,000 salary for the Dolton position alone, substantially exceeded that amount.

Prosecutors also alleged that in late January 2024, while testifying under oath at a meeting of creditors, Freeman falsely represented that he was not an employee of Dolton and that he did not receive payment from Dolton, the indictment states. The following month, Freeman allegedly caused his pay from Dolton to be directly deposited into a recently opened bank account that he had not disclosed to the creditors or the Chapter 7 Trustee.