Kevin C. Williams
WABASH CO.—A former trustee of Illinois Eastern Community Colleges and big businessman in the city of Mt. Carmel has finally been caught with his hand in the till of something he won’t be able to extract himself from as easily as he did in 2006.
That’s mainly because this is now at a federal level instead of at a state level, and David “Rollover” Rands has nothing to do with it this time.
Kevin C. Williams, 51, has been charged by the feds in a multi-count indictment (40 counts in all), alleging Wire Fraud and Money Laundering in a case that the feds say dates back to 1991 and continued to the present time. The allegations arise from a trust Williams, a CPA, created for the Spond family in 91, and subsequently abused over 20 years “in order to enrich himself” according to paperwork filed by the feds and made available today.
Williams skated around this kind of thing back in the mid-2000s when his car business, American Auto, was caught by state investigators taking payments from bank loans…but not paying off loans on cars they were trading on. One of his co-horts in that incident went to federal prison over it because of interstate banking violations. Williams, who kept all his “business” with the matter within Illinois, was charged in Wabash County circuit court. However, because then-prosecutor Chris Quick (who is now prosecutor in Lawrence County) had been a client of Williams’ CPA business in the past, there was a perceived conflict, and Quick was forced to call the appellate prosecutor’s office for assistance in handling the state Theft charges against Williams. The APO sent Rollover Rands. The matter was subsequently DISMISSED in 2006 without explanation by Rands, this after an intensive investigation over nearly two years by multiple agencies including the state police and the secretary of state’s office showed overwhelmingly that Williams had done far more than he was even charged with.
The outrage over this was palpable, particularly after detailed articles in Disclosure showed that Williams was involved in a civil suit that basically alleged the same money-laundering-type thing he’d been doing against another local businessman, Mark Wankel, with money and property Wankel was losing to Williams’ “efforts” in handling it all. The sickening dismissal prompted a lot of questions about Rands’ capability in handling crimes allegedly committed by public officials, many of which he was simply walking out of the courtroom having washed his hands of….and prompted some within different law enforcement organizations across Illinois to wonder if Rands wasn’t taking payoffs from many of these public officials.
Williams, who has apparently believed himself to be untouchable over the years due to status and money, has also escaped arrest not once, but twice, after police have attempted to bust underage drinking parties he’s hosted at his posh Mt. Carmel home for his own kids and their friends; we’ve covered those in the past as well.
We’ll outline all of it in the upcoming print version, which will begin to go on stands beginning next Tuesday; if you haven’t renewed your subscription yet, hurry and do so before Monday. If you haven’t tried the online version yet, you can do so at anytime by getting an e-Edition membership, where you’ll have access to all the print version stories and photos right here on your own computer…plus all other online material from print versions dating back to September, a great bonus at $5.99 a month. Thanks for reading!