(Countryside, IL) -- The former president of the Illinois police chiefs association and former Kankakee County sheriff deputy has admitted misusing more than 250-thousand-dollars raised for a suburban-Chicago police helicopter program.

Fifty-six-year-old Timothy Swanson of Bourbonnais had started a nonprofit and raised the money from dozens of police departments for the purpose of equipping and flying helicopters across various police jurisdictions. The program was grounded, though, when state and federal officials began to question how Swanson was using the money he raised to finance a side business he operated and to pay personal bills. He'll be sentenced in May.

Swanson entered open pleas of guilty to two-counts of mail fraud, money laundering, two-counts of tax evasion and two-counts of filing a false tax return.

The ruling handed on in U-S Federal Court.

Swanson faces up to 20 years in prison for each count of mail fraud, five years for income tax evasion, and up to three years for each count of filing a false tax return.     {Metro News source}

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