Village seeks probe of ex-official
Former ballplayer says business partner, now in prison for fraud, scammed him
A major league baseball star from the south suburbs partnered with a former village official serving time in federal prison for fraud on a doomed day care center in Hazel Crest, and officials are now asking the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to investigate, documents obtained by the Daily Southtown show.
Cornelius Clifford Floyd Jr., 48, attended Thornwood High School and South Suburban College in South Holland. He played 17 seasons as an outfielder in the big leagues for the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins, New York Mets and others. He lives in Florida and works in media as an analyst for baseball games.
Irma Holloway, 55, formerly was economic development director for Hazel Crest. She was convicted of fraud and sentenced to serve two years in a facility in Pekin, where she also is known as inmate No. 53149-424.
Floyd’s Academy was an illfated proposed day care center at 1822 W. 170th St., Hazel Crest. The front of the renovated building is decorated with cheerful, colorful letters and numbers and adorable depictions of Sesame Street and Disney characters.
“I remember when they had their grand opening,” Hazel Crest Mayor Vernard Alsberry said. “Cliff Floyd was there. They gave us a tour.”
However, it appears unlikely that caregivers will ever look after children in the brightly decorated space.
Floyd and Holloway were childhood friends in Markham, said Mikaila Hendrix, a Texasbased business consultant who works with Floyd.
“Their families were friends growing up, that’s how they know each other,” Hendrix said. “Irma had approached him a few years back about helping to build up the Hazel Crest and Harvey areas, using TIF funds to purchase homes, rehab them and then put them on the market for lowincome housing.”
TIF, or tax increment financing, is an essential tool for attracting and retaining business investment in the south suburbs. Floyd partnered with Holloway in a business venture named BTL Empire, Hendrix said. BTL is a term with British origins and means “buy to let,” or acquiring property with the intent of leasing it.
Floyd provided financing and Holloway handled permits, financial paperwork and other day-today operations, Hendrix said.
“Irma set it up,” Hendrix said. “Later on we would find out she made herself the registered agent, to act on behalf of company.”
Holloway portrayed herself as a savvy real estate entrepreneur through her own company, IRH Developments. She collected more than $1.8 million in consulting fees on financial and economic development concerns from Hazel Crest and University Park.
She represented the village during construction of its new
$5.4 million Village Hall in 2019 while her private firm simultaneously was construction manager for the work. She resigned from village employment Nov. 8, 2019, the day the Daily Southtown published a report about criminal federal fraud charges she faced.
Holloway reported Oct. 28 to the Federal Correctional Institute in Pekin, a coed facility with mediumand minimum-security wings and 1,159 inmates. She was indicted in 2018 and pleaded guilty to one count of lying to a lending institution, court records showed.
At the time of her resignation from Hazel Crest in 2019, an attorney representing Holloway said the charges she faced concerned a transaction that occurred a decade earlier. Holloway has not been charged with any crimes related to her work in Hazel Crest or University Park.
A federal judge denied Holloway’s request to delay her sentence for medical reasons, records showed. In December, two financial institutions complied with warrants that the federal court issued related to a $3.7 million civil judgment declared against Holloway.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois refused to answer questions about any potential investigation into Holloway’s assets or whether the government has recovered any funds.
“We must decline to answer your specific questions, as they pertain to matters beyond the public record,” Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, assistant U.S. attorney and public affairs officer, said in a statement in response to an inquiry.
In 2017, Floyd and Hazel Crest officials signed an agreement to develop a day care center in the property at 1822 W. 170th St., according to a copy of the document. The village advanced $100,000 to BTL Empire, representing half the estimated development costs, officials said.
“One of the goals of the village in creating the TIF District is to encourage the occupancy of vacant commercial space,” according to the agreement.
The plan was for the building to be occupied and generate tax revenue and income that BTL Empire would use to reimburse the village over the next seven years.
“The village agreed to a 50% costsharing on construction projects,” village attorney John Murphey said. “You occupy the building, you pay taxes and we forgive what we invested over a period of years. That’s what a TIF incentive is for.”
However, there were two big problems with the plan. First, BTL Empire claims Holloway diverted the funds.
“We never saw a dime of it,” Hendrix said. “It was never deposited into the BTL account. We haven’t been able to figure out what bank she went to.”
Hendrix said BTL Empire has provided information to authorities about Holloway.
Second, the property was renovated but never occupied because BTL Empire was unable to obtain a license for a day care center from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Hendrix said.
Holloway handled the negotiations with DCFS and told Floyd there were delays in obtaining the license, Hendrix said. Floyd and BTL Empire learned about the fraud case against Holloway from the Daily Southtown story, she said.
Gregory T. Mitchell, an attorney who represented Holloway in her federal fraud case, did not respond to messages requesting comment.
A DCFS representative verified that a day care license was sought for the site, but declined to discuss specifics about why the request was not granted.
The village is demanding Floyd and BTL Empire satisfy terms of the development agreement and begin repaying the $100,000.
“The village is out money,” Murphey said. “If they’re a victim, so are we. But we have an agreement with this company where they need to pay us back.”
Murphey wrote the Cook County state’s attorney’s special prosecutions bureau Feb. 9, asking for an investigation into Floyd’s allegations the money was never deposited into a BTL account, noting Halloway was in federal prison for other financial crimes unrelated to Hazel Crest.
“Nevertheless, the Village Board has determined that Ms. Holloway’s. criminal history combined with Mr. Floyd’s allegations should be fully and independently investigated, hopefully by your office,” Murphey wrote.
The unoccupied property is generating no revenue to satisfy the debt. Hendrix said that BTL Empire wants to sell the property. A church is interested in buying the property, she said.
However, the village does not want nonprofit organizations to own commercial properties in the TIF district, officials said.
“That would defeat the purpose of having a TIF district,” Murphey said.
The point of development incentives is to return properties to tax rolls and to occupy vacant commercial spaces with taxpaying businesses, not tax-exempt charities, officials said.
Hazel Crest and Homewood are defendants in a federal lawsuit filed by Markham-based Word Seed Church over village ordinances that prohibit churches from occupying buildings in commercial areas.
The church is unable to buy the property it wants in Hazel Crest. Floyd and BTL Empire are stuck with the property and unable to sell it to the church.
Floyd and his company say they are victims of Holloway. Village officials say Holloway victimized them, too.
“It’s a terrible situation,” Alsberry said.