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Feds say anti-drunken-driving grant money misused

Posted March 05, 2008 10:00 pm

Amanda Reavy

An owner of a Springfield advertising agency who is also a former TV newsman is accused of stealing $500,000 in federal funds intended for anti-drunken-driving billboards.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday against Robert G. Sullinger, owner of Great Plains Group LLC of Springfield.

Sullinger, 59, was paid more than $1.5 million in federal grant funds passed through the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office to produce and post billboards and posters throughout the state, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office.

The nine-count indictment charges Sullinger with submitting fraudulent invoices for the billboards from 1999 through 2004.

He also allegedly understated his profit margins for the billboards; tried to cover up the scheme by having billboard posters made after he had already billed the government for them; and lied to FBI agents during the investigation.

The indictment includes two counts of mail fraud, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

He is scheduled to appear in court March 17.

Sullinger, a reporter for WICS Channel 20 for 11 years until late 1985, did not return a message left at his home Wednesday night. Calls to Great Plains Group went to a general answering machine.

IDOT Secretary Milton Sees released a statement Wednesday indicating his agency discovered the fraud alleged in the indictment in 2004 and immediately alerted the U.S. attorney's office.

"What is particularly upsetting is that the case alleges that funds were diverted from IDOT's efforts to combat drunk driving, thus undermining our efforts to get drunk drivers off the roads and to save lives," Sees' statement says.

According to prosecutors, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration grant money was disbursed though the sheriff's office, which agreed to serve as a "pass through" for the funding but required all invoices for billboards to receive IDOT approval prior to payment. IDOT then reimbursed the sheriff's office after approved invoices were paid.

Sangamon County Administrator Ryan McCrady said the county as a whole was actually the grantee, and that the federal funds were used for a number of things, including paying overtime costs stemming from drunken driving investigations for all county police departments.

In addition to the $1.5 million in federal money that went to Sullinger through Great Plains Group for the billboards, the county paid the advertising agency $172,750 for which it was not reimbursed, the indictment says. Those funds came from the county's highway traffic safety fund, McCrady said.

The county has since filed for reimbursement for the grant expense with IDOT and is still pursuing the claim through the state's attorney's office, he added.

Sullinger presented a proposal via Great Plains to make and post anti-drunk-driving billboards, including vinyl and paper postings, in December 1998. Each fiscal year from 1999 to 2004, the indictment says, Sullinger knowingly submitted false and fraudulent invoices that overstated the amount of billboards his agency produced and posted, resulting in $500,000 worth of overpayment.

When FBI agents interviewed Sullinger in late 2005, he lied and covered up facts, the indictment charges. He also allegedly claimed that Great Plains' profit margin for the billboard displays was 15 percent, which he said was built into the invoices for production and not on the posting fees.

However, according to the indictment, the profit margin on the production costs in actuality was 500 percent to 800 percent.

In July 2006, Sullinger allegedly tried to cover up the scheme by having a Hannibal, Mo., company make billboard posters after he had already billed the government for them and received payment from IDOT and the sheriff's office.

Then, in an interview with FBI agents in early 2007, Sullinger allegedly lied in saying he told an IDOT official that he "pre-billed" the production of about 700 billboards and wanted to know what to do about the over-billing.

Amanda Reavy can be reached at (217) 788-1525.

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