The city of Chicago has reached a tentative, $11.5 million agreement to settle its legal battle against the companies of a north suburban woman that city attorney’s have dubbed Chicago’s “worst landowner,” who has accrued millions of dollars in unpaid fines for hundreds of weed-strewn and garbage-filled lots across the South and West Sides.
The settlement would resolve the city’s ongoing legal claims, which are estimated at $49 million and speed up the process of selling off the vacant lots owned by the businesses of Northbrook resident Suzie B. Wilson and her sister, Swedlana Dass.
The city’s move against Wilson’s companies came after an investigation by Illinois Answers Project and Block Club Chicago revealed Wilson’s companies had racked up the most unpaid fines of any city landowner.
The city isn’t stopping at Wilson’s companies. The law department’s “special collections unit” stepped up its legal efforts against two other major debtors — QCD Financial and Goldmine Investments — which owe millions of dollars to the city in unpaid tickets. A manager of Goldmine was alleged to have previously deeded distressed properties to a homeless man after the city tried to hold him accountable for demolishing derelict buildings on the sites, according to news reports.
“We are going to pursue them just as we have Suzie Wilson because of their adverse impact on the community, their failure to comply with the law,” said Mary Richardson-Lowry, Chicago’s corporation counsel.
“We have no intention of stopping our pursuit, but ultimately this is a message to all those who would engage in similar conduct. They have to comply with the requisites of the municipal code, they have to be good stewards of properties in these communities and to the extent they fail, we plan to hold them to account.”
The settlement, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge, would mark a stunning change of fortunes for Wilson’s companies, which own more than 800 properties, often purchased through the county’s scavenger and tax sales. A recent appraisal of the Wilson’s companies’ properties, which includes some suburban lots, estimated their value at $17.8 million. What the city ultimately collects is based on how much the properties sell for, but city officials are hoping for a significant recovery.
Earlier this year, Wilson’s companies declared bankruptcy and agreed to sell their properties at auction after the city consolidated its debts and filed new lawsuits against Wilson and her companies, claiming $28.7 million in damages related to properties in Englewood and West Englewood that had become filled with tires and junk cars.
In a hearing last month, an attorney who represents Wilson’s companies, Michael Brandess, asked to extend the auction’s deadline, saying that while there’s been “incredible interest in the properties,” many of the bidders are “unsophisticated” and need help navigating the process.
In the same hearing, Wilson got rid of her personal attorneys in the case.
“We’ve paid so much money,” she said. “They’re not representing us. They’re bankrupting us all around.”
“We do not agree with this whole thing that they’re doing, this settlement. It’s crazy.”
U.S. District Court Judge Donald R. Cassling cut her off, saying “stop, stop, stop.”
Wilson has lost day-to-day control of her companies, after the bankruptcy judge appointed a chief restructuring officer in January, who was given the authority to manage the companies, guide them through bankruptcy and negotiate with the city for a possible settlement.
Wilson and the city are due in court to discuss the settlement on April 1.
Meanwhile, the city is going after two other debtors, QCD Financial and Goldmine Investments, which owe $3.8 million and $5.2 million respectively from more than 3,100 unpaid tickets. Judges granted the city’s requests to consolidate the cases against the companies, which allows the city to pursue them efficiently rather than through thousands of piecemeal court actions. The city took the same strategy against Wilson’s companies.
“At the end of the day, these individuals and these entities have been poor stewards of the properties they own and we intend the end result will be that we force them to sell those properties,” said David Holtkamp, Chicago’s deputy corporation counsel.
Separately, the city has also filed a $4.3 million lawsuit against Goldmine, managed by Grayslake-resident Keith D. Moll, and another company, Novacore, that own neighboring properties in the 7500 block of South Oglesby Avenue. Damien Garrett Chiodo, “a resident of California, North Carolina and Puerto Rico,” manages Novacore, according to the lawsuit.
In an interview, Chiodo said Novacore was dissolved between eight to 10 years ago, and he was unaware it owned the property until receiving notice of the lawsuit, which prompted them to clean up the site.
“I think you are chasing the wrong guy,” Chiodo said in an interview Wednesday. “I’m not the juicy story.”
The lawsuit alleges the lots have become an “illegal parking lot and dumping ground for abandoned vehicles and refuse.” The lawsuit notes the appearance of a “large dead tree” on the property that is “simultaneously rotting and dangling overhead.”
“The property was inspected by a lieutenant with the Chicago Fire Department and a member of the Chicago Fire Prevention Bureau who referred to the dead tree as a ‘widow maker,’” the lawsuit states. ”The moniker derives from their propensity for killing passersby and those attempting to remove them.”
The lawsuit alleges Goldmine is “one of many” shell companies created by Moll to hold properties in distressed neighborhoods.
The Chicago Tribune published a story in 2015 alleging Moll deeded several properties to a homeless person who panhandled outside his downtown office. The story said Moll deeded most of the properties to the man after the city sued Moll’s business, seeking to force the firm to pay to ”rehab, demolish or allow the city to charge the firm for the cost of tearing down the decrepit structures.”
“(He said) ‘I wanna dump a couple of houses on you. Don’t worry about it. You’re not gonna get in trouble, blah, blah, blah … sign here,’” the homeless man told the Tribune.
Moll did not respond to messages left on Wednesday afternoon.
An Illinois Answers and Block Club investigation in 2023 first identified the debts owed by Wilson’s companies, which stem from the thousands of unpaid tickets that were assessed on mostly vacant properties cluttered by uncut grass, illegal dumping and other sanitation violations. Following the publication of the story, the city’s law department formed a “special collections unit.”
The investigation by Illinois Answers and Block Club reported that Wilson had been sued twice by a Chicago resident, Tangie Woodson, who alleged that a tree growing out of one of Wilson’s company’s lots was damaging a nearby home that she bought with her mother in Englewood.
The damages cost about $35,000 to repair, and Woodson said the stress of the problem helped drive her mother, who has since died, into a nursing home.
After being briefed on the legal developments, Woodson said in a text message she was happy to see it happen.
“My mother would have loved and appreciated this,” she said.
