Former Clerk for Chicago Transit Authority Retirement Plan Sentenced to a Year in Prison for Fraudulently Obtaining $356,000 in Plan Funds

CHICAGO — A former clerk for the Retirement Plan for Chicago Transit Authority Employees has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $356,000 in Plan funds.

AYANNA NESBITT created and obtained approval for approximately 43 fraudulent requests for the Plan to issue various benefits to CTA employees or their beneficiaries, including pension and death benefit payments, and refunds of pension contributions.  The fraudulent requests contained false representations about the purported recipients’ identities and entitlement to the payments.  Nesbitt had the payments sent to financial accounts she controlled or else had the money paid to others and then transferred to Nesbitt.  From 2019 to 2021, Nesbitt defrauded the Plan of approximately $356,934.

Nesbitt, 51, of Chicago, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a wire fraud charge.  U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly imposed the year-and-a-day sentence Tuesday after a hearing in federal court in Chicago.

The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.  The Retirement Plan for CTA Employees provided valuable assistance.

“Defendant was a public employee who abused her position to benefit herself and those close to her,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher K. Veatch argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.