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An end could come this week in the five-year-old federal civil lawsuit filed against Richard Simms, the former executive director of the Kankakee River Metropolitan Agency, and his daughter.
In November 2020, KRMA and the city of Kankakee sued Simms, his daughter, Anna Simms, and the corporations they run to recoup funds the two fraudulently used to develop computer hardware they claimed as their own.
Federal authorities convicted Richard Simms in 2022.
A judge sentenced him to nine months in federal prison and two years of house arrest for stealing $2 million from the public coffers.
U.S. Bureau of Prisons records show Richard Simms was released from the bureau’s custody in September 2022.
Richard Simms, whose records show he lives in Marietta, Ohio, also was ordered to repay the approximate $1,257,000 improperly paid from Kankakee’s Environmental Services Utilities and $768,000 from KRMA from the timeframe of October 2014 to April 2018.
KRMA is the region’s wastewater treatment plant.
The agency is responsible for treating wastewater from its member municipalities: Kankakee, Bradley, Bourbonnais and Aroma Park. It also treats wastewater from Manteno and Chebanse by intergovernmental agreement.
The now 78-year-old Richard Simms also was director of Kankakee’s Environmental Services Utilities department.
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According to a recent court filing, attorneys representing each party asked Magistrate Judge Eric I. Long for an extension of settlement talks to July 31.
“Since January, the parties have been continuing to negotiate a settlement agreement that could result in the dismissal of this case,” according to the filing.
“Since the last status report in April, the parties have made substantial progress towards a settlement and have agreed to several major provisions.
“The parties continue to move towards conclusion of their settlement efforts but request an extension to July 31, 2025, in order to further pursue their efforts.”
Civil Lawsuit
The civil lawsuit was filed Nov. 24, 2020.
According to the lawsuit, KRMA seeks $769,000 that the Simmses and their companies unjustly obtained from KRMA, punitive damages, and such other and further relief as appropriate.
City of Kankakee seeks $1,257,000 that the Simmses and their companies unjustly obtained from the city, punitive damages and such other and further relief as appropriate.
According to the U.S. District Court of Illinois records, the parties involved filed a document informing the court they were in settlement talks.
During an Aug. 28, 2024, court date, U.S. District Judge Eric I. Long was administratively closing the case.
That action moves the case to a court’s inactive docket, while the court retains jurisdiction for purposes of future activities on the case, the docket entry said.
The case will be reopened when the stay is lifted. The parties are directed to provide a status report within 90 days on the status of their settlement discussions, the docket entry said.
The fraud
The federal lawsuit argues this action arises from the fraud perpetrated by Richard Simms and his daughter, Anna Simms, who associated together to cheat KRMA and the city of Kankakee and enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers.
Together with their corporations, Richard and Anna unlawfully used public money for their own benefit, and to develop and sell software and create trademarks and marketing materials to help them market their ill-gotten software, all for their own private profit, according to court records.
According to the court documents, Richard Simms and his computer software development firm, Plum Flower International LTD, submitted payment invoices totaling $2,025,000.
Plum Flower was the company run by his daughter, Anna.
Richard Simms, however, never had approval from KRMA or the ESU board of directors to spend this money for software development, as the organizations never entered into contracts with him for this purpose, court records said.
During the five-year time frame in question, Richard Simms received more than $2.5 million in salary and legitimate payments: approximately $1.1 million from KRMA and $1.6 million from ESU, according to court records.
Richard Simms registered Plum Flower in March 2014 with the state of Illinois, purportedly to develop a software application for medical companies to track medical records.
A federal investigation reported that although Richard Simms did not have board approval or contracts with his engineering firm to develop software, he submitted fraudulent and inflated invoices to KRMA and ESU for software development.
Richard Simms is accused in the civil lawsuit of circumventing KRMA’s invoice payment procedure by submitting invoices directly to its accounting firm. As a result of this practice, KRMA’s superintendent and administrative assistant did not approve or were unaware of the invoices.
Plum Flower used approximately $161,000 of the funds, federal documents showed, to pay another company to create a software application — called Eco App Pro — which they intended to sell on the open market. Most of the remaining funds were used for the personal benefit of Richard Simms, according to court documents.
Using the funds secured from KRMA by Richard Simms, Simms Engineering, Anna Simms and Plum Flower then went about paying other persons and entities to create lucrative software that Plum Flower and Simms Engineering now claim to own and have attempted to sell on the open market for private profit, according to the lawsuit.
Based on information and belief, the persons paid include individuals in foreign countries, including a software developer in St. Petersburg, Russia, named Oleg Shamin, who worked for Plum Flower from approximately November 2017 to July 2018, according to the lawsuit.