Although paying employees may have been necessary in the very beginning of the pandemic, the CTA's payment for no work continued week after week for five years. No justifiable reason for this continued payment was provided in any CTA documents or by any of the relevant CTA employees interviewed.
"By doing so, Kobata and Ghysels were able to please the superintendent by providing him with additional, misappropriated funds for use in purchasing luxuries such as retained massage therapists, expensive Cuban cigars, expensive food and travel, etc.," Facciano's lawyer, Stanley Apps, said in the brief.