GOVERNMENT CONFLICTS, CORRUPTION AND INDICTMENTS

- ILLINOIS -

Date	Individual / State Agency	Who, What, Where?
04/28/05	Apex Healthcare	Company Violates Federal Campaign Finance Laws According to PoliticalMoneyLine.com: “Apex Healthcare Inc. (IL), a company that provides claims processing services to hospitals and medical practices in the Chicago area, and its President James Chao, agreed to pay a $275,000 civil penalty for violations of federal campaign finance laws. The Federal Election Commission compliance case indicated Apex and Chao used corporate funds to reimburse $75,500 in contributions made in the names of others, as well as providing a direct $1,500 in-kind contribution. Most of the contributions ($69,500) went to the Hynes for Senate committee (D-IL). The report stated, 'Chao promised each person from whom he solicited a contribution that he would fully reimburse the contribution.”
05/09/05	Chicago city government	840 Truckloads of Asphalt Missing in Chicago In an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times of 384 street and alley repaving projects, three out of four projects used more asphalt than city engineers had estimated. Federal prosecutors say city workers stole at least a dozen truckloads from a few jobs but what happened to the rest is a question for Harry Houdini. In subsequent developments, truck driver Donald Warren has admitted that he stole 17 truckloads of the precious commodity in cahoots with a city foreman who bribed him to deliver the asphalt to private contractors. So far, 27 people have been charged in the case with 11 people negotiating plea bargains. So far, 27 people have been charged in the case with 11 people negotiating plea bargains, including a city foreman, Robert Laion, who admitted to stealing over 100 truckloads over a four-year span.
05/09/05	Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board/ Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine/ Science/Chicago Medical School board of trustees	State Official Indicted for Kickbacks, Influence Peddling and Insider Dealing Stuart P. Levine, top fund-raiser for failed Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Ryan, has been charged with fraud for accepting kickbacks, influence peddling and insider dealing with the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/Chicago Medical School board of trustees to the tune of $9.5 million, federal prosecutors stated in a 64-page indictment. Two other co-conspirators were also indicted as they took part in the schemes so their companies could obtain multimillion-dollar contracts.
05/09/05	Cook County Forest Police Department	Former Payroll Chief Pleads Guilty to Overtime Abuse The former payroll chief of the Cook County Forest Police Department, Rochelle Porter, who was active in County Board President John Stroger's 8th Ward Democratic Organization, pleaded guilty to padding timecards for unearned overtime for officers. Ten of the officers on the force are also under investigation.
05/19/05	Chicago	Political Insider Gets 10 Years James Duff, a political insider with ties to Mayor Daley and the mob, was sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined $22 million for his role in defrauding Chicago by taking city contracts meant for minorities and women.
05/20/05	GOP Chief of Staff	Former Illinois GOP Chief of Staff Indicted for Diverting Taxpayer Money The one-time chief of staff to former GOP House leader Lee Daniels was indicted for diverting taxpayer monies to finance political campaigns and for shaking down a real estate venture to support a GOP candidate. Michael Tristano was also charged with fraud, theft and extortion for directing state employees to work on state and municipal campaigns on state time. The charges against both men stemmed from a 3-year probe into Republicans misuse of state workers, cars and expense reports.
05/21/05	Chicago Dept. of Transportation	Transportation Worker Pleads Guilty to Bribes A former Chicago Department of Transportation worker pleaded guilty Friday to taking bribes to mark hired trucks as showing up to city jobs when they never did. Dennis Natale could face a year to 18 months in prison when he is sentenced July 6. He acknowledged that the hired truck was actually gone 30 to 50 times when he marked it present at work sites, authorities said.
06/21/05	Jardine Water Filtration Plant / Chicago Dept. of Water / Streets and Sanitation Dept.	The Daley Family Involved in Another Scam The city of Chicago has another incident in the tradition of the Daley family, this time involving payroll scams. The brother-in-law of Cook County Commissioner John Daley, John Briatta, was fired for participating in a payroll scam at the Jardine Water Filtration Plant. Acting on a tip, Chicago Department of Water executives reviewed surveillance tapes and found that employees were swiping each other’s cards through a gate that records their time in much the same way as a time clock. As a result of the investigation, six employees have been fired with more expected. In a separate incident, Frank Cannatello, has been indicted for bribing First Deputy Water Commissioner Donald Tomczak to keep business flowing to a firm, GNA Trucking, which is owned by his wife and daughter. Federal authorities claim that the women were nothing more than a front to obtain set aside business for women and minorities. When informed of the arrest, Mayor Richard M. Daley said, "He's just plain stupid. That's all he is." To-date, Water Commissioner Rick Rice and nine underlings have been axed from the workforce. As examples of continuing government corruption, a few weeks ago, Larry Torres was accused of having another employee clocking him into his $24.62 job at the Streets and Sanitation Department. And two top officials recently resigned over a furor about how a building permit had been issued for a condominium project in an area where residential construction was prohibited. Since we’re beating up Water Management Department, an employee and two other city workers were arrested on charges of conspiring to sell heroin. The punch line of this story is that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. called on Mayor Daley to “drain all of the sewage out of the Water Department and his entire staff.” The city wide scandal continues to grow with the news that Alderman Arenda Troutman’s family trucking company took in more than $1.1 million from the city’s Hired Truck Program, the poster child for corruption. In late June, more housecleaning continued when two commissioners exited the administration. Inspector General Alexander VrousTouris was forced to resign, and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez retired (no doubt with full benefits). One political consultant said, “This is a city that, going back to its origins, is rooted in corruption. In the early days, aldermen controlled the land in their wards. When you needed to lay gas or pipelines, you had to pay off your various aldermen. Corruption flourished under Daley’s father’s tenure, and that was the city the son inherited.”
07/16/05	Chicago	More On Chicago’s Hired Truck Program Scandal According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Fresno Transport has been accused of paying bribes to get work in the city’s scandalous Hired Trucks program, that is, after they were already thrown out of the program for lying about who owned the company. Fresno is accused of paying bribes to top city water boss Donald Tomczak to get work in the Hired Truck Program, according to court records and other sources. Fresno allegedly paid $1,800 every two weeks to a Tomczak bagman and $5,000 at Christmas. One of the key players in the scandal, Mike Tadin, was hired as a subcontractor by who knows, hired various trucking companies to work on the $67 million parking garage at Midway Airport, and obviously hired Fresno Transport. Tadin said, “Who we use on the job, as long as they're reputable and trustworthy and have good equipment, I don't see what the issue is. You don't dictate to me who I can use in my business. I know better than you about trucks.” Now here’s the classic intrigue about this situation. City officials are scrambling to cover their tail feathers with statements like, “City officials were unaware that Fresno and other former Hired Truck companies were working on the city parking garage,” and “If there's anybody on that list that's barred from doing business with the city, we'll take appropriate action.” Yeah, sure. In another incident, Richard Coveliers, a city sewer worker, pleaded guilty to secretly owning a trucking company with his wife and friend (in his sister’s name, no less) so they could do business in the Hired Truck program. The Coveliers can continue their marriage in jail. To assure work, they would pass bribes along to First Deputy Water Commissioner David Tomzcak, who is also charged in the case. To-date, twenty-eight people have been indicted and nineteen have been convicted.
08/01/05	Chicago	Hired Truck Head Gets 2 Years In Jail Angel Torres, the man in charge of Chicago’s nefarious Hired Truck program, received a 2-year jail term for pocketing more than $60,000 in bribes and shaking down trucking outfits for campaign cash. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the feds were looking to put Torres behind bars for more than six years for running a "thoroughly corrupt program." Torres also hit up trucking firms for at least $10,000 in political contributions to state Sen. Tony Munoz and the Hispanic Democratic Organization, according to court records and sources. Torres had his defenders in the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which is currently under federal investigation for illegal hiring practices based on politics, sources said. The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs went to bat for Torres when the budget office was working to remove him because he wasn't doing his job and trying to accumulate power, sources said.
08/03/05	Chicago	CTA Resists Audit of Its Finances The state legislature has mandated that the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) permit an audit of the agency’s finances and operations, but the CTA has steadfastly refused to cooperate, even though the House recently authorized a $54 million budget bailout The CTA claims they will not accomplish the audit if the CTA is required to pick up the tab. Does anyone want to bet that dozens of skeletons will fall out of the closet when the door is opened?
08/05/05	Teacher’s Retirement System (TRS)	Teacher’s Pension Fund Under Investigation According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Stuart P. Levine orchestrated schemes involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in "finder's fees" paid to consultants representing companies with which the state Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) invested or considered investing money. Levine, who was appointed and re-appointed to the TRS by two disgraced governors (Ryan and Blagojevich), was charged with attempted extortion, soliciting bribes, mail fraud and wire fraud. “This is how things are done in Illinois," the feds quoted one of the lawyers charged in the case as saying. This marks the second time in three months that the feds have identified Levine as a ringleader in complex deals to defraud state government, with Levine denying the charges. Levine and two others were indicted in May, charged in multimillion-dollar kickback schemes involving the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, on which Levine also served.
08/06/05	Chicago Park District	Dirty Hands Tending Lawns and Gardens Federal prosecutors have charged former Chicago Park District official, Shirley McMayon, with accepting bribes amounting to $120,000 in cash, free vacations, computers, and other gratuities in return for steering $8 million in Park District contracts to one firm, James Michael, Inc. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the landscape company's owner, Michael Lowecki, 45, of Libertyville, and its former controller, John Kevin Haas, 56, of Gurnee allegedly paid the bribes to McMayon. But the landscaping company didn’t lose much money. The landscaping company allegedly covered about half the bribes by submitting phony invoices to the Park District for items it never delivered.
08/10/05	Hired Truck Program	Hired Truck Head Gets 2 Years In Jail Angel Torres, the man in charge of Chicago’s nefarious Hired Truck program, received a 2-year jail term for pocketing more than $60,000 in bribes and shaking down trucking outfits for campaign cash. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the feds were looking to put Torres behind bars for more than six years for running a "thoroughly corrupt program." Torres also hit up trucking firms for at least $10,000 in political contributions to state Sen. Tony Munoz and the Hispanic Democratic Organization, according to court records and sources. Torres had his defenders in the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which is currently under federal investigation for illegal hiring practices based on politics, sources said. The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs went to bat for Torres when the budget office was working to remove him because he wasn't doing his job and trying to accumulate power, sources said.
08/15/05	Chicago Transit Authority	CTA Resists Audit of Its Finances The state legislature has mandated that the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) permit an audit of the agency’s finances and operations, but the CTA has steadfastly refused to cooperate, even though the House recently authorized a $54 million budget bailout The CTA claims they will not accomplish the audit if the CTA is required to pick up the tab. Does anyone want to bet that dozens of skeletons will fall out of the closet when the door is opened?
08/20/05	Teacher’s Retirement System	Teacher’s Pension Fund Under Investigation According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Stuart P. Levine orchestrated schemes involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in "finder's fees" paid to consultants representing companies with which the state Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) invested or considered investing money. Levine, who was appointed and re-appointed to the TRS by two disgraced governors (Ryan and Blagojevich), was charged with attempted extortion, soliciting bribes, mail fraud and wire fraud. “This is how things are done in Illinois," the feds quoted one of the lawyers charged in the case as saying. This marks the second time in three months that the feds have identified Levine as a ringleader in complex deals to defraud state government, with Levine denying the charges. Levine and two others were indicted in May, charged in multimillion-dollar kickback schemes involving the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, on which Levine also served.
08/22/05	Chicago Park District	Dirty Hands Tending Lawns and Gardens Federal prosecutors have charged former Chicago Park District official, Shirley McMayon, with accepting bribes amounting to $120,000 in cash, free vacations, computers, and other gratuities in return for steering $8 million in Park District contracts to one firm, James Michael, Inc. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the landscape company's owner, Michael Lowecki, 45, of Libertyville, and its former controller, John Kevin Haas, 56, of Gurnee allegedly paid the bribes to McMayon. But the landscaping company didn’t lose much money. The landscaping company allegedly covered about half the bribes by submitting phony invoices to the Park District for items it never delivered.
08/25/05	Chicago City Hall	47 More Workers to be Fired Chicago City Hall moved to fire 47 more workers for offenses ranging from theft, bribery and falsifying time cards to possession of drugs and driving on revoked licenses. The irony of these firings is that the offenses all occurred at the same time as prosecutors were investigating the Hired Truck scandal.
09/09/05	Water Commission	Hired Truck Bagman Sentenced to Two Years in Prison Gerald Wesolowski, Jr, the bagman who helped a top city official collect over $100,000 in bribes was sentenced to more than two years in prison for his role in the Hired Truck scandal. He was able to reduce his jail time by cooperating with federal prosecutors in prosecuting his boss, First Deputy Water Commissioner David Tomczak.
09/09/05	Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)	CTA Resists Audit of Its Finances The state legislature has mandated that the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) permit an audit of the agency’s finances and operations, but the CTA has steadfastly refused to cooperate, even though the House recently authorized a $54 million budget bailout The CTA claims they will not accomplish the audit if the CTA is required to pick up the tab. Does anyone want to bet that dozens of skeletons will fall out of the closet when the door is opened?
09/09/05	Teacher’s Retirement System (TRS)	Teacher’s Pension Fund Under Investigation According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Stuart P. Levine orchestrated schemes involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in "finder's fees" paid to consultants representing companies with which the state Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) invested or considered investing money. Levine, who was appointed and re-appointed to the TRS by two disgraced governors (Ryan and Blagojevich), was charged with attempted extortion, soliciting bribes, mail fraud and wire fraud. “This is how things are done in Illinois," the feds quoted one of the lawyers charged in the case as saying. This marks the second time in three months that the feds have identified Levine as a ringleader in complex deals to defraud state government, with Levine denying the charges. Levine and two others were indicted in May, charged in multimillion-dollar kickback schemes involving the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, on which Levine also served.
09/09/05	Chicago Park District	Dirty Hands Tending Lawns and Gardens Federal prosecutors have charged former Chicago Park District official, Shirley McMayon, with accepting bribes amounting to $120,000 in cash, free vacations, computers, and other gratuities in return for steering $8 million in Park District contracts to one firm, James Michael, Inc. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the landscape company's owner, Michael Lowecki, 45, of Libertyville, and its former controller, John Kevin Haas, 56, of Gurnee allegedly paid the bribes to McMayon. But the landscaping company didn’t lose much money. The landscaping company allegedly covered about half the bribes by submitting phony invoices to the Park District for items it never delivered.
09/09/05	Chicago	47 More Workers to be Fired Chicago City Hall moved to fire 47 more workers for offenses ranging from theft, bribery and falsifying time cards to possession of drugs and driving on revoked licenses. The irony of these firings is that the offenses all occurred at the same time as prosecutors were investigating the Hired Truck scandal.
10/01/05	Chicago	Hired Truck Bagman Sentenced to Two Years in Prison Gerald Wesolowski, Jr., the bagman who helped a top city official collect over $100,000 in bribes was sentenced to more than two years in prison for his role in the Hired Truck scandal. He was able to reduce his jail time by cooperating with federal prosecutors in prosecuting his boss, First Deputy Water Commissioner David Tomczak.
10/01/05	Aviation and Water / Streets and Sanitation	Federal Prosecutors Charge Five City Hall Employees According to the Chicago Sun-Times, federal prosecutors charged one former and four current city hall employees with taking part in a hiring scheme in which political workers were placed in jobs in city departments such as Aviation and Water, Streets and Sanitation. The former political ally of Mayor Daley, Victor Reyes, head of the Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO), was implicated in the growing hiring scandal at city hall. Robert Sorich, who was charged in July, allegedly oversaw the placement of thousands of political patronage jobs in direct violation of the federal court’s Shakman degree. The list of those being prosecuted just keeps growing in leaps and bounds. It is important to note that federal authorities are accomplishing the prosecution of potentially hundreds of people, as the corruption is most likely considered “business as usual” by Illinois authorities. Anyone want to bet that the voters in Chicago will re-elect Mayor Daley with a substantial majority proving that the citizens of Chicago are just as stupid as the average voter in New Jersey?
10/01/05	Governor’s Office	Governor Big Recipient of Pension System Contractors Governor Blagojevich has received more than $500,000 in political contributions from companies and independents who make their income from the state’s pension system, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Now technically there is nothing wrong with this “business as usual” approach to politics, but when a defendant pleaded guilty in a recent bribery case, he named names, and he accused the governor and his fund-raisers of hatching a “fund raising strategy.” This strategy provided a doorway whereby firms and independent consultants would be considered for lucrative pension-related business in exchange for political contributions. These charges are being investigated.
11/01/05	Chicago	Another City Employee Implicated in Scandal According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a $37-an-hour foreman in Chicago's scandal-ridden Water Management Department abruptly resigned this week after a co-worker placed him at the center of an investigation into overtime for sale and gambling on city time. City Hall sources said foreman of water pipe construction Tom Briatta quit before the inspector general's office could question him about the explosive allegations. Tuesday's resignation brings a 33-year career at City Hall to a close for Briatta, who was "maxed out" on his city pension. He is a distant relative by marriage of Mayor Daley's brother, Cook County Commissioner John Daley.
12/01/05	Chicago	Feds Uncover Sizable “Perks” Accepted by Chicago City Officials Has anyone noticed that most of the indictments for corruption of local and state officials are initiated by federal prosecutors and not by state legal watchdog groups? Can we therefore assume that the state legal machinery to expose corruption is perhaps “in bed” with the power structure of city and state officials? Streets and Sanitation supervisor Robert Ricciarelli pocketed cash but also negotiated a new in-ground swimming pool and airline tickets and got his wife a job with the infamous Hired Truck company. The feds (and not local jurisprudence) charged him with mail fraud for taking over $30,000 in bribes over five years from Hired Truck companies. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, it’s “business as usual” in the windy city. Ricciarelli conspired with Daniel Katalinic, a Streets and Sanitation deputy commissioner, who has pleaded guilty, John Boyle, a low-level city employee, and Angel Torres, the former head of the Hired Truck program. 37 people have been charged, with 24 guilty pleas to-date. 18 of these people have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 years probation to 7 years in the slammer. The big question is, “Will there be anyone left to run city government?”
01/01/06	Hired Trucks Program	Like Father, Like Daughter In the spirit of the holiday season, it’s joyous news indeed to hear of family togetherness. The president of a small trucking company, Commelie Peters, received the glad tidings that she’ll be joining her father in prison for their roles in the notorious Hired Truck program scandal. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Commelie Peters, the president of LR&C Truckline, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for lying to a grand jury investigating the Hired Truck scandal. Her father, Leroy Peters, was sentenced in October to 20 months in prison. Together, the father and daughter paid out more than $100,000 in bribes to keep Hired Truck business flowing to their small trucking outfit. They paid from $1,500 to $2,500 per month in bribes to a bagman for Donald Tomczak, a top city official who ran the city’s Water Department. The corruption scandal to-date reflects the following score for prosecutors: · 37 people have been charged. · 24 people have pleaded guilty including 13 city workers · 20 people have been sentenced to terms of from 3 years of probation to 7 years in prison 1 former city worker will never stand trial. He met his end when he fell off of a horse.
01/01/06	Hired Trucks Program	Hired Trucks Mole May Go Free According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Robert Ricciarelli took over $30,000 in bribes, got free construction work at his home and got his wife a “no show” job with a trucking company. Since Ricciarelli secretly cooperated with federal investigators, he may never spend a day in jail, although prosecutors have suggested that he spend “some term of imprisonment.” Now it can’t be argued that Ricciarelli, who was a member of Mayor Daley’s Hispanic Democratic Organization, was clean as a whistle in the festivities. It is well documented that he took cash and gifts from 11 trucking companies that got Hired Truck work between 1999 and 2004. The potential “Get Out Of Jail Free” card for Ricciarelli sets a very dangerous precedent for other potential law breakers, in that they can conspire in criminal enterprises but keep accurate records to use as bargaining chips in the event they are caught down the road.
01/01/06	Cook County	Ex-Con In Charge of Finances for $14 Million Jobs Program Cook County Board President John Stroger’s patronage chief, Gerald Nichols, ordered county officials to hire Shirley Glover, an ex-con, to be put in charge of finances for a $14 million federal job training and placement program, even though the program’s director wanted no part of the felon. It’s déjà vu all over again – the politicians put the fox in charge of the hen house very likely for personal gain. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, these tidbits of information came to light because Shirley has been charged with stealing more than $180,000 and organizing a continuing financial crimes enterprise. She was also accused of spending project money on lavish employee luncheons and outings and on Stroger’s campaign materials, while also funneling thousands of dollars into her personal bank account. Shirley has since resigned from her $65,000 per year job. But will she get a pension? It can’t be said that knowledge of her criminal background was not available to the county officials. Since 1998, she has accumulated 10 felony convictions for forgery, theft and robbery and related charges and has used numerous aliases to pull off her capers. As recently as last year, Glover was wanted on a felony warrant as she simultaneously pilfered the jobs program treasury. One of the best lines that was thrown out in this latest travesty is that Glover’s lawyer actually claimed that “Glover was told to lie about her criminal history when she applied for the job,” although he wouldn’t specify who told her to do that. I’ll bet his nose is about 3 feet long at this point. Obviously, county officials don’t bother performing a simple criminal background investigation before hiring, unless of course Shirley was in cahoots with crooked politicians who wanted to share in the booty. Only time will tell on that issue. But why should Illinois voters worry about the latest corruption, it didn’t come out of their treasury, for it was federal money. That is the essence of the problem with blind taxpayer ignorance. How many times have we heard voters say, “It’s OK, we didn’t pay for it. The federal government authorized the funds.” And dummies, whom do you think fills the federal pot of gold?
02/01/06	Mayor Daley’s Office	FBI Requests More Help to Prosecute Corruption In potentially a warning to the crooks within city and state government, the Chicago FBI office just added a third public corruption squad to make the unit the largest in the country, but it still isn’t enough. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has asked Washington for even more help. They must know something. Even though corruption cases hit the federal courts at a brisk pace, “there are areas we want to explore that we haven’t even gotten to yet.” Since early 2004, federal prosecutors have brought charges against 37 people tied to the scandal-ridden Hired Truck program, and the investigation mushroomed into Mayor Daley’s office, whose patronage chief in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and three other city employees were indicted for allegedly falsifying test scores so political appointees could snatch up city posts. Since that time, subpoenas have flowed out of the FBI’s offices like a snowstorm hitting state agencies, including the Department of Children and Family Services and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. As in most other corrupt states, why is it that virtually all of the prosecution for corruption stems from federal and not local or state officials? Is this because local law enforcement is connected at the hip with the political infrastructure or somehow they are in bed with the crooks?
02/01/06	Hired Truck Program	More People Charged in Infamous Hired Truck Scandal The Hit Parade of arrests and indictments related to the Hired Truck scandal in Chicago just keeps rolling along. The latest involves City Clerk James J. Laski who was charged on Friday with soliciting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and obstructing justice — making him the latest and highest-ranking public official drawn into the two-year federal probe of Chicago's scandal-ridden Hired Truck Program. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Laski took bribes from two trucking company officials and told one of them to lie to a federal grand jury to hide the payoffs. Of the 39 people charged so far in the investigation, about half were city employees. From 1998 to 2003, Laski allegedly was paid a monthly kickback to get the trucking company — which the affidavit did not name — into the program. According to court documents, Laski told the company's owner, "if I get this truck on, I want $500 a month." When the company added a second truck in 2001, Laski was paid $1,000 a month, the documents said. The bribes stopped in 2003, after federal investigators began to look into the program, the court documents said. Salvatore "Sam" Gammicchia — a Cook County employee who earned $1,000 a month as a member of the political organization Friends of James Laski — also was charged Friday with obstructing justice by threatening a witness not to speak with investigators and telling another to lie to a grand jury. Laski and Gammicchia told the trucking officials — who were cooperating with federal investigators and recording the conversations — that at least one of them should lie to a grand jury about the bribes, according to court documents. "You might do a little time," Laski told the witness.
02/01/06	Cook County Commissioner	Daley’s Brother-In-Law Charged With Bribery John Briatta, a brother-in-law to Cook County Commissioner John Daley, has been charged with taking $8,000 in bribes from a trucking company that got Hired Truck work at the Water Department where Briatta was a top official. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the indictment came 8 months after Briatta was fired from his job as chief equipment dispatcher for his involvement in another scam. To-date the “Al Capone” bandwagon of federal indictments has snagged 42 people including 25 city workers. Will there be any people left in the city of Chicago when its over?
03/01/06	Cook County Commissioner	Daley Brother-In-Law Guilty of Bribery According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the brother-in-law of Cook County Commissioner John Daley was found guilty of taking at least $5,400 in bribes to steer Hired Truck work to a trucking company. John Briatta, the brother-in-law of John Daley, the mayor’s brother, pocketed the cash while he was employed with a $100,000 salary at the city’s Water Management District. His lawyer said, “I know he feels terrible about what he’s done. He’s very ashamed that anything he did has tainted his family or extended family. Now this expression of remorse might be believable but long before he was convicted in this case, he was fired from his job after pleading guilty in another crooked scheme, a payroll scam. And how does he feel about that conviction?
04/01/06	Chicago	Laski Boyhood Friend Pleads Guilty to Bribery According to the Chicago Sun-Times, another participant in the huge Hired Truck scandal, Michael “Mick” Jones, who was a boyhood friend of disgraced former City Clerk James Laski, pleaded guilty to paying thousands of dollars in bribes to Laski and others to get two trucks into the Chicago city's Hired Truck Program. He secretly slipped pal Laski $500 a month from 1998 to 2001 after Laski used his clout to get a Jones-owned truck into the program. When Laski got in a second truck in 2001, the monthly bribe doubled, Jones admitted in a plea agreement. Jones also said he paid bribes to former Water Department employee Randy Aderman, who also is cooperating with the feds. In total, Laski accepted roughly $48,000 in bribes from Jones alone. Jones' trucking company, Get Plowed, was earning more than $100,000 a year from the city before the scheme unraveled. The most amazing part of this story is that Jones remains employed by the City Clerk's office, but will probably resign soon. His next battle will be to try to maintain his city pension. Officials said Jones should retain a pension because the bribery he admitted to was related to Jones' trucking firm -- not his city job as the chief investigator in Laski's office. The day after Jones’ guilty plea, Laski also copped a guilty plea and agreed to pay back the $48,000 he admitted he took in bribes, and to also surrender his law license. He also admitted he was obstructing justice at one point by using the coded comment of "Go, Cubs" to try to get a witness to lie to the grand jury.
05/01/06	Chicago	Just Call 800 To Report Crooks Apparently, the city of Chicago is so overwhelmed by government corruption that the mayor has set up a toll-free 800 number for citizens to call to rat out the politicians. Mayor Daley was forced to do something, anything, since his administration has been riddled with corruption. Federal investigators are crawling all over City Hall, and his former patronage chief will be tried for allegedly rigging city hiring and promotions. Newly appointed Inspector General David Hoffman created a staff of 55 people, set up an 800 hotline and created an encrypted web site Hoffman said, “For those who have information about corruption in city government, about fraud by city contractors, about misconduct by city employees, about massive waste in the system, do not fall into the trap of believing that you are powerless to make a difference.” The phone number is: 866-IG-TIPLINE (448-4754), which will be staffed from Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 8 PM. Knowing the honesty of the average politician, hopefully Hoffman will staff the hotline with at least 10,000 employees. Citizens can use the web site: www.chicagoinspectorgeneral.org, if they don’t want to be identified. But tipsters are encouraged to leave contact information for follow-up phone calls to obtain more information. Aware of Chicago’s history, the tipsters may receive a follow-up call or they may get a visit from the Godfather. Hoffman has also asked for the power to investigate aldermen, something the city council has refused over the years, probably because there would be few aldermen left in office after Hoffman completed his investigations.
05/01/06	Chicago	Former Personnel Director’s Job Was To Lie On City Forms Former City of Chicago Personnel Director Mary Jo Falcon admitted that she lied on some forms and altered others to get political workers city jobs – and she never faced the threat of being fired if she balked. She said, “Because that was my job, and that was part of the culture.” Falcon was the personnel director for the Sewers Department and later the Department of Water Management who also ran a political organization of 25 to 30 Asian Americans, mostly city workers. Falcon testified that the commissioners at the Sewers Department were all politically involved and ran their own political groups. Falcon testified that she knew she was doing something wrong by altering interview scores of city job applicants so political workers could get city jobs. But she didn't know it could amount to fraud, she said. "I'd never look at the applications to see if they were qualified or be a good fit with our department," she said.
05/01/06	Chicago	Favorite Old Chicago Tradition Kept Alive - Buying Votes In line with the good old Chicago tradition of “vote early and vote often,” in a local school board election addicts from a South Loop flophouse were paid $5 each to vote for a team of two candidates for the school board. One man said, “Everybody started putting on their clothes and going out the door,” after a man went floor-to-floor with the vote-buying offer. Witnesses described the motley crew of voters as a “smelly crew of disheveled men, some reeking of alcohol.” One voter asked the registrar where he could pick up his $5 after he had pulled the levers. The irony of this well-known ploy is it may not even be illegal in Illinois. No mention of the practice is made in the Illinois school code.
05/01/06	Hired Trucks Program	Hired Trucks Program Gets the Axe After repeated scandals in the Hired Trucks program in which it seemed that 99.9 percent of the city employees and contractors involved in the program were involved in the corruption, the city is finally canceling the program. The Hired Truck Program cost the city $38.5 million and included 425 trucks. Over the next few months, City Hall plans to buy or lease 60 trucks and add 60 drivers. Some trucking experts contend having city employees drive leased trucks is a more expensive way to go. Thanks to union concessions negotiated last year, many of the new drivers will receive "break-in" rates that call for 80 percent pay during the first year, 90 percent in year two and 100 percent in the third year of employment.
05/01/06	Chicago	Food Stamp Fraud Reaches Pinnacle In recent years, federal prosecutors in Chicago have charged 22 storeowners and employees with ripping off at least $16 million from the food-stamp program. Three went to prison. Three more got probation. One case was dismissed; the rest await trial. This fraud puts money in the hands of the poor to buy drugs and might even be helping to fund terrorism. Anti-terrorism investigators across the country are focused on some of these crooked grocers, who authorities say reap a staggering amount of cash. This electronic food-stamp program -- called Link -- was launched in Illinois in 1997 to combat rampant fraud in the paper food-stamp program. The stamps were often used illegally, as black-market currency, to buy drugs. But cheaters quickly found a way to steal from the new, electronic food-stamp system, too. A welfare recipient goes to a store with a Link card credited by the government with a dollar amount for groceries -- say, $100. The store clerk swipes the card through a government computer and takes credit for $100 in phony food sales. Then, the clerk hands $70 to the welfare recipient, keeping the rest as profit. Typically, a Link participant receives $200 to $500 a month on his or her card, depending on household size. The program does not allow a participant to use a Link card to get cash. James Barz, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecutes Link cases, said, "It's like using a high-priced ATM machine. When was the last time you went to a 7-Eleven, and the person in front of you bought $150 worth of groceries?"
08/01/06	Chicago Alderman	Former Alderman Target of Federal Probe Former Chicago Alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak, the charismatic bad boy of Chicago politics, is the target of a federal grand jury investigation. At least part of the probe is tied to his longtime friendship and business dealings with Stuart Levine, a GOP insider cooperating with the federal government in two high-profile investigations. Facing significant prison time, Levine decided in recent months to talk to investigators, sources say, and agreed to wear a wire. Sources would not say whether Levine recorded Vrdolyak, but they did say Levine has provided investigators with potentially incriminating information on Vrdolyak. Levine, who straddles Republican and Democratic administrations, could prove to be one of the biggest government witnesses in some time. He was initially appointed to the two state boards under Republicans but was reappointed by Gov. Blagojevich, a Democrat. He and Vrdolyak have had previous business dealings, sources say. After leaving Chicago politics, Vrdolyak became an attorney for the town of Cicero under former Town President Betty Loren-Maltese, who is serving a prison term for corruption. He is the godfather of Loren-Maltese's daughter. “For him to get caught up in this stage of his life is kind of bizarre," said a Democratic ward boss who asked not to be named.
08/01/06	Cook County	Cook County Changed Test Scores for Politically Connected So you want a laid back job with Cook County? Well, do you know the right people in your political circles? You do? Is your IQ over 40? Well then – you’ve got the job. County Highway Department supervisor Eric Petraitis told the Chicago Sun-Times he felt coerced by his bosses to change the low scores of clouted candidates for county jobs so they could be hired over qualified people. Petraitis had just finished marking scores for two candidates he interviewed for equipment operator two years ago. One candidate scored very well. The other, Dwayne Robinson, got the lowest score, records show. Petraitis said he got a call from Gerald Nichols, patronage chief for former Cook County Board President John Stroger. Petraitis said, "The ink wasn't dry on my paper. The phone rang. It was Gerald Nichols. He said, 'I would appreciate it if you would recommend Mr. Robinson.' He wanted me to recommend the guy that's not qualified. I just sat there, dazed, not knowing what to do. I had already filled it out." So Petraitis put away the "oral interview evaluation" form with Robinson's low scores and wrote up a new one with better ratings for Robinson -- whom he would later learn was active in Stroger's 8th Ward Democratic Organization, he said. He saved the first version, which appears with this story. Petraitis said, “Nobody has the guts to come forward, so I figured, why not have the guts? At first I was nervous, but I don't care. I'm tired of this garbage. There's good people on these lists that don't get the jobs." Good candidates being cheated out of jobs is the same point former Chicago Sewers Department official Mary Jo Falcon testified about in May. Her testimony helped convict four City Hall officials, including Mayor Daley's patronage chief. Federal authorities are investigating similar practices in Gov. Blagojevich's administration. The governor has fired two employees who he says changed scores on their own. They deny that.