In a case filed against a foreign national who had never set foot in Chicago (or the United States for that matter), a Ukrainian industrialist is facing charges related to a conspiracy to bribe an Indian official. Unfortunately, the bribe never happened and the deal fell apart. However, that has…
A Trump associate was convicted in Manhattan after he enabled Paul Manafort to get $16 million in loans in exchange for an interview for a job with the Trump Administration. Stephen Calk was convicted of financial institution bribery and conspiracy. Calk insisted that he had broken no law nor done…
Chicago Alderman Carrie Austin and her chief of staff are facing federal criminal charges alleging bribery. According to the charges, Austin brokered a deal for a multi-unit real estate development contract. Federal authorities believe that the developer offered Austin home improvements to grease her wheels. Her chief of staff was…
The son-in-law of Joseph Barrios has pled not guilty to federal bribery charges in October. 41-year-old James Weiss is accused of bribing a state representative and senator for legislation that would benefit gaming and gambling operations in Cook County. Weiss will face eight counts of bribery, fraud, mail fraud, and…
A former Chicago public school staffer has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI concerning the divulging of information related to a custodial contract to one of the bidders. Pedro Soto is accused of leaking bid information to one of the bidders and then lying about the fact to the…
While Donald Trump has recently announced that federal authorities will be unleashed in major democratic cities, by now, federal involvement in Chicago has been an ongoing fact of life for major developers and politicians for centuries. Most recently, the feds filed a criminal case against ComEd, and they are also…
Although the entrapment defense against a charge of bribery is considered to be largely ineffective by many lawyers, it is nonetheless quite capable of leading to an acquittal. For recent cases, the collapsed trial of former Representative Ray Frias has shown that it is quite possible for an effective lawyer…
The adage of “The Chicago Way” has been used to stereotype the city as a hub of crime. Bribery is a part of corruption and mismanagement, but its subtlety means that the crime is hard to prosecute. The fact that it erodes public confidence in the system means that the…
Chicago has never been able to quite shake off its sometimes unwarranted reputation as a corruption center in the USA. Take the case of a city insider who has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for taking bribes in a scandal that ironically involved jumping red light cameras. The…