Results tagged “patrickfitzgerald”

Frank Castaldi of northwest suburban Prospect Heights entered a guilty plea this afternoon to federal charges stemming from the accusation that he had bilked investors out of tens of millions of dollars in a lengthy Ponzi scheme. According to court documents, Castaldi managed to convince over 450 people to give him $77 million dollars to purchase 6 month promissory notes, which Castaldi guaranteed would net a 10% - 15% return on their investment.

U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald is calling today's unsealed indictments of 36 members of three drug cartels - including two leaders of feuding cartels - "the most significant drug importation conspiracies ever charged in Chicago." The three biggest figures charged are Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman-Loera (#701 on Forbes' list of the world's richest people), Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada-Garcia, and Arturo Beltran-Leyva. The Tribune has much more background on the story and also has the actual indictments.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told attendees at the City Club of Chicago yesterday that hiring felons was a way to help fight crime. Promoting the Project Safe Neighborhoods program, which helps find paroled ex-cons jobs, Fitzgerald pointed out that participants in such corporate programs are less likely to return to jail. According to the Sun-Times' Natasha Korecki:

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who gave us the classic, "would make Lincoln roll over in his grave" line after Blago's arrest, is staying in Chicago. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin made the announcement in a letter addressed to Illinois Congressmen, saying, "...Patrick Fitzgerald has agreed to continue his service as U.S. attorney in the Northern District." Fitzgerald was confirmed in October 2001. [CBS 2]

If you wish "The Sopranos" were back on the air, tune into the John Ambrose trial. It has all the action, intrigue, betrayal and violence that the show used to have, except for one plot twist: This is all real. It's like "The Departed," if everyone hadn't died at the end of the movie and instead went to court. To get you up to speed, read below--

• 27-year-old Terry Sedlacek has been charged in the murder of Pastor Fred Winters. Sedlacek allegedly stormed into First Baptist Church of Maryville yesterday and shot Winters multiple times. Sedlacek is also charged with injuring two worshippers with a knife when they tried to restrain him after the shooting.
• Blago can't shake U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald; a federal judge has rejected the former gov's request to bump Fitzy off the case.
• Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis appeared in court to day and apologized for refusing the court order to hand over a list of all police officers who have had five or more complaints filed against them since 2000.

Just as former alderman Arenda Troutman was sentenced to four years in prison for bribery/fraud charges this week, it looks like U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is focusing his attention on another City Council member: Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th). The Sun-Times is on the case:

Image of House Impeachment Committee AP Photo/Seth Perlman

We're mesmerized by the "debate" happening in the state house right now - watch it for yourself here. One of the congressmen noted that today is Nixon's birthday and several others have compared Blago to Tricky Dick. All it takes is 60 votes of "yes" to impeach the governor and send the case to the Senate. It's going to be a long day, so let's do this quick hits style.

• The AP has a nice, simple run-down that amounts to "The Dummie's Guide to the Blagojevich Charges."
• Blago Attorney Ed Genson is trying to get U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald removed from the case, quoting Fitzy's emotional response at the press conference on Dec. 9 as proof that he's unfit to try the case. But as attorney Patrick Cotter told the Trib, "What, they want a prosecutor who thinks their client isn't guilty?"
• In spite of the request by the committee that recommended impeachment, no one will be hearing those Blago tapes anytime soon. Blago's attorney's have successfully gained more time to look into the matter and an official decision has been put off until January 23.

AP Photo/Paul Beaty

Ed Genson, attorney for embattled Governor Rod Blagojevich, has asked the State House Committee investigating Gov. Blagojevich on potential impeachment charges to issue subpoenas to several Obama staff members including Valerie Jarrett and Rahm Emanuel. State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, who is heading the committee, confirmed the request but it doesn't appear very likely it will happen as U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has already turned down a similar request by the committee claiming such interviews could hamper his criminal investigation. U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is also among those that Genson wants subpoenaed.

We should know by tomorrow whether or not U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald will allow the Illinois State House panel investigating Gov. Rod Blagojevich for impeachment to hear the original taped conversations that led to Blago's arrest. The request is, according to a letter from Fitzgerald, "still under active consideration." Fitzgerald also expressed some concern with the panel's investigation, saying that any interviews of Blago aides by the panel could "compromise" his investigation and he continues to refuse naming specific people named in the federal complaint. The panel, meanwhile, has been dismissed for the holiday and will reconvene next Monday. It's been suggested a recommendation of impeachment could come as early as the first week of January, though we're not holding our breath.

Okay, we know that the wheel of justice turns slowly, but when Mike Madigan says that he'll be working every single day except for holidays on the impeachment proceedings of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, we really expected more than 60 minutes of real reportable work. The Old Grey Lady is reporting that Federal prosecutors and Blago's defense people sat down for just an hour of hearings before adjourning til' tomorrow morning.

Former police commander Jon Burge, whose name has become synonymous in this city with police torture, was arrested this morning at his home in Tampa, Florida. He's been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, charges which carry decades of jail time if Burge is convicted.

[Peraica] lavished praise on Fitzgerald and said he only meant to emulate his corruption-busting approach.

Continue reading "Fitzgerald to Peraica: Do I Know You?"

The U.S. Attorney's office filed a report on Cook County Jail today, and their findings are horrific. According to the report, living conditions in the jail violate inmates' human rights.

The feds arrested 67 people in Chicago today for mortgage fraud. "Operation Malicious Mortgage" is trying to bust people who cost borrowers around $1 billion, according to the Justice Department. More than 400 people have been arrested nationally in 144 fraud cases, and locally, 33 people have been charged in two related schemes that involved $111 million in fraudulent loans.

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who's in desperate need of a nickname, said there's "every reason to think there are more charges to come in the future," following the arrest of 15 people, including several city employees, charged with giving and receiving bribes in the zoning department. The investigation is called "Operation Crooked Code," which is amazing.

It seems like everybody in town knows Tony Rezko's name. And why not? Besides being under federal indictment, he's a big player in Illinois politics. He's also gotten some national attention, with Former Gov. Jim Edgar musing that Rezko isn't really Obama's problem, and a photo of him with former President Bill Clinton surfacing on the Today show.

21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins accepted Jesse Jackson's endorsement for Cook County State's attorney Sunday at Jackson's South Side Rainbow/PUSH headquarters.

Sangamon County Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley ruled Wednesday that Governor Blagojevich's administration must disclose subpoenas from federal prosecutors in the ongoing investigation into state hiring. When the governor's office denied a Freedom of Information Act request for copies of the subpoenas last year, the Better Government Association, a Chicago-based government watchdog group, sued. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating charges that the Blagojevich administration traded state jobs for campaign contributions.

Former governor Jim Thompson came to the defense of the current administration this weekend, specifically on behalf of Illinois’ first lady, Patty Blagojevich. Thompson was prompted by a report on Friday that the feds have started sniffing around Mrs. Blago’s real estate deals –- deals that have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions brokering transactions for Springfield connected clients such as state contractors and contributors to her husband’s campaign. So why would...

- The Illinois Appellate Court ruled the city is not liable for negligence in the 2003 Lincoln Park porch collapse. - Hollinger Inc., the majority shareholder in Sun-Times Media Group, has taken control of the board, leading to speculation that it's stepping up efforts to sell the Bright One. - "Someone filmed a documentary about Thax Douglas?" Yup. View the trailer here. - William Heirens, the state's longest-serving prison inmate at over sixty years,...

That Mayor Daley. What a guy! When he isn't busy saving us from being the next Detroit, he's addressing the media with frustration and consternation. After a 48 - 0 vote in the council yesterday, Daley's plan to divorce the Office of Professional Standards from the Police Department was approved. As part of his new plan to "restore public confidence", Da Mare will be bringing Los Angeles attorney Ilana B.R. Rosenzweig in to be the...

Now we know why Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak kept quiet for so long about who told him CIA Agent Valerie Plame's name; he needed to save that information (at least until 2006) so he could one day publish a tell-all book. Well done, Novak, well done. Novak's book, The Prince of Darkness, (which should not be confused with the Ozzy Osbourne box set of the same name) chronicles Novak's 50 years of work as a...

Calling the sentence imposed on Lewis "Scooter" Libby "harsh" and "excessive," George W. Bush commuted the 30-month sentence on Monday. Not quite the full pardon that some conservatives wanted — he still has to pay a quarter million dollar fine and serve 2 years probation for lying under oath — it certainly left Bush open to criticism, from both sides of the congressional aisle. “He was indicted by a grand jury and convicted beyond the...

Now that Blago's $7.6 billion tax plan has crashed and burned in the state legislature, he's doing a total 180, embracing expanded gambling in Illinois to try and cope with a state budget that is in serious trouble. The legislation, backed by Emil Jones, would expanding gambling in Illinois to include three riverboat licenses for Waukegan, the south suburbs and an as-yet undetermined point within an eight-mile radius of O'Hare Airport. As part of...

Chicagoist woke up to the headline "Feds subpoena governor's campaign fund records" in the Tribune. Oh no, we thought, this can't be good for ol' G-Rod. For a governor that has seen friends indicted, had a public feud with his father in-law that has resulted in charges of gross misconduct and confirmation by prosecutors that they are looking close and hard at very real accusations of wrong doing, this news certainly can't bode well.

Chicagoist got a blast from the past yesterday when our man in Dirksen, Patrick Fitzgerald, announced the indictment of former 10th Ward Alderman Fast Eddie Vrdolyak on charges of federal fraud and bribery in connection with an alleged scheme to collect kickbacks in exchange for the sale of choice Gold Coast property. The charges allege that Vrdolyak conspired with businessman Stuart Levine to defraud the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science of the full...

A piece that ran in Sunday's Tribune got us to thinking about the ramifications of last week's election here in Chicago. Much has been made about the significance of the nine new aldermen that will take office in May, especially those that had the support of labor. Dorothy Tillman, Madeline Haithcock, and Shirley Coleman all went down, beaten by union backed candidates. Toni Foulkes in the 15th Ward, an actual union member, beat Felicia Simmons-Stoval...

The city was abuzz Saturday afternoon with the news that Chicago has made the cut to be the US Olympic Committee’s choice to host the 2016 Olympics. It’s not a done deal yet; the International Olympic Committee still has to choose a final site for the Games, but this latest adventure from Mayor Daley has certainly changed the equation. In bars and coffee shops, around dinner tables and water coolers, and yes, even here in...