Feds Investigating Parking Meter Executive For Bribery
By Jim Bochnowski in News on Jun 18, 2015 2:25PM
After successfully building a bribery case against the executive responsible for bringing red light cameras to the city, federal investigators are now building a case against a LAZ Parking executive.
The parking meters were a bit of a disaster when originally installed, and it turns out the problem goes much deeper than non-functional machines. This past February, FBI agents filed an affidavit for a search warrant to access email accounts of a LAZ Parking executive who allegedly received $90,000 in bribes to steer contracts for parking meters, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. According to the affidavit, the LAZ executive, who is not named because no charges have been filed, met with the CEO of a "company that landed a contract to supply parking meters to Chicago Parking Meters LLC" around 2008, when Chicago began its plan to privatize parking meters.
The CEO allegedly offered as much as $90,000 in bribe payments to the LAZ executive for insider information about the "criteria used to pick a supplier" and assistance in landing the contract. A three member panel, which included the executive, ended up selecting the CEO's company to install and supply parking meters throughout the city.
The affidavit also alleges that the LAZ executive's wife created a shell corporation in 2009 to receive the bribes. The wife allegedly asked the CEO for more money in 2011, prompting the CEO to allegedly write back "Obviously I am making this statement because the fee issued last year in my opinion is quite fair as a full payment." The CEO also complained that the contract ended up not being as lucrative as once believed.