You don’t want to be sitting in federal court explaining.” “Bribes come in cash because you don’t want a record. “If Jimmy wanted to bribe these people, why wouldn’t he just give them cash?” he asked the jury in his closing arguments. Usharovich also said the fact that Weiss paid the $2,500 monthly consulting fees in checks is reason enough to doubt he was bribing Arroyo and Link. Weiss to know about it, they would’ve had him at the table.” Weiss’ attorney, Ilia Usharovich, emphasized Weiss’ absence from both key meetings between Link and Arroyo in which the bribe was arranged. Weiss drove Arroyo to a diner in Skokie, then stayed in the car while Arroyo went inside and handed Link a folder containing Weiss’ business card, draft legislation to regulate sweepstakes machines, and a $2,500 check from Collage LLC that Weiss had signed with the payee line left blank.Īrroyo is now 10 months into a 57-month prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to bribing Link. And a few weeks later, Weiss cut the first of two $2,500 checks for a “friend” of Link’s named “Katherine Hunter.”īut no such person ever existed it was a name the FBI provided to Link an hour before his second meeting with Arroyo. Though Link had assured his fellow Democrat that their conversation was “you and I talking,” the 24-year veteran of Springfield had been wearing an FBI wire as part of a deal he’d cut a couple years earlier after being caught evading his taxes.Īrroyo answered Link’s question in the Wendy’s parking lot with an offer of “a monthly check, a monthly stipend” for Link or someone else of his choosing. It was there that Link asked Arroyo to step outside, and then asked the critical question. Ten months into Arroyo’s arrangement with Weiss, the two met Link for a meeting in a Highland Park Wendy’s. If you pay a public official money in exchange for an official act, it is a bribe.” “He can call himself his consultant, his lobbyist, his dentist, his therapist – it doesn’t matter.
Attorney Sean Franzblau told the jury during his closing arguments Wednesday. “He can call it whatever he wants,” Assistant U.S.
While the defense said it was a legitimate business arrangement, the government called it a bribe – and the jury agreed. Part of that campaign included bringing on Arroyo to “consult” with him for $2,500 per month. In September 2018, Weiss founded a sweepstakes machine company called Collage LLC and promptly set to work on changing state laws to fully legalize the devices, which operate in a legal gray area in Illinois. The jury deliberated for about four hours after hearing the last bit of closing arguments in the morning, following roughly four days of testimony from 13 witnesses – including Link.īefore dismissing the parties, Seeger scheduled Weiss’ sentencing for Oct. Wearing a stony expression and a black suit, Weiss took occasional sips of water from a red plastic cup while Judge Steven Seeger read the guilty verdicts on Thursday afternoon. Neither attended any of the seven-day trial. Toni Berrios, D-Chicago, making him the son-in-law of longtime former Cook County Democratic Party boss Joe Berrios. The answer to that question became central to the federal government’s case against politically connected businessman James Weiss, which ended Thursday with a jury convicting Weiss on seven counts, including bribery and lying to the FBI.įederal sentencing guidelines dictate a maximum of 20 years in prison for the most serious of the charges, though those convicted of public corruption have faced wildly different sentences. Luis Arroyo, who had been pitching him – once again – on sponsoring legislation to regulate so-called sweepstakes machines, a legally murky form of gambling. “What’s in it for me, though?” Link asked then-state Rep. Terry Link asked a question to the same effect as the fast-food giant’s former slogan. James Weiss found guilty on all seven counts of bribery, lying to FBIĬapitol News – It wasn’t quite “Where’s the beef?” but when he stepped outside a suburban Wendy’s with a fellow lawmaker on a hot August morning in 2019, then-state Sen.
0 kommentar(er)
