Kelly Heads to Jail … Best Yet to Come this September?
Blagojevich friend and fundraiser Chris Kelly today was sentenced to 37 months in prison on federal tax fraud charges related to the use of company funds to pay gambling debts.
But perhaps most interesting to Cook County taxpayers should be Kelly’s upcoming court appearance in September on “charges charged with paying an unnamed consultant $450,000 in kickbacks to get $8.5 million in inflated roofing contracts from two airlines at O’Hare International Airport.”
Kickbacks and O’Hare Airport? Hard to believe these kickbacks could’ve been arranged without the knowledge of at least somebody at City Hall…
Of course, a quick glance at the contributions from Kelly’s roofing company, BCI Commercial Roofing, shows a bunch of political cash contributed to Cook County insiders, including Mayor Daley and Alderman Ed Burke.
And is it a coincidence that Kelly’s attorney — Michael Monico — is the same attorney used by longtime political insider Ed “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak in his very own corruption trial earlier this year?
You can draw you own conclusion after reading this story of an alleged shakedown of a Hollywood movie producer involved in a deal regarding the Teachers Retirement System. According to court testimony, both Kelly and Vrdolyak (along with Stuart Levine) were connected in this plot to get cash in exchange for awarding a hefty state contract.
Nobody was charged in that specific deal, but … when the same names keep popping up together in federal court, it certainly makes you wonder.
So, while we say “goodbye” to Chris Kelly for now … he will emerge in federal court in September so we can hear more about this roofing contractor deal involving contract at Mayor Daley’s “baby” — O’Hare Airport.
(In the interest of full disclosure, we add that Vrdolyak is a longtime political opponent of Commissioner Tony Peraica, who hosts this blog. Vrdolyak was the largest single contributor to Michael LaPidus, who challenged Peraica in the Republican Primary for Lyons Township Committeeman in 2006.)
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