The elected leader of the Bloomingdale, Ill., township highway commission has been charged in federal court in Chicago with taking more than $280,000 in kickbacks from an excavation company owner in exchange for approving contracts for road work that, most of the time, was never完毕。
Highway Commissioner Robert Czernek (R) was reelected twice to the position in Bloomingdale in Chicago's western suburbs after being appointed an acting commissioner in 2012. Federal prosecutors charged him in a20计数起诉with taking kickbacks from Debra Fazio, owner of Bloomingdale-based Bulldog Earth Movers Inc., over eight years, said the indictment, made public Aug. 27.
Prosecutors charged Czernek, 69, Fazio, 63; and Mario Giannini, 58, another Bulldog Excavating employee, with 14 counts of wire fraud. Fazio also faces six counts of money laundering, the indictment says, for trying to conceal the kickbacks. Czernek's attorney, Michael Monico, said he expects the case to be resolved short of trial and would not say whether his client was cooperating with the government. Attorneys for Fazio and Gianini were not reached for comment and it was not known if they were planning to enter a plea.
The indictment alleges Czernek used his position to approve more than $700,000 in payments for stone delivery, dump leveling, and storm sewer invoices submitted by contractor Bulldog Earth Movers to Bloomingdale Township, even though most of that work was never performed and Czernek was aware that it wasn't.
Czernek隐藏回扣方案,根据to the indictment, by leaving handwritten notes for Giannini hidden on Bloomingdale Township Highway Dept. property. The hidden notes were allegedly left in hallways in the township highway department building and on the ground in a construction yard.
手写笔记包括对工作的描述以及斗牛犬在其项目上花费的小时数。18luck官网根据收费文件，Fazio后来向乡镇提交了发票，该乡镇重复了Czernek的单词。
For contracts of less than $20,000 Czernek's was the sole approval necessary for the township to pay invoices.
乡镇主管也必须遵守较大的合同，但仅凭Czernek的权威就批准了所有斗牛犬发票。
该文件显示，其中一些笔记包括有关要在回扣中支付多少Czernek的详细信息。在某些发票上的雨水和垃圾场升级工作从未被斗牛犬完成。起诉书声称法齐奥（Fazio）和吉安尼尼（Giannini）通过将支票写信给已故的捷克克（Czernek）已被称为Tri-State Express的前业务来支付回扣。
The indictment was announced by John Lausch, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., special agent-in-charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. The FBI, in January, sought various records from the Bloomingdale Township Highway Dept., including its surveillance systems, Czernek’s desk calendar and “any handwritten notes describing construction, excavation and/or road work purportedly performed.”
