Editor's note: This Shark would love to see undercover FBI agents in the Probate Court of Cook County...a treasure trove of corruption. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
3 years probation in federal grant kickback scheme
Dean Nichols of Oak Park was one of seven people charged in 2012 with bribery conspiracy as part of a kickback scheme to get federal grants. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune / July 17, 2012)
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When it came to paying illegal kickbacks, Dean Nichols thought that stuffing cash in an envelope was a little too obvious. “When I do something like that, I do it in a folder,” Nichols, the onetime campaign treasurer for former state Sen. Rickey Hendon, was quoted in court records as telling an undercover informant in 2011. “You know, because people don’t see it in a folder...You see it an envelope, you know it’s -- You know what I’m trying to say?”
On Friday, federal prosecutors tried to use that secret recording and others to argue that Nichols, 63, deserved up to 5 years in prison for his role in a kickback scheme to influence thousands of dollars in federal grants. But U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur instead sentenced the savvy political insider to 3 years of probation and 600 hours of community service, saying he agreed with the defense that prosecutors vastly overestimated the money Nichols stood to gain in the scheme.
Nichols’ hands shook as he read from a sheet of paper and apologized to his wife and daughters for “trying to make a bad thing good.” Asked if he had anything else to say, Nichols turned to his co-defendant, Anthony Johnson, and said he was sorry for bringing him into the scheme.
Johnson, 61, was also sentenced Friday by Shadur to 3 years of probation. Both had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe a public official.
The two were among seven defendants caught in an FBI sting that began when corrupt Chicago police Officer Ali Haleem -- who was working undercover with authorities because of his own federal troubles -- approached Nichols, his longtime friend. Haleem claimed to have a corrupt federal Health and Human Services Department contact who he said was passing out $25,000 grants “like candy.”
Haleem led Nichols and the others to believe they could obtain the grants by paying $5,000 in kickbacks to the HHS official and a private contractor who solicited grant recipients. The contractor was actually an undercover FBI agent and the HHS official was fictional, prosecutors said. Nichols admitted in his plea agreement he submitted five grant applications, including one for Johnson's organization, Children at Risk.
Nichols planned to parlay his contacts with Hendon’s office into “a pipeline” of future grants, prosecutors said. In one recorded conversation, he gushed about how the windfall might allow him to purchase a summer home in Michigan.
Nichols also introduced Haleem to insiders at the Cook County Board of Review, sparking a separate investigation that led to charges against two analysts.
Nichols’ attorney, Mark Rotert, said the investigation was never about going after Nichols but “the people whom he knows.”
Hendon, who abruptly quit the Senate in February 2011, has not been charged with wrongdoing.
jmeisner@tribune.com
On Friday, federal prosecutors tried to use that secret recording and others to argue that Nichols, 63, deserved up to 5 years in prison for his role in a kickback scheme to influence thousands of dollars in federal grants. But U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur instead sentenced the savvy political insider to 3 years of probation and 600 hours of community service, saying he agreed with the defense that prosecutors vastly overestimated the money Nichols stood to gain in the scheme.
Nichols’ hands shook as he read from a sheet of paper and apologized to his wife and daughters for “trying to make a bad thing good.” Asked if he had anything else to say, Nichols turned to his co-defendant, Anthony Johnson, and said he was sorry for bringing him into the scheme.
Johnson, 61, was also sentenced Friday by Shadur to 3 years of probation. Both had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe a public official.
The two were among seven defendants caught in an FBI sting that began when corrupt Chicago police Officer Ali Haleem -- who was working undercover with authorities because of his own federal troubles -- approached Nichols, his longtime friend. Haleem claimed to have a corrupt federal Health and Human Services Department contact who he said was passing out $25,000 grants “like candy.”
Haleem led Nichols and the others to believe they could obtain the grants by paying $5,000 in kickbacks to the HHS official and a private contractor who solicited grant recipients. The contractor was actually an undercover FBI agent and the HHS official was fictional, prosecutors said. Nichols admitted in his plea agreement he submitted five grant applications, including one for Johnson's organization, Children at Risk.
Nichols planned to parlay his contacts with Hendon’s office into “a pipeline” of future grants, prosecutors said. In one recorded conversation, he gushed about how the windfall might allow him to purchase a summer home in Michigan.
Nichols also introduced Haleem to insiders at the Cook County Board of Review, sparking a separate investigation that led to charges against two analysts.
Nichols’ attorney, Mark Rotert, said the investigation was never about going after Nichols but “the people whom he knows.”
Hendon, who abruptly quit the Senate in February 2011, has not been charged with wrongdoing.
jmeisner@tribune.com
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