A federal jury on Thursday convicted a Chicago businessman tangled up in a public corruption case that at times unfolded like a bad made-for-TV movie and included a wire-wearing state senator, clandestine meetings at a pancake house, bribes being dropped off at a Wendy’s restaurant, another legislator on the take, and a fake woman created by the FBI to snag the culprits.
The “movie” came to an end this week after a jury made up of seven women and five men convicted James Weiss of paying off two state legislators to pass a bill that would have helped his gaming company and then lying about his actions after federal authorities pulled him over on a busy Chicago expressway nearly four years ago.
BIDEN STEPS ONTO 2024 CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN TRUMP’S SHADOW
The jury took four hours to deliberate before finding Weiss guilty of honest services wire and mail fraud, bribery, and lying to the FBI. The scheme also involved former state Rep. Luis Arroyo, who was sentenced in March to nearly five years in prison after pleading guilty to offering a member of the Illinois Senate monthly payments to support a bill that sought to legalize sweepstakes machines.
Prosecutors said Weiss, the owner of sweepstakes firm Collage LLC and husband of former state Rep. Maria “Toni” Berrios, paid legislators tens of thousands of dollars to push a proposal that would have legalized gambling machines.
Prosecutors claimed Weiss wanted the state’s gambling expansion bill to include language legalizing sweepstakes machines, but that it was left out during the 2019 legislative session. He then agreed to pay $2,500 in monthly bribes to Arroyo and state Sen. Terry Link, who was a chief sponsor of the bill. The problem was that Link was working with the FBI in an attempt to get a break from his own federal tax conviction and taped the conversations and testified against Weiss.
Weiss’s lawyers argued that his client was paying Arroyo as a consultant and argued that trying to work with another politician was not a crime but a smart business move. They also claimed that Illinois has a long history of public corruption and that the video gaming industry, which has been opposed to Weiss’s sweepstakes machines, “had the rest of the General Assembly in its pocket,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
“This is a dirty place where the rules seem to be gray, where a contribution can be considered a bribe, a bribe a contribution,” defense attorney Illia Usharovich told the jury.
On the stand, Link walked the jury through the meetings and phone calls he had secretly recorded, including one at a Wendy’s and another at a Skokie pancake house, the drop-off site for the first $2,500 check from Weiss.
The check was made out to a fictitious associate the FBI came up with named Katherine Hunter.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Additional monthly payments made over the next six to 12 months totaled $30,000, according to prosecutors.
Weiss will be sentenced on Oct. 11 by U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger.
