While everyone was focused on Blago yesterday there was some more important news coming out of the US Attorneys office that is getting closer to the the epicenter of Chicago Corruption. The strange twist is the Russian connection that permeates through what is going on in Chicago with ties to real estate development and all levels of government.
BELOW IS A COMPILATION OF REPORTS THAT TELL THE STORY
Between 2002 and 2009, Patrick Daley (shown in May) was paid more than $1.2 million by Cardinal Growth L.P. and its general partner, Cardinal Growth LLC. | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times
Federal government takes over fund with ties to Daley’s son, Patrick
June 27, 2011
A Chicago venture capital fund whose projects paid more than $1.2 million to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s son has been taken over by the federal government, which says the fund owes taxpayers $21.4 million.
Cardinal Growth L.P. — which was run by attorney and former federal prosecutor Robert Bobb Jr. and accountant Joseph McInerney, a close friend of Daley’s son, Patrick Daley — borrowed nearly $51 million from the U.S. Small Business Administration over the past decade but has been unable to repay $21.4 million, court records show.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald filed the civil lawsuit on behalf of the federal agency on June 15. The SBA is seeking to liquidate Cardinal Growth L.P. because of mounting losses that threaten the fund’s ability to repay the taxpayer money it got from the agency.
Cardinal Growth L.P. used some of the money it got from the SBA to invest in Municipal Sewer Services, a sewer-inspection and cleaning company that later won more than $4 million in no-bid contract extensions from City Hall.
Patrick Daley and his cousin, Robert G. Vanecko, also invested in the sewer company, which failed to disclose their ownership stake, as required under city regulations.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Former Mayor Daley’s son profited after airport Wi-Fi deal
June 6, 2011
Over the next 17 months, with Daley now serving in the U.S. Army, he got four more payments resulting from the sale, totaling $544,210, the documents show, for a total of $708,999.
Shortly after Patrick Daley received the last of those payments, his father’s City Hall press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard, told a Sun-Times reporter in a Dec. 3, 2007, interview, that
Patrick Daley “has no financial interest with the Wi-Fi contract at O’Hare.”
Patrick Daley’s Wi-Fi windfall was part of $1.2 million he was paid as a result of deals he had with Cardinal Growth, a Chicago venture-capital firm that invested in Concourse and other businesses. Among those businesses was a sewer-inspection company that got millions of dollars in no-bid city-contract extensions.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
The Daley family is hiding family in other countries while they wait for favorable legal rulings. Mayor Daley is hiding Patrick Daley in Russia after Patrick Daley served his country in sensitive positions in the U.S. Army.
http://www.chicagoclout.com/...
February 09, 2010
Patrick Daley was living in Moscow when he got word of his recent redeployment, said the mayor, who declined to say where his son is serving.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/...
Russian emigre Garber now king of Chicago taxi empire
February 1, 2010
“It’s all about who you know,” Garber told the Tribune. “It’s important to be well-connected. Life is a two-way street.”
Garber has said he met Patrick Daley in Moscow.
— where Patrick Daley worked for Bear Stearns, the now-defunct investment and financial services company.
...........his business partners and associates have bought for a total of more than $52 million since 2002, according to city records. The value of those medallions today: $150 million.
http://press.gop-network.org/...
'Taxicab King' Facing $9M in Fines for Operating Illegal Cabs
Tuesday, 30 Nov 2010, 8:56 AM CST
The Sun-Times reported Symon Garber and his business partners put 180 wrecked cop cars on the streets as cabs. The cars were so badly damaged, they were totaled by insurance companies.
The Sun-Times also reported that Garber has hired the law firm of mayoral candidate Gery Chico to fight the charges.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/...
Business Partner Of Daley’s Son Charged With Fraud
January 6, 2011
Federal prosecutors alleged that businessmen Jesse Brunt and Anthony Duffy schemed to use their company, Brunt Bros. Transfer Inc., as a “pass-through” on a $3 million sewer cleaning and inspection contract with City Hall.
The mayor’s son, Patrick R. Daley, and nephew, Robert G. Vanecko, were not charged with any wrongdoing. They were former business partners of Duffy.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/...
Mayor’s Nephew Cashing In
September 23, 2007
Sun-Times investigative reporter Tim Novak reported Sunday that Bob Vanecko wants to revive Chicago’s struggling neighborhoods with $68 million in city-linked pension funds. He has his eye on areas near his uncle’s proposed Olympic stadium. Vanecko formed a partnership with developer Allison Davis and convinced city employee pension funds to invest $68 million with their company, DV Urban Realty Partners.
Vanecko and Davis plan to use the pension money to redevelop some of Chicago's most neglected neighborhoods. Among those could be the area around Washington Park, site of a temporary Olympic stadium.
Since the April 2006 investment, the pension funds have lost $1.5 million on the deal, largely because of the $1 million in management fees paid to Vanecko and Davis. The partners are guaranteed at least $3 million in management fees and could make as much as $8.4 million before the deal ends on Dec. 31, 2014.
Davis and Vanecko will also share in any profits from the real estate deals -- along with a 3 percent fee on property they develop.
[Sun-Times web-page removed]
Homicide case involving Daley nephew closed without charges
March 4, 2011
..........the descriptions they provided and accounts given by witnesses and others to the Chicago Sun-Times make clear it was Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of Mayor Daley and White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley.
As Koschman lay unconscious on Division Street at Dearborn, Vanecko and a friend, Craig Denham, ran away, jumped in a cab and headed to a bar, according to the police reports released Friday.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Chicago 2016 Olympics: Bid team member has ties to prospective Olympic Village developer
Sep 25, 2009
Scott, who negotiated key components of the $1.2 billion Olympic Village plan, said his business relationship with the developer, Gerald Fogelson, does not interfere with his role with the bid team. Chicago 2016 officials declined to say whether Scott’s relationship with Fogelson was a problem, with Daley’s Olympic team poised to spend billions of dollars in coming years.
But Scott’s multiple roles as a private developer, mayoral confidant and member of the city’s Olympic committee raises anew concerns about insider dealings in a city where Daley allies have long benefited from civic projects the mayor champions. City Hall insiders for years have profited under Daley’s administration in myriad deals, from minority contracting [MWBE Chicago Inspector General] to leasing trucks [Hired Truck Program] to scooping up prime city-owned land [Vacant land turns to gold for insiders: Rezko].
The body of Chicago's school board president Michael Scott was found partially submerged in a river last fall, a bullet wound to the head. Chicago police officers look at the scene by the Chicago River (Garcia/AP)
Michael Scott, Chicago Public Schools Leader, Found Dead in River
At 3:30 a.m., November 16, 2009, police found Michael Scott’s body face-down in downtown Chicago, partially in the Chicago River, in a hard-to-access location. He shot himself in the head with a handgun.
Scott had been a utility infielder for several Chicago mayors, serving on various public boards. Mayor Daley appointed him President of the Chicago Board of Education in 2001. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) run under the Mayor’s control, all 40,000 plus staff members, and over 400,000 students. Arne Duncan’s job, before Obama appointed him the Secretary of Education, was CEO of the CPS.
He apparently fell forward after shooting himself, and a .380-caliber gun was found under the body, police sources say.
Police cordon off area along the Chicago River near the Kinzie Bridge where Michael Scott body was found. (Alex Garcia / Tribune)
CPS Board Investigated for Spending on Alcohol, Parties, Bug Sweeps
04 Jan 2011
Chicago - The inspector general for Chicago's Public Schools is investigating more than $800,000 in spending under former School Board Presidents Michael Scott and Rufus Williams.
The spending in question includes $3,000 to have offices of Scott and former CEO Ron Huberman swept for eavesdropping devices.
More than $92,000 was reportedly spent in donations to not-for-profit organizations on which Scott or one of his family members served on the board of directors.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/...
Ethics laws can’t stop every schemer
June 8, 2011
In truth, the conflict of interest was blatant. Patrick Daley’s pay from the venture capital firm was linked to the sale price of the Wi-Fi company. The more the company was sold for, the more Patrick would be paid. And, in fact, the company did sell for a 33 percent profit — $45 million — just nine months after landing the big deal at the airports.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Clout condo deals in Chicago get scrutiny
June 20, 2011
a 25-year-old man named Volodymyr Kuchmiyov — a Ukrainian living in Chicago on a student visa — took out two mortgages totaling $675,000 and bought a couple of brand-new condos in a building on the city’s Northwest Side.
a congressman’s daughter bought an “affordable housing” unit in the same development — even though she and her husband were making more than $90,000 a year. She then flipped the condo at a profit of 55 percent — after owning it for 14 months.
Kuchmiyov bought the two condos in a four-unit development built in Humboldt Park by a man named Roman Popovych, who got the zoning change he needed to build the project by agreeing to set aside one of the condos in the complex as an “affordable” unit that would be sold at a deep discount. That was a requirement set by then- Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th),[appointed alderman in 1993 by Mayor Richard M. Daley to fill the unexpired term of Luis Gutierrez, now working for Illinois Governor Pat Quinn] who, as the local alderman, wielded great authority over the zoning change Popovych needed.
Popovych got the zoning change and eventually sold the discount-priced condo to Omaira Figueroa, the daughter of Ocasio’s political mentor, U.S. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.).
After his arrest late last year, Kuchmiyov spent a month at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop. He was released after a 26-year-old man named Bogdan Popovych posted a $100,000 bond for him.
Kuchmiyov appears to have had ties to Roman Popovychbeyond buying the two condos from him, according to government and court records and Kuchmiyov’s lawyer, DiNatale, who says it’s his understanding that his client once worked for Roman Popovych’s development company, which is called V.P. Interlink.
“I believe he worked there some time back,” DiNatale says, adding that, at the time, “He was going to some business college, trying to learn real estate and investment.”
continued..........
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Former Mayor Daley will get back all of his pension contributions within 26 months
June 27, 2011
Daley, who left office six weeks ago, has begun collecting his pension, which, for now, comes to $183,779 a year. Next year, he’ll start getting automatic cost-of-living raises that will boost his pension by 3 percent every year.
Daley, 69, chose to retire under the state’s most lucrative government pension plan — the one that Illinois legislators set up for themselves. It provides Daley with a pension equal to 85 percent of his final mayoral salary of $216,210. The state pays two-thirds of his pension. The city — which also is providing the former mayor and his wife with two cars and bodyguards — picks up the rest.
While collecting his government pension — one of the highest ever for any retired elected official in Illinois — Daley also is involved in three new ventures in the private sector. He’s joined the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, which was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars on city deals while Daley was mayor. He’s also been hired to organize a lecture series at the University of Chicago. And he’s opened an office with his son, Patrick Daley, to work on business deals.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Mayor Daley Grants Interview to the Russians...
June 25, 2011
I must say my eyes jumped up when I turned to the TV channel Russia Today this weekend and saw our former mayor being interviewed on the Russian news program. The Russians introduced their esteemed Chicago guest as the mayor who “managed to turn the declining Rust Belt city into a destination city, pushed through immigration reform (he did?) and masterly dealt with the racism issue, winning the support of the black Chicagoans.”
http://www.substancenews.net/...