WHY DO WE NEED THE “SAVE ACT”? DON’T YOU TRUST OUR ELECTED AND APPOINTED OFFICIALS?
David Barnhizer
As we witness an unfolding set of incredible criminal conspiracies by local and state leaders that is revealing hundreds of billions in fraudulent criminal activities virtually all levels of government many of us are experiencing despair and hopelessness. Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Food/SNAP and Nutrition fraud. Fake or “Ghost” employee fraud. Educational and Child Care and Assistance fraud. Thousands upon thousands of dead people receiving SNAP, Social Security, supposed health care benefits even for decades. We are not talking about “nickel and timing” here. Yet the most dismal thing is that it isn’t just about money. The fraudsters are not only stealing our cash, they are destroying the moral integrity and ideals of America.
One of the worst aspects is that the unbelievable activity is not even particularly well hidden by those responsible for providing oversight and identifying inadequacies and quality of programmatic performance and determining such “minor” things such as whether the programs are working, the claims for funding and benefits legitimate, and the work actually being done. With the incredible range of data-based AI programs and search engines that have been available for over twenty years, even though the numbers involved are massive it would be easy to create and implement AI systems that screen, analyze, investigate situations and bring obvious problems to attention. Yet it has not been done.
The reports and pictures we have now seen in Minnesota about day care centers that receive large payments even though it turns out they have no children present, offers an example. The incredible increase in just a few years in autism treatment claims that no one bothered to look into offers another example. So do the medical fraud schemes of various sorts and assisted living and fake hospice scams in California and other states. The strange reality is that the crooks and wrong-doers aren’t even very good at hiding what they are doing even though I doubt whether America has ever before experienced such a level of public political corruption. The lesson or conclusion I take from this is that the participants knew they didn’t have to work hard at the scheme because the system was “rigged” and the “Watchers” were gazing out into space or contemplating their navels.
In each of these situations of profound corruption there are agencies, investigators, financial analysts and others whose jobs were to ensure the funds were being spent to serve actual needs for people for whom the programs were created. It is impossible in a system where it turns out that hundreds of billions of dollars were stolen that those in charge of the governmental system can legitimately say “No one told me!” The reality is that so much of what has been going on represents a rigged criminal system of massive theft of public funds and complete abdication of responsibility with lame excuses and retorts such as “How could I have known” or “It’s a politically motivated attack on me” or “We are so overloaded that it just fell through the cracks.”
“Ballot-Box Stuffers, Robbers and Pirates”
A further description of the exploits of William “Boss” Tweed is offered in the text but it is helpful to open up the idea of a well-organized political strategy of corruption even at this point. Jeffrey Broxmeyer, a law professor and political science Ph.D at the University of Toledo, described this in relation to Tweed in ways that I feel strongly mirror what goes on in 2026 in our elections processes through abuses of mail in balloting, potential ballot “editing” and falsification, refusal to provide complete processing records, and opposition to legitimate voter identification standards.“Boss Tweed And The Tammany Republicans”, Jeffrey D. Broxmeyer, September 15, 2016. https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/boss-tweed-and-the-tammany-republicans
“Credible evidence of municipal fraud in the press began in the summer of 1871 and sparked a massive anti-Ring mobilization that altered the city’s political landscape. An emergency Committee of 70 composed of the city’s business elite moved quickly to apply economic and legal pressure on public officials. Tweed, Hall and Connolly—all Tammany Democrats—were targeted by name in the reformer’s public appeal to save the city from political corruption. … Within a year, the Ring’s inner circle had fled the country or landed in jail. The Ring was vanquished. Its Republican allies were isolated. Jeffrey D. Broxmeyer, “The Boss’s ‘Brains’: Political Capital, Democratic Commerce, and the New York Tweed Ring, 1868-1871” Journal of Historical Sociology 28, No. 3 (September 2015): 374-403.
If you think for a moment that significant election fraud and cheating does not take place in our elections you are either very naive and shield yourself from the realities of modern life or are part of the ongoing “Con”. What is being exposed daily as a massive amount of theft of billions of dollars by people and organizations that are supposedly subject to efficient oversight by a significant range of government officials demonstrates with absolute clarity that many who work in local, state and federal governmental monitoring positions aren’t doing their jobs. Why they aren’t doing their jobs varies. Some are lazy. Some are incompetent or simply are paper pushers who stick stuff in files and don’t go beyond the clerical function that means they get salaries and benefits without making certain what is being funded is being done well or is actually being done at all.
My simple point is the fear that what is happening in relation to theft of funds, phony and unsupervised programs, “ghost” jobs with money paid for people who don’t exist, are dead, or not actually working as a device to buy loyalty and perpetuate a “Ring” or Cabal’s power base is happening in the mail-in election processes of America’s largest cities. This is why no matter what the co-opted mainstream media proclaims about “debunked” challenges to election integrity—the scale of corruption and fraud that has taken place in our largest urban areas makes it difficult to easily accept the statements made by local and state elections officials about how offended they are that their credibility is being questioned. Given the extent of local corruption and the failure of oversight and/or basic competence that reality exposed ask yourself how we could ever place full trust in what they say.
In my rather extensive experience, those in power will do almost anything to retain that power and unless clear and monitored procedures are put in place and enforced long-term power-blocs are highly skilled at remaining in power and, quoting the famous Communist Bernie Sanders, will do so “By and means necessary.”
Tim Walz, Ellison, Newsom, “Boss” Tweed” and Many Others Who Have Legal Responsibility for Stopping the Corruption Ignored It For Their Own Benefit, Financial Rewards and Power.
The “No One Told Me So How Could I Know Defense”
“Former Alderman. Wallace Davis Jr., … said of Chicago aldermen: “They get into a position where they feel, ‘Hey, I can do what I want. I don’t have to give an account.” (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune). See also, “Code of silence, aldermanic prerogative fuel dozens of corruption convictions”, Gregory Royal Pratt | gpratt@chicagotribune.com | Chicago Tribune and Ray Long | Chicago Tribune, September 8, 2024.
What we are dealing with goes far beyond Chicago and Minnesota as well as states like California. My purpose here in including “Boss” Tweed’s 19th century exploits with New York’s Tammany Hall and the actions of the “Tweed Ring” is to explain why the corruption not only keeps happening but is expanding to incredible levels. The following description of how “Rings” and the “Tweed Ring” worked is accurately described, almost admiringly, as follows.
According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman:
“It’s hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed’s system ... The Tweed Ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization.”
As Ackerman describes in the context of “Boss” Tweed, the basics are relatively simple. One of the most important factors is the creation of a governmental culture in which local prosecutors and law enforcement systems are part of the corrupt system—whether for financial reasons or power.
It is no accident that the instances where the corruption has been pursued and occasionally punished often involves federal systems of investigation and prosecution going after corrupt local political behaviors in which the prosecutors are involved or look the other way rather than take action. Along with this are the use of bribes, political deals, abuse of powers over public funds, favors, and the silencing of potential whistleblowers. This clearly happened in Minnesota and in Cuyahoga County, Ohio—something I described in an op-ed a decade ago. The only reason any action was taken in that situation required the feds coming in and focusing on what was going on in Cuyahoga’s own version of a “Tweed Ring”.
Those who benefit from what is taking place are all dodging the reality of the same system that “feeds” them. Even the many honest workers in “Tweed” systems understand they are faced with a very powerful network of corrupt actors and that if they “make waves” they will be crushed. I’ll begin with several examples.
California and Gavin Newsom
California’s “Cash Machine”: “Governor Gavin Newsom strongly denies any personal knowledge of or involvement in corruption. His administration consistently pushes back against claims linking him to ethical breaches and fraud within state agencies. His defense strategies and specific responses to recent allegations include the following.
Newsom’s Stance: Newsom maintains he and his wife have done nothing wrong. He has accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the Justice Department to target political enemies and “dig up” fabricated crimes.
“Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud: California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud, according to officials and experts”, Christopher F. Rufo, Ryan Thorpe, Kenneth Schrupp, Haley Strack. https://www.city-journal.org/article/gavin-newsom-california-fraud.
Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud
California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud, according to officials and experts. California is a cash machine. The state collects some of the country’s highest income, business, and fuel taxes, and now spends more than $300 billion per year. And yet, everywhere you look, California seems to be falling apart.
The roads are crumbling. Mismanaged wildfires have turned neighborhoods into ash. Drug addiction and homelessness have metastasized, turning parts of Los Angeles and San Francisco into no-go zones. And the cost-of-living crisis is pricing middle-class taxpayers out of basic necessities like groceries and gas, even as the state spends billions on welfare programs that never seem to lift anyone out of poverty.
Californians are beginning to ask: Where is all this money going? On paper, it funds hospitals, universities, schools, prisons, infrastructure, and other public services. But beneath the surface, something else is happening that California Governor Gavin Newsom does not want you to see: massive, systematic, brazen fraud.
We conducted interviews with public officials, fraud experts, and political figures, and reviewed hundreds of pages of government reports, state audits, criminal indictments, and other public records on California fraud. From unemployment insurance and Medicaid to failed homeless initiatives and welfare programs, seemingly every state program has been compromised by criminals. The best estimates suggest that, on the governor’s watch, fraudsters, scammers, and organized crime rings have stolen at least $180 billion from taxpayers.
Minnesota
Tim Walz and Keith Ellison ask: “How could we have possibly known?” Walz and Ellison’s denial they knew of any corruption - Google Search
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison have repeatedly denied allegations that they knowingly ignored systemic corruption and welfare fraud in the state’s federally funded programs.
The Allegations: A U.S. House Oversight Committee report alleged that both leaders were aware of systemic fraud in programs like Feeding Our Future as early as 2019, ignored whistleblower warnings from career state employees, and retaliated against those who spoke out.
Congressional Testimony: In March 2026, Walz and Ellison defended their actions before the House Oversight Committee. They maintained that the Attorney General’s office prosecutes cases once presented by the appropriate agencies, and that the state could not stop payments without concrete proof.
Walz’s Response: Governor Walz dismissed the House Committee’s report as a “joke” and “highly political”, stating that his administration appointed an Inspector General and has cooperated with the FBI, leading to dozens of convictions.
Ellison’s Response: Attorney General Ellison strongly refuted the claims as “riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations” aimed at politicizing the issue.
Minnesota’s scale of corruption is defined by massive, systemic fraud within state-administered social services and Medicaid programs. Federal and state prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion of the $18 billion distributed across 14 high-risk government programs since 2018 has been lost to fraudulent, multi-layered schemes.
Key Scandals & Investigations
Federal Nutrition Programs: The sprawling Feeding Our Future investigation revealed an initial theft of roughly $250 million to $350 million in pandemic-era child nutrition funds. Out of 79 indicted suspects, over 60 have been convicted.
Medicaid & Social Services Fraud: Federal authorities identified over $90 million in intended losses across child care centers and Medicaid programs in a 2026 sweep. Other heavily exploited programs include state housing stabilization initiatives and autism services.
“Fraud Tourism”: Federal prosecutors have identified patterns where out-of-state actors intentionally relocate to Minnesota to exploit the low barriers to entry and weak oversight in these government programs.
Oversight & Crackdowns in Minnesota.
The massive scale of these losses has prompted aggressive multi-agency federal task forces. Legislative reviews point to a “culture of fraud” and a lack of accountability within enabling state agencies, which allowed the misuse of funds to persist for years. From Google Gemini Search.
Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach argues:
“Many Minnesotans feel that Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison have been more focused on retaliating against and silencing whistleblowers than addressing the corruption under their own noses. Let me be very clear: if Walz, Ellison, or anyone in their administrations knowingly retaliated against these whistleblowers, they deserve jail time.” Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach, March 5, 2026.
Corruption and Federal Government Prosecutions in Cuyahoga County, Ohio
The following excerpts are edited from: David Barnhizer, “Bill Mason, the 800-pound gorilla”, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sep. 17, 2010, https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2010/09/bill_mason_the_800-pound_goril.html.
In the midst of the Cuyahoga County corruption scandals, there is an unasked question about the county’s “800-pound gorilla,” Bill Mason. The prosecutions and investigations in this and other cases have been done by federal authorities rather than by the office of Mason, Cuyahoga County’s prosecutor. The question is why the chief law enforcement officer in the county, with a staff that is wired in to virtually all the local political machinery, as revealed in a recent Plain Dealer article, was unaware of or chose to ignore the cesspool of corruption, bribery, kickbacks and special deals for friends and contributors that has been Cuyahoga County.
Given Mason’s amazing political reach and obvious sophistication, it is difficult to accept any claim that he was unaware of the corruption. The investigative power of a prosecutor is also substantial, as is the ability to use the grand jury as a device to uncover wrongdoing. As we have seen, the culture was not simply a crooked auditor such as Frank Russo, but a comprehensive and ongoing scheme that had gone on for at least 10 years and spread throughout the entire system -- one in which Mason stands as the primary legal officer and prosecuting authority with enormous discretion and power. Yet if the federal authorities had not acted, there is absolutely no reason to believe that any of the disgusting criminal activity would have been revealed or prosecuted under Mason’s watch.
The conclusions that could be drawn from this situation are several. The kindest interpretation is that Mason is incompetent due to his being entirely unaware of the pervasive rot that had spread throughout the public offices of Cuyahoga County. This, however, is difficult to accept, given Mason’s political contacts, sophistication, and undeniable leadership role in the county’s political system. If incompetence is not the answer, then we, unfortunately, must move to other possibilities. These include that he was aware of the wrongdoing but chose to look the other way under some twisted concept of party loyalty or that what was occurring was acceptable political patronage rather than criminal activity.
A third possibility is that Mason was a knowing part of this system and both distributed and received benefits from it in the way of other participants. Certainly there are some indications of questionable deals. These include the special employment arrangement given a campaign contributor, a significant reduction in the taxable base for Mason’s residence, and the lucrative contract given an individual who was not only an employee but was awarded consultant payments of more than $1.1 million, and contributed to the Prosecutor’s campaign war chest.
The Cuyahoga County Cabal
“Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason is asked whether he overlooked corruption or looked the other way”, Sept. 18, 2010, Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer. https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2010/09 prosecutor_bill_mason_accused.html.
Cleveland law professor David Barnhizer publicly posed the question Thursday in a letter published by The Plain Dealer, and concluded that incompetence is an unlikely answer. Barnhizer went on to suggest that Mason ignored the “cesspool,” or worse. “A third possibility is that Mason was a knowing part of this system and both distributed and received benefits from it in the way of other participants,” he wrote, describing the prosecutor as the county’s “800-pound gorilla.” On Friday, a day after former county Auditor Frank Russo pleaded guilty to 21 crimes and two days after Commissioner Jimmy Dimora was charged with 26 corruption counts, Mason offered his defense. Interviewed at his office’s annual golf outing in Parma, the county’s top lawyer said he would have investigated any corruption allegations brought to his attention. But no one did, he said, so he had no way to know about the crimes short of witnessing public officials taking bribes in restaurants, parking lots or hotels.
… ”Nobody ever said it was going on. If I don’t know about it, how can I do something? I think it is unfair.” Mason also addressed the corruption-related charges brought against some of his confidants, including Strongsville City Councilman Patrick Coyne and Robert Rybak, an official with Plumbers Union Local 55. The charges are troubling, he said. But he added that no one disclosed the allegations to him. “This is a small community of people,” he said. “I don’t know what everyone else is doing. This whole scenario of events is troubling. Personally, it bothers me. Professionally, it bothers me.”
Barnhizer didn’t buy Mason’s answers. He said Friday state officials should appoint a special prosecutor to determine if Mason knowingly allowed the corruption to grow.
“It should be embarrassing and shameful for him to say ‘Nobody brought anything to me,’” Barnhizer said. “It is a gross form of incompetence. At minimum, he has demonstrated incompetence in office.” Barnhizer’s letter questioned whether Mason ignored the corruption out of loyalty to the Democratic Party. He pointed to a Plain Dealer article published in March detailing the political network Mason built since taking office in 1999. Scores of Mason’s workers are elected officials in cities throughout the county or are Democratic Party officials. Most did not become active until after Mason took office. “He is totally in control of the (political) machine in this county,” Barnhizer said Friday. Catherine Turcer, a political watchdog with Ohio Citizen Action in Columbus, said, the county prosecutor should have been the moral conscience of the community. Turcer also wonders whether Mason ignored the problems because of politics. “It’s his job to go after the bad guys,” she said. “Was he loyal to the political party of just not paying attention?”
After 14 years in office Mason announced his retirement in September 2012, indicating he was entering private practice.
Following the “Best” Model of Corruption: William “Boss” Tweed, the “Tweed Ring” and Tammany Hall.
William “Boss” Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878) was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party‘s political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century New York City and State. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Tweed
The Tweed Ring was more than a Democratic Party scandal. William “Boss” Tweed, leader of Tammany Hall—Manhattan’s county Democratic organization—was chief architect of the scheme that embezzled millions of dollars of public funds between 1868 and 1871. …. A clique of officeholders, the so-called Tammany Republicans, openly joined with the Tweed Ring during its climb to power. As early as 1868, newspapers reported “a nice little arrangement.” …. Over the next three years this junior partnership would flower into policymaking, spoils, and business deals. At their peak, and against much resistance, Tammany Republicans even managed to control the party apparatus in the city. .…
Tweed’s greatest influence came from being an appointed member of a number of boards and commissions, his control over political patronage in New York City through Tammany, and his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects. By 1853, Tweed was running the seventh ward for Tammany. … Tweed often just bought off one Republican to sway the evenly split board. One such Republican board member was Peter P. Voorhis, a coal dealer by profession who absented himself from a board meeting in exchange for $2,500 so that the board could appoint city inspectors.
Tweed became the chairman of the Democratic General Committee shortly after the election, and was then chosen to be the head of Tammany’s general committee in January 1863. In April 1863, he became “Grand Sachem”, and began to be referred to as “Boss”, especially after he tightened his hold on power by creating a small executive committee to run the club.[7] Tweed then took steps to increase his income: he used his law firm to extort money, which was then disguised as legal services; he had himself appointed deputy street commissioner – a position with considerable access to city contractors and funding; he bought the New-York Printing Company, which became the city’s official printer, and the city’s stationery supplier, the Manufacturing Stationers’ Company, and had both companies begin to overcharge the city government for their goods and services…. He also became one of the largest owners of real estate in the city.[8] He also started to form what became known as the “Tweed Ring”, by having his friends elected to office [including that of District Attorney]: George G. Barnard was elected Recorder of New York City; Peter B. Sweeny was elected New York County District Attorney; and Richard B. Connolly was elected City Comptroller.[14]
The Pattern of “Ring” Corruption
After the election of 1869, Tweed took control of the New York City government. … Tweed garnered the support of good-government reformers like Peter Cooper and the Union League Club, by proposing a new city charter which returned power to City Hall at the expense of the Republican-inspired state commissions. The new charter passed, thanks in part to $600,000 in bribes Tweed paid to Republicans, and was signed into law by Hoffman in 1870. …
[T]he new city charter allowed the Board of Audit to issue bonds for debt in order to finance opportunistic capital expenditures the city otherwise could not afford. … Contractors working for the city – “Ring favorites, most of them – were told to multiply the amount of each bill by five, or ten, or a hundred, after which, with Mayor Hall’s ‘O. K.’ and Connolly’s endorsement, it was paid ... through a go-between, who cashed the check, settled the original bill and divided the remainder ... between Tweed, Sweeny, Connolly and Hall”.
For example, the construction cost of the New York County Courthouse, begun in 1861, grew to nearly $13 million—about $360 million in 2024 dollars, and nearly twice the cost of the Alaska Purchase in 1867. “A carpenter was paid $360,751 (roughly $9.9 million in 2024) for one month’s labor in a building with very little woodwork ... a plasterer got $133,187 ($3.6 million) for two days’ work”.
Chicago’s 38 Aldermen—After All, It IS Chicago!
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2022/11/30/chicago-aldermen-convicted-of-corruption-and-others-facing-charges/? “Chicago aldermen convicted of corruption — and others facing charges, Chicago Tribune, March 4, 2024.
“38 Chicago aldermen have pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes related to official duties since 1972. Three aldermen died while awaiting trial, while charges are pending against two others.”
“Former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke was convicted by a federal jury Thursday of racketeering conspiracy and a dozen other counts for using the clout of his elected office to win private law business from developers. The guilty verdict on the marquee charge of the indictment capped a stunning fall for Burke, the former head of the city Finance Committee and Democratic political machine master who served a record 54 years in the City Council before stepping down in May. That means 38 Chicago aldermen have pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes related to official duties since 1972. Three aldermen died while awaiting trial, while charges are pending against two others.”
Edward Burke (14th ward) Convicted 2023 After his office was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Nov. 29, 2018, federal prosecutors charged Burke in January 2019 with attempted extortion. A 14-count indictment on May 30, 2019, expanded the corruption allegations against the 75-year-old, accusing him of abusing his City Hall clout to extort private legal work from companies and individuals doing business with the city.
Willie Cochran (20th ward), Pleaded guilty 2019. Cochran was sentenced to one year in prison by U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso on June 24, 2019, for using his ward charity fund like his personal piggy bank, including to pay for gambling trips, fancy meals and accessories for his Mercedes. Federal prosecutors dropped 14 of the 15 counts against Cochran, including the most serious charges alleging the alderman shook down businessmen in exchange for his supports on deals in his 20th Ward.
Isaac “Ike” Carothers (29th ward), Pleaded guilty 2010 To bribery and tax charges in a zoning case. His alderman father, William, was convicted 27 years earlier.
Arenda Troutman (20th ward), Pleaded guilty 2008 To fraud after admitting she solicited donations from developers seeking to do business.
Percy Giles (37th ward), Convicted 1999 Pocketing $10,000 in bribes from a government mole and extorting an additional $81,200.
Virgil Jones (15th ward), Pocketing two payoffs totaling $7,000.
Lawrence Bloom (5th ward), Pleaded guilty 1998. To filing a false income tax return and admitted pocketing $14,000 from an FBI mole.
John Madrzyk (13th ward), Convicted 1998. Sentenced to 41 months in prison in September 1998 as part of the federal probe of ghost-payrolling, dubbed Operation Haunted Hall because many of the targets were on payrolls at City Hall. As chairman of the council’s Special Events Committee, Madrzyk paid his daughter-in-law $33,764 over a 14-month period even though she did no work for the committee. Madrzyk also admitted pocketing kickbacks from two other ghost-payrollers.
Jesse Evans (21st ward), Sentenced 1997. Accepting $7,300 in bribes, extorting $10,000 and a new basement floor.
Joseph Martinez (31st ward), Convicted 1997 Accepting pay for three no-work, ghost-payroll jobs at City Hall.
Allan Streeter (17th ward), Pleaded guilty 1996 To taking $37,020 in bribes from a government mole and an undercover FBI agent.
Ambrosio Medrano (25th ward), Pleaded guilty 1996. To taking $31,000 from a mole and placing two associates in no-work jobs on a city committee. Medrano was found guilty in 2013 in a separate corruption scheme.
Fred Roti (1st ward), Convicted 1993. Taking $10,000 to influence a court case and $7,500 to support a ward zoning change.
Marian Humes (8th ward), Pleaded guilty 1989. To taking $6,000 from Hutchinson to help contractors and $5,000 from an FBI mole.
Perry Hutchinson (9th ward), Convicted 1988. In an insurance-fraud scheme. Then, in 1989, he pleaded guilty to taking $42,200 from an FBI mole.
Chester Kuta (31st ward), Pleaded guilty 1987. To income tax evasion, fraud and civil rights violation.
Wallace Davis Jr. (27th ward), Convicted 1987. Accepting a $5,000 bribe, forcing his niece to pay $11,000 in kickbacks and extorting $3,000.
Clifford Kelley (20th ward), Pleaded guilty 1987. To charges that he accepted $36,500 for lucrative city work.
Louis Farina (36th ward), Convicted 1983. Conspiring to extort $7,000 from contractors to help them obtain city building permits.
Tyrone Kenner (3rd ward), Convicted 1983. Accepting $15,500 to help more than a dozen people become sheriff’s deputies or electricians.
William Carothers (28th ward), Convicted 1983. Extorting as much as $32,500 from Bethany Hospital builders to remodel his ward office.
Stanley Zydlo (26th ward), Pleaded guilty 1980. Paying $1,000 to alter two relatives’ test results for a Fire Department physical entrance exam.
Edward Scholl (41st ward), Pleaded guilty 1975. Taking $6,850 in bribes from a contractor to permit zoning changes in his ward.
Donald Swinarski (12th ward), Pleaded guilty 1975. Accepting $7,800 in three bribes to approve zoning changes in his ward.
Paul Wigoda (49th ward), Convicted 1974. Taking a $50,000 bribe in exchange for his support for a zoning change in a nearby ward.
Thomas Keane (31st ward), Convicted 1974. Fraud and conspiracy for aiding a scheme to buy and sell tax-delinquent property at inflated prices.
Frank Kuta (23rd ward), Convicted 1974. Accepting a $1,500 bribe on a zoning case (Preceded Potempa).
Joseph Potempa (23rd ward), Pleaded guilty 1973. Accepting $3,000 for zoning changes and failing to report $9,000 on income tax returns.
Casimir Staszcuk (13th ward), Convicted 1973. Accepting three bribes totaling $9,000 to back zoning changes.
Joseph Jambrone (28th ward), Convicted 1973. Accepting payoffs of $4,000 and $1,000 to support zoning changes.
Fred Hubbard (2nd ward), Pleaded guilty 1972. Embezzling nearly $100,000 from a federally funded jobs program.
Pleaded guilty or convicted on charges not related to aldermanic duties
Patrick Daley Thompson (11th ward), Convicted 2022. Thompson, the grandson and nephew of Chicago’s two longest-serving mayors, was convicted by a federal jury in February 2022, of two counts of lying to federal regulators about loans he had with the now-shuttered Washington Federal Bank for Savings in his family’s Bridgeport neighborhood. The jury also found Thompson guilty on five counts of filing false tax returns that illegally claimed mortgage interest deductions he never paid. He was sentenced to four months in a federal prison and should be released just before Christmas.
Ricardo Muñoz (22nd ward), Pleaded guilty 2021. Pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from a political campaign fund he controlled and spending it on Los Angeles Kings hockey game tickets, hotel rooms, jewelry, women’s clothing, iPhones, aerial sightseeing trips and skydiving excursions. Muñoz also transferred $16,000 to pay college tuition for an unidentified person, according to the charges. He was sentenced to 13 months in prison.
Sandi Jackson (7th ward), Pleaded guilty 2013. Prosecutors say she was involved in most of her husband’s, Jesse Jackson Jr.’s, illicit spending and did not declare about $600,000 in taxable income. She pleaded guilty to one felony count of filing false U.S. income tax returns.
William Beavers (7th ward), Convicted 2013. Failing to pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars he took out of his campaign fund and used for gambling and other personal expenses.
Ed Vrdolyak (10th ward), Pleaded guilty 2008. Pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit mail fraud but didn’t agree to cooperate with federal authorities in a scheme to collect a $1.5 million fee when Rosalind Franklin University went to sell a Gold Coast property. In 2016, Vrdolyak pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he obstructed an IRS investigation into a secret deal he cut in the 1990s to pocket millions of dollars from the massive tobacco lawsuit settlement without doing any work.
James Laski (23rd ward), Pleaded guilty 2006. For taking nearly $50,000 in bribes to steer city business to trucking companies run by his friends. Laski, a former City Clerk, also told federal investigators he was involved in ghost payrolling while an alderman in the early 1990s.
Joseph Kotlarz (35th ward), Convicted 1997. The former alderman used a public land deal to steal $190,000 from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority when he was its chief and a state representative. He served a 6-month sentence in the DuPage County Jail, and was sentenced to four years’ probation, 400 hours of community service and ordered to pay $190,000 in restitution.
Sources: Tribune reporting and archives, International City/County Management Association, news reports
Chicago’s experience shows how the cabals operate. They seize the positions of opportunity for graft and reduced potential for accountability. This is done by recruiting the people legally responsible for preventing, investigating and detecting what is taking place. One of the keys is gaining control of the office of the District Attorney on the local levels.
David Barnhizer is a Professor of Law Emeritus at Cleveland State University. He received a Juris Doctor degree summa cum laude from Ohio State University and holds a Masters of Law degree from Harvard. He has been a Senior Research Fellow at the University of London’s Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, repeated Visiting Professor at London’s University of Westminster’s School of Law and taught human rights and sustainable environmental and economic issues in a joint program with Russia’s St. Petersburg State University. He worked in the International Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, was Executive Director of The Year 2000 Committee, and consulted with the World Resources Institute, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), co-authored a report on business receptions to followup to the Global 2000 Report to the President the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, the World Bank, the UN/FAO, World Wildlife Fund/US, and the Mongolian government. He also served as president of the Fairmount Fine Arts Center, ran large scale overhead cranes for Republic Steel while in college, was an electrician’s assistant, a director of California’s Performance Capital Management, a consultant for British Petroleum’s Sovonics Solar Systems, Rapporteur for the Foresight Capability Workshop of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on sustainable economic development, and worked on projects with various federal agencies including State, Energy and Environment. His numerous books include Strategies for Sustainable Societies; The Blues of a Revolution; Effective Strategies for Protecting Human Rights; Hypocrisy & Myth: The Hidden Order of the Rule of Law; The Warrior Lawyer (based on Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Musashi’s Book of Five Rings; “Un-Canceling” America; No More Excuses: Parents Defending K-12 Education; The Artificial Intelligence Contagion: Can Democracy Withstand the Imminent Transformation of Work, Wealth and the Social Order?; and Conformity Colleges: The Destruction of Intellectual Creativity and Dissent in America’s Universities.
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