From the Chicago Sun-Times

Fawell lover to talk in plea deal
December 4, 2003
BY TIM NOVAK Staff Reporter

Federal prosecutors dropped a bombshell Wednesday: Unidentified officials from McPier, which runs the nation's largest convention center, will be indicted within 90 days now that the lover of Scott Fawell, who ran McPier for former Gov. George Ryan, has agreed to cooperate for a shorter prison sentence.
It's the latest twist in the political corruption probe that began in 1998 with the discovery that the secretary of state's office under Ryan sold driver's licenses to unqualified truck drivers in exchange for bribes.
Alexandra "Andrea" Coutretsis -- Fawell's lover and top assistant for years at McPier and the secretary of state's office -- pleaded guilty Wednesday to perjury, admitting she lied to a federal grand jury in hopes of saving Fawell and other Ryan aides from criminal charges.
It didn't work. Fawell began serving a 61/2-year prison sentence last month after he was found guilty of political corruption stemming from Ryan's election as governor in 1998.
Coutretsis also agreed to plead guilty in the unfolding McPier case, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told reporters, an uncharacteristic move for a man who never discusses cases before charges are filed.
"The McPier case will be charged within 60 to 90 days,'' Fitzgerald said. "Obviously getting the cooperation of Miss Coutretsis was a boost. It's important we have her as a witness.''
Coutretsis and her attorney, Cynthia Giachetti, had no comment. She will get a year in prison for perjury, but she won't go away until she testifies in the case involving McPier, the city-state agency that runs McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
Coutretsis, charged under her former married name of Prokos, avoided trial by agreeing to cooperate with the corruption investigations of McPier and the secretary of state's office under Ryan's eight-year reign. Fawell was Ryan's chief of staff in the secretary of state's office. After Ryan became governor, he picked Fawell to be McPier's CEO, a coveted political job that paid $195,000 a year. Fawell was fired in January by Gov. Blagojevich.
As Fawell's lover and top assistant, Coutretsis was intimately aware of the operations at McPier and the secretary of state's office.
Coutretsis will be charged in the McPier case, Fitzgerald said, but he refused to identify anyone else. He said extra manpower was added for the case, including the U.S. Labor Department's racketeering and labor fraud section.
The McPier investigation has focused on Fawell, including an engineering contract he tried to steer to a company in exchange for a job. The deal was scrapped when Fawell and his cohorts, Donald Udstuen and Roger "The Hog'' Stanley, feared federal officials would find out. Udstuen and Stanley have since pleaded guilty to other corruption charges.
The engineering contract -- for McCormick Place's latest expansion -- went to Jacobs Facilities, which was represented by Fawell's close friend Al Ronan. Earlier, Ronan had been paid by McPier to lobby the General Assembly to approve the expansion.
Several McPier board members say they never knew Ronan was lobbying for them. That's because McPier's longtime law firm, Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, hired Ronan's firm to do the lobbying. Mayer Brown then billed McPier $50,000 for Ronan's work.
Ronan was among several lobbyists the law firm hired on McPier's behalf, including Ryan's close friend Arthur "Ron'' Swanson, who was paid $180,000. Federal officials have said he did little or no work for the money. Swanson is charged with perjury.
The feds also say Fawell and Coutretsis used McPier credit cards to bill taxpayers for more than 100 stays at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, often for personal use. Fawell used the card to pay Ronan's hotel tab.
And federal officials have alleged Fawell gave Stanley more than $170,000 in no-bid McPier contracts for printing.
Fitzgerald's announcement surprised McPier officials.
McPier "has provided extensive cooperation to federal authorities, and we will continue to do so,'' McPier spokesman Billy Weinberg said. "The authority does not believe that any of its current employees were engaged in conduct that is under investigation.''
Fawell, whose family has been a pillar of DuPage County politics for three generations, has been under investigation since 1998. First, federal officials probed his dual roles as Ryan's chief of staff in the secretary of state's office and as the campaign manager of Citizens for Ryan. Then they followed his work at McPier.
While in the secretary of state's office, Fawell kept a 555-page list of jobs, raises, promotions, contracts and low-digit license plates doled out under Ryan. Fawell often had Coutretsis consult the list when trying to extract political favors for Ryan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins said.
Coutretsis lied to the grand jury about the existence and purpose of the list. It was one of many lies she told the grand jury, but the only one she pleaded guilty to.
"Miss Coutretsis made a serious mistake,'' Fitzgerald said. "We can't tolerate perjury. We can't tolerate obstruction of justice. Miss Coutretsis . . . is looking to make the best of a bad situation she put herself in.''

Mistress rose from clerical job to McPier exec's chief of staff
Alexandra "Andrea'' Coutretsis did everything for Scott Fawell.
She dumped her husband.
She lied to a federal grand jury.
And she gave him a place to live when his wife threw him out.
Nobody has been closer to Fawell. She can spill secrets federal prosecutors would love to hear.
And Coutretsis may be squealing to cut her stay in prison.
"She sat right outside Scott's office. She knows a helluva lot. She knows a lot at work, at home, in the bedroom. Talk about a guy who mixed it all,'' said a source familiar with Fawell's life.
Coutretsis, 34, the daughter of a politically active restaurateur, landed a clerical job a decade ago under then-Secretary of State George Ryan. She quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the top assistant to Fawell, who was Ryan's chief of staff. At some point, they began having an affair.
Coutretsis helped Fawell keep a master list of political favors he doled out -- everything from jobs to low-digit license plates -- so he could use it to muscle people.
Fawell managed Ryan's campaigns, helping elect him governor, and Coutretsis was right there beside him, doling out orders, serving as Fawell's enforcer.
After Ryan became governor, he gave Fawell one of the sweetest political jobs in the state, CEO of the agency that runs McCormick Place and Navy Pier, with a salary of $195,000. Fawell made Coutretsis his chief of staff. When the federal investigation of Fawell heated up, Coutretsis grabbed a computer Zip drive containing the master list and ordered her husband and brother-in-law to destroy them. They kept the Zip drive, which her scorned husband turned over to the feds.
During his two-month corruption trial earlier this year, Fawell lived with Coutretsis and her two children in north suburban Hawthorn Woods. After his conviction, the two spent the summer together, often seen cheering on the Chicago White Sox. They were even seen smooching on the Kiss Cam at Sox Park. Now just a month after Fawell went to prison for 61/2 years, Coutretsis has pleaded guilty to lying for Fawell and has agreed to cooperate.
Has she turned on her lover?
"I don't know if there's bad blood between them,'' Fawell's attorney Marc Martin said. "I have no idea what she's saying.''
Tim Novak

OPERATION SAFE ROAD

The political corruption probe, sparked by the sale of truck driver's licenses for bribes under then-Secretary of State George Ryan, has led to 59 convictions since 1998.
Six other cases are pending.
Among those convicted under Operation Safe Road were Ryan's former chief of staff, Scott Fawell; his inspector general, Dean Bauer, and his close friend and adviser, Donald Udstuen.