From the Chicago Tribune

Feds probe corruption at McPier
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Fawell girlfriend agrees to assist U.S. investigators
By Matt O'Connor
Tribune staff reporter
December 4, 2003
Federal authorities revealed for the first time Wednesday that they are investigating wrongdoing at the public agency that operates Navy Pier, as a former top aide to ex-Gov. George Ryan's chief of staff pleaded guilty to perjury and agreed to cooperate in two separate corruption probes.
Alexandra "Andrea" Coutretsis, longtime girlfriend and former assistant of top Ryan aide Scott Fawell, admitted lying in repeated grand jury appearances in an attempt to derail the federal Operation Safe Road investigation of Ryan's scandal-plagued tenure as secretary of state.
Prosecutors disclosed that Coutretsis will plead guilty at a later date to yet-to-be-filed charges stemming from misconduct at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, known as McPier, which operates the McCormick Place convention center as well as Navy Pier.
Pressed by U.S. District Judge James Holderman, prosecutors revealed they expect to charge Coutretsis (formerly known as Andrea Prokos) and others over the McPier wrongdoing within three months.
Authorities have alleged in court papers that Fawell, appointed McPier boss by Ryan after his election as governor, corruptly steered contracts to at least one connected friend while in the McPier post.
Fawell is serving a 6 1/2-year prison term for corruption while he was chief of staff to Ryan during two terms as secretary of state and managed Ryan's successful 1998 campaign for governor. He has refused to cooperate with authorities.
That raises the specter that Coutretsis could testify against Fawell if he is charged in the McPier contract irregularities.
At a news conference after Coutretsis pleaded guilty, U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald said obtaining her cooperation was a significant development and both the Operation Safe Road and McPier investigations are proceeding "full-steam ahead."
Aiding 2 investigations
Coutretsis is doubly helpful for prosecutors, having worked closely with Fawell at the secretary of state's office and then following him to McPier as a top aide reporting directly to him, authorities said. Their relationship turned romantic while at McPier and while both were married to others, sources said. Both are now divorced.
Coutretsis' guilty plea brings to 59 the number of convictions in the Safe Road probe, believed to be the most in any federal corruption investigation in Chicago history, except for the Operation Greylord investigation of judicial corruption in the 1980s.
The probe began in the spring of 1998 as an investigation of driver's license-selling during Ryan's tenure as secretary of state and has drawn ever closer to Ryan as his 1998 campaign committee and several members of his inner circle were convicted on charges from shakedowns to cover-ups.
Coutretsis, who had been scheduled to go to trial next month, pleaded guilty to a single perjury count, admitting she falsely testified in six grand jury appearances in 2001 and 2002.
Despite receiving immunity from prosecution if she testified truthfully, Coutretsis lied to protect Fawell and other high-ranking secretary of state officials "from criminal exposure," her plea agreement said.
She pleaded guilty to concealing from the grand jury that Fawell used a "master list" at the secretary of state's office to keep track of favors doled out to legislators and others.
According to the plea agreement, Fawell often had Coutretsis pull the master list from the files while the General Assembly was in session so he could cajole legislators who had obtained favors to support Fawell and the Ryan administration's "governmental, political and campaign objectives."
The master list was a computer compilation of jobs, promotions, raises, contracts and specialty license plates doled out to "sponsors," a veritable who's who of politicians, business and labor leaders, judges, attorneys, reporters and TV personalities released during Fawell's trial earlier this year.
One of the hundreds of names on the list was that of Rick Pearson, Tribune political reporter, whose wife, Margaret, worked at the Illinois State Library from 1996 to 1998, when the library was under Ryan's control. Pearson has said he did not intervene on his wife's behalf, and Ryan said Pearson never asked him for help.
Coutretsis also admitted lying in grand jury appearances to cover up the shredding of sensitive documents during the 1998 campaign for governor after the federal probe of wrongdoing in the secretary of state's office became public.
She also acknowledged she had tried to mislead authorities about the Ryan administration's diverting of government resources to political campaigns and the awarding of low-digit license plates to campaign contributors.
If Holderman approves the plea deal, Coutretsis, 34, of Long Grove would be sentenced to 12 months in prison for her misconduct while in the secretary of state's office and Ryan's 1998 campaign for governor.
She could face additional time for her wrongdoing at McPier.
Cooperation has its advantages. Coutretsis was whisked away from the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse out of sight of reporters and cameras, and Fitzgerald addressed her as "Miss Coutretsis," her preferred name since her divorce. Before her cooperation, prosecutors routinely referred to her by her former married name of Prokos.
Agreement sealed
Prosecutors usually keep grand jury investigations a secret, but they disclosed the investigation of McPier during Fawell's stewardship to inform Holderman of the extent of Coutretsis' cooperation. An agreement with prosecutors that details her wrongdoing at McPier was sealed until charges are filed within about 90 days.
Prosecutors have previously accused Fawell in court papers of corruption while he ran McPier.
When he pleaded guilty to corruption charges in May, former state Rep. Roger Stanley alleged that Fawell had improperly steered McPier business to him.
According to court papers filed before Fawell's trial on corruption charges while he was Ryan's chief of staff at the secretary of state's office, prosecutors contended Fawell improperly awarded numerous McPier contracts to Stanley's political mailing business by rigging bids, awarding no-bid contracts and approving inflated billings.
In one scheme, Fawell initially agreed to steer a multimillion-dollar engineering contract to a client of Stanley's in return for a kickback and a job for Fawell with the company after he left McPier, according to the court papers.
Those discussions also included Donald Udstuen, a Ryan confidant who also has been convicted in Operation Safe Road and is cooperating with authorities, the court records show.
But the plan was aborted as the federal investigation heated up, authorities said.
While answering questions at the news conference, Fitzgerald took a swipe at Fawell's defense during his trial that he didn't do anything that hadn't been done by many others in state government for decades.
"He made that argument . . . and he's in Yankton," Fitzgerald said of the South Dakota federal prison camp where Fawell began serving his sentence last month for racketeering and campaign fraud.
Fitzgerald also said politics would play no part in how far the Operation Safe Road prosecution would go as the presidential election year approaches.
Without addressing any specific prosecution, Fitzgerald said, "We'll act or not act as to what's appropriate under the circumstances, and politics will have zero to do with it, zero."Copyright (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune