From the Chicago Tribune

Lobbyist sentenced for McPier bid-rigging

11/30/2004

By Matt O'Connor
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 30, 200
A lobbying firm that had ranked among Illinois' most powerful was ordered today to pay more than $400,000 and serve two years' probation as part of a plea agreement to settle federal bid-rigging charges.
U.S. District Judge Blanche Manning handed down the sentence against Ronan Potts LLC in connection with the scheme arising from the expansion of McCormick Place. The firm has agreed to pay a $350,000 fine and forfeit $67,000 in fees.
Ronan Potts admitted in federal court Sept. 2 that it got sealed-bid information in 2001 from a top assistant to Scott Fawell, an aide to former Gov. George Ryan who at the time of the scheme headed the public agency that oversees operations at McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
The lobbyist then passed the information to a St. Louis-based engineering firm that used the data to drop its bid by more than $7 million so it could win an $11.5 million contract, part of the McCormick Place expansion project, prosecutors have said.
Fawell, who is serving a 6 1/2 year prison term in a minimum-security camp in South Dakota after he was convicted last year of misusing state resources for political purposes, pleaded guilty Sept. 14 to his role in the bid-rigging scheme.
He reportedly is cooperating with federal authorities with the aim of obtaining a reduced sentence for Andrea Coutretsis, his assistant and girlfriend who previously pleaded guilty in the case.
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