From the Chicago Tribune

Figure in Safe Road probe pleads guilty
By Mike Robinson
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Associated Press Writer
Published February 26, 2004, 2:06 PM CST
A woman who worked at the heart of one of the state's most influential
lobbying firms pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to federal agents about
bid-rigging and promised to cooperate in the ongoing investigation of
corruption under former Gov. George Ryan.
"I was questioned by the federal government as to the numbers involved in a
procurement process, and I lied as to how I obtained the numbers,'' Julie
Starsiak told U.S. District Judge Blanche M. Manning at the hearing.
Starsiak, 56, was vice president of a firm headed by powerful lobbyist Al
Ronan, a major fund-raiser for candidates of both political parties in
Illinois.
Ronan is not charged with any wrongdoing, but his firm of Ronan Potts, LLC,
is named in the bid-rigging indictment along with Starsiak, former Ryan
chief of staff and campaign manager Scott Fawell, and Fawell's longtime
assistant Alexandria Coutretsis.
According to the indictment released earlier this month, Fawell told
Coutretsis to give details of sealed bids on a multi-million dollar
consulting contract at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to
Starsiak. Starsiak then passed them to executives at a Ronan Potts client,
Jacobs Facilities Inc. of St. Louis, which lowered its bid from $18.8
million to $11.5 million and won the contract.
The bid-rigging probe is part of the federal government's six-year Operation
Safe Road investigation of corruption that took place when Ryan was
secretary of state in the 1990s and later governor.
Seventy-one state employees and others have been charged in the
investigation. With Starsiak's plea Thursday, 60 have been convicted or
pleaded guilty.
Starsiak admitted in her plea that when she was questioned by FBI agents and
postal inspectors she denied knowing anything about bid-rigging, even though
the government had given her immunity from prosecution hoping she could
provide damaging evidence against Fawell.
Fawell, 46, is currently serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for racketeering. He
was convicted last year of using state employees and taxpayer dollars to
help fuel Ryan's election campaigns for more than a decade.
Ryan himself is awaiting trial on racketeering charges involving steering of
contracts to a favored lobbyist. He has pleaded innocent.
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune