From the Tribune:
4 more face charges in city bribery probe
By Matt O'Connor, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Mickey Ciokajlo
contributed to this report
Published March 16, 2007
Two city building inspectors are among four more people charged as part of an
investigation of City Hall bribery, according to criminal complaints unsealed
Thursday.
A total of five people now have been charged in the probe, the result largely
of the cooperation of another building inspector who agreed to work undercover
for authorities after he was accused of wrongdoing.
At a news conference Thursday, First Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Shapiro said the
investigation has exposed corruption in the city's zoning and building-permit
processes.
"The building-safety rules of the City of Chicago must not be for sale,"
said city Inspector General David Hoffman, whose office also took part in the
investigation.
The two city inspectors charged Thursday "were being paid by the citizens
of Chicago to protect their safety," Hoffman said. "Instead, they took
bribes so people could avoid those very safety issues."
Kurt Berger, 44, a supervisor in the city's Buildings Department, is accused of
pocketing a $1,000 bribe to remove a stop-work order for code violations at a
building under construction.
Miguel Diaz, 40, a Buildings Department inspector, is charged with taking a $1,000
payoff to fraudulently obtain a building permit for the renovation of a three-unit
apartment building.
Sorin Adrian Oros, 32, a contractor, is accused of paying a $12,000 bribe to the
undercover city inspector, and Steven Wallace, 28, a private individual accused
of pocketing $1,100 in bribes to skirt rules on another construction project.
Earlier this week, Darryl Williams, an electrical inspector for the city's Department
of Construction and Permits, was charged with accepting $16,000 in bribes.
The Tribune reported Wednesday that city employee David W. Johnson, a Buildings
Department inspector, worked undercover in the probe. He secretly recorded conversations
after he was arrested in December, accused of taking a $800 bribe from a government
informant.
Johnson's undercover work led to the charges against the five others.
Johnson, who worked for the city since 1994, resigned on Tuesday, said Peter Scales,
a spokesman for the Buildings Department.
Authorities said Johnson will be charged as well.
Scales said the three city employees charged with bribery were placed on paid
administrative leaves Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, before the charges were announced, Mayor Richard Daley applauded
the work of the inspector general's office, but called the matter "minor."
The Buildings Department has been rocked by scandal in recent years. In 2005 the
Tribune reported some 250 hazardous porches hadn't been repaired two years after
being cited for violations in the wake of a porch collapse in Lincoln Park that
killed 13 people. A year earlier, four building inspectors, including sons of
two high-ranking union officials, resigned or were fired when officials determined
they were unqualified for their jobs. One of the sons was 19 years old.
Shapiro, the No. 2 official in the U.S. attorney's office, said the bribery probe
is separate from other federal investigations of City Hall's patronage hiring
and its Hired Truck Program.
Shapiro said he remains dismayed that some city employees continue to jeopardize
their jobs and freedom for relatively small bribes.
"It just doesn't strike me that it's worth a couple of thousand dollars [in
bribes]," Shapiro said.
The salaries of the three city employees charged so far ranged from about $71,600
to $89,400, Scales said.
The charges were the result of the first joint investigation between federal authorities
and the city's inspector general's office since its formation in 1989. Hoffman,
a former federal prosecutor, became inspector general in 2005. The U.S. Postal
Inspection Service led the probe for federal authorities.
Shapiro said the investigation was launched after a victim of a shakedown complained
to postal inspectors.