Fawell lover charged with perjury
May 29, 2003

BY STEVE WARMBIR AND TIM NOVAK Staff Reporters

For her lover and boss Scott Fawell, Andrea Coutretsis Prokos dumped her husband.

She destroyed evidence, according to court testimony. And she lied and lied and lied some more to a grand jury investigating Fawell, the feds allege.

Prokos, the mother of two small children, was indicted Wednesday on eight counts of perjury and is the 63rd defendant to be charged in the federal corruption probe dubbed Operation Safe Road.

The indictment of Prokos ratchets up the pressure on her lover, Fawell, to cooperate with the probe of corruption under then-Secretary of State George Ryan.

Fawell is expected to be put before the grand jury after he is sentenced in June. He faces up to 14 years in prison for widespread corruption while he was Ryan's righthand man.

So far, Fawell has refused to cooperate with the feds. Ryan has not been charged.

The government did not specify a motive for Prokos' allegedly lying to the federal grand jury during six appearances from April 2001 to January 2002.

But all of the lies related to the investigation of Fawell, according to the indictment.

Even though Prokos, 34, of Hawthorn Woods, had received immunity from prosecution from anything she told the grand jury, she still lied, the feds allege. Neither she nor her attorney returned messages Wednesday.

Prokos can't be prosecuted for the corruption she was quizzed on. But the immunity doesn't protect her for any lies she allegedly told.

"Immunity never protects the witness from perjury," Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins said.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald argued Wednesday that the only way to make granting immunity to witnesses work as a tool for prosecutors is to go after those who lie before the grand jury.

The feds list a cornucopia of baldfaced lies Prokos is accused of telling about the man whose career in government she has trailed for a decade. From 1993 to 1998, she was a key assistant to Fawell, who worked as chief of staff or as key campaign aide to Ryan, who was at that time Illinois' secretary of state.

In 1999, after Ryan was elected governor, Fawell moved over to the agency that runs McCormick Place and Navy Pier, and Prokos followed as his director of operations.

Fawell was fired from his $195,000 job as one of Gov. Blagojevich's first acts in January. A few weeks later, Prokos was laid off.

Prokos' father, Tom Coutretsis, also has ties to Navy Pier, owning a fast-food restaurant called Tommy's Greek Express in the food court, which he opened in 1996 before Fawell took command.

While Fawell was in charge, Tom Coutretsis did work as a consultant to help Sam Sianis, of Billy Goat tavern fame, open a Billy Goat on Navy Pier.

Tom Coutretsis, 58, of northwest suburban Long Grove, has been a loyal Republican supporter--and his family has been rewarded. His daughters, Andrea and Tina, got jobs under Ryan while he was secretary of state, as did a son-in-law, Dean Prokos. Dean and Andrea Prokos ended their eight-year marriage in May 2001. Fawell and his wife, Joan, divorced this year.

In the indictment Wednesday, federal authorities allege that Andrea Prokos lied on many matters.

She is accused of lying about the purpose of the now-infamous master list, which Fawell kept to show who received favors from the secretary of state's office, from state jobs to special license plates.

She also allegedly lied about her and Fawell having state workers do political work for Ryan when he was running for governor in 1998.

Another subject Prokos is accused of lying about related to the destruction of documents, including her telling employees to destroy papers.

She also is charged with not telling the truth about the reason for destroying documents and a computer Zip disc.

Prokos said the documents were destroyed to protect employees' privacy.

In fact, the Zip disc, which Prokos wanted destroyed, provided key evidence against Fawell at trial, including the master list, officials said. Prokos' ex-husband wound up having the Zip disc turned over to the feds.

She even allegedly lied about whether she and Fawell had overnight stays at a McCormick Place hotel charged to McPier at taxpayer expense.

Out of the more than 100 such hotel charges for Fawell, Prokos or an unnamed Fawell friend, many were for personal use, the feds allege.