Man sentenced in Markham mayoral bribery scheme
An Alsip business owner has been sentenced to a year in federal prison in connection with a bribery scheme in Markham that also ensnared the city’s former mayor.
Thomas Summers, of Homer Glen, owner of Alsip-based Alsterda Cartage and Construction Co., was convicted by a federal jury of making false statements to FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents during a November 2016 interview as part of an investigation into bribes being paid to then- Markham Mayor DavidWebb Jr. by contractors seeking to maintain or expand business dealings with the city.
Summers was acquitted of conspiring to pay nearly $170,000 in bribesWebb.
Summers could have received probation, but U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman emphasized the severity and impact of public corruption and the need for general deterrence, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
In their sentencing memorandum to the judge, prosecutors had sought a sentence of three years and four months, while Summers’ lawyer, Douglas Whitney, had asked for probation, noting that apart fromthe federal conviction Summers “has never engaged in any unethical or improper dealings, let alone criminal conduct.”
Gettleman recommended that Summers be imprisoned in a facility as close to the Chicago area as possible, and ordered him to begin his sentence April 6.
Webb, who was Markham’s mayor from 2001 to 2017, pleaded guilty in 2018 and admitted to participating in a bribery scheme. He is scheduled to be sentenced inMarch.
A jury found Michael Jarigese, of Frankfort, and his company, Tower Contracting, guilty inMay 2019 of 10 counts of wire fraud and federal program bribery for givingWebb nearly $100,000 in bribes to securework fromthe city.
Jarigese was sentenced o three years and five months in prison, andMokena-based Tower was fined $1.2 million.
The indictment against Summers alleged Alsterda Cartage and Construction was paid a total of $3.5 million by Markham for various projects between 2008 and 2017.
In that time period, Summers paid a total of $169,015 in cash toWebb as well as checks to KAT Remodeling, a shell company that Webb set up in his children’s names that he allegedly used to funnel bribes, the indictment alleged.
Webb cooperated with prosecutors, pleading guilty to “honest services” wire fraud and the filing of a false tax return just weeks after his indictment in December 2017. As part of his deal with prosecutors, Webb admitted he took a combined $300,000 from Jarigese, Summers and other contractors beginning in 2008.
Webb testified in Jarigese’s trial that he spent the bribe money on things such as gambling trips to nearby casinos. Federal guidelines call forWebb to be sentenced to between seven and nine years in prison, but prosecutors have said they’ll recommend that Gettleman give him a lower sentence due to his cooperation.