Category Archives: Press Releases

A former Chicago woman who provided extraordinary cooperation in Operation Crooked Code, a federal public corruption investigation of the City of Chicago building permit process, avoided prison and was sentenced on January 14, 2011 to three years of probation. The defendant, Catherine Romasanta, testified in four federal trials about how she paid bribes to city […]

In response to a series of investigations concerning violations of the City’s gift policy (Section 2-156-040 of the City of Chicago’s Ethics Ordinance), the OIG is recommending that the Mayor institute a City-wide “no-gifts” policy. “In examining gift related cases my office has investigated over the past year alone, it is clear that this recommendation […]

A City of Chicago building inspector was sentenced December 17, 2010 to three years in federal prison after being convicted at trial in September on bribery charges for accepting two $1,000 cash bribes from a cooperating contractor and demanding two $2,000 cash bribes from developers to approve inspections at residential and commercial construction sites, federal […]

A former general contractor was sentenced to 5 years of probation today December 13, 2010 in federal court. Padraig Gravin pled guilty to bribery charges on March 2, 2010 for trying to pay a $500 bribe to a City official. The bribe was meant to secure a favorable inspection related to the issuance of a […]

A City of Chicago employee was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison today. Mario Olivella, 43, has been a supervisory plumbing inspector for the City’s Department of Buildings since 1998. A federal jury found him guilty in January of two counts of bribery and conspiracy for taking bribes to overlook code violations at a […]

Following a City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation, an indictment has been filed in the Ciruit Court of Cook County charging a former City of Chicago contractor with four counts of theft from City of Chicago.