Chicago bars businessman convicted of fraud for 3 years
The city of Chicago has barred three businessmen convicted of contract fraud from doing business with the city for three years, ignoring a recommendation that they never be allowed to do work for the city.
James Duff, whose family has raised money for Mayor Richard Daley's campaigns, was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to racketeering and other charges.
Prosecutors said Windy City Maintenance, which Duff headed, received $100 million in city contracts reserved for minority- and female-owned businesses by claiming two companies he ran actually were headed by his mother and a black friend.
After Duff was sentenced to prison, Inspector General David Hoffman said he and two co-defendants, William Stratton and Terrence Dolan, receive lifetime bans.
"Allowing the defendants in this case to be eligible for city contracts in the future sends a message that is inconsistent with deterrence and integrity in the system," Hoffman told the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday. "If racketeering, fraud and money laundering only merit three years' disbarment, then it will be hard to convince other contractors that their misconduct will result in a powerful financial sanction."
Karen Bates of the Department of Procurement Services said current rules do not allow for a lifetime ban and that no contractor ever has been banned permanently from doing business with the city.
Hoffman disagrees about the rules. He said the Chicago City Council should consider if the municipal code should be amended to explicitly allow for permanent bans.
Duff, 49, is in the Yankton federal prison camp in South Dakota. He would be eligible to obtain city contracts in 2011, three years before his expected release.
Stratton, 66, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison and is incarcerated in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Dolan, 56, has served his 21-month sentence and says obtaining business from the city of Chicago for the Hinsdale janitorial firm he helps run is the "farthest thing" from his mind.