Ex-Chicago alderman gets 10 months in prison

A former alderman whose exploits as one of Chicago's most powerful politicians earned him the nickname 'Fast Eddie' will go to prison for 10 months, a federal judge ruled on Friday in a re-sentencing for a $1.5 million real estate kickback scheme.

Edward Vrdolyak sat blank-faced, his eyes cast down as the judge spoke about why the 72-year-old should spent time behind bars, reversing what was for many the first sentencing judge's stunning decision to give him probation and keep him out of prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly didn't come close to prosecutors' recommendation of a 3½-year sentence, saying sending him away for that long would have been "unjust."

In a 30-minute preamble, Kennelly, who wasn't the initial sentencing judge, said he had to balance the severity of the crime with Vrdolyak's history of helping people in need.

"Mr. Vrdolyak is someone who has acted in a venal way ... as a criminal," the judge said. "But he's also acted to help out powerless people ... time and time again."

Kennelly held up around 50 letters from people Vrdolyak helped, saying that one was from a doctor who described how Vrdolyak had arranged treatment for at least 100 people.

But the judge, who also fined Vrdolyak $250,000, dismissed the notion Vrdolyak had been a minor player in the crime, saying it required advanced intelligence and calculation.

"It was a very serious, sophisticated crime by sophisticated people who were able to pull the wool over other sophisticated people," Kennelly told the crowded courtroom.

Earlier in the day, a seemingly contrite Vrdolyak approached the bench to apologize.

"I couldn't be more sorry," he said in a one-minute statement. "It was stupid. I was wrong."

Vrdolyak, who led an opposition bloc to Mayor Harold Washington during the so-called "Council Wars" of the 1980s, has been out of politics for more than a decade. But he has remained prominent in Chicago, where he is often referred to by the nickname 'Fast Eddie.'

Vrdolyak smiled broadly as he walked away from the courthouse last year when he received probation. In ordering a re-sentencing with a new judge, an appeals court early this year compared the five-years probation to a slap on the wrist.

On Friday, he appeared glum, refusing to speak to reporters.

Defense attorney Michael Monico said Vrdolyak would not appeal the 10-month sentence, and he would have to report to a federal prison early next year.

"He is very happy that it's over and that he can get on with his life," Monico told reporters about Vrdolyak's reaction to the sentence.

The prosecutor who had argued for a much stiffer prison earlier in the day stopped short of saying he was disappointed in the sentence.

"It wasn't the sentenced we asked for him," said a curt Chris Niewoehner.

Vrdolyak pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, acknowledging he arranged a $1.5 million payment for attorney Stuart Levine in the $15 million sale of a Near North Side property by Chicago Medical School — now called the Rosalind Franklin University of Science and Medicine.

Vrdolyak admitted he was to split the payment with Levine, who became the government's star witness in the trial that ended in the fraud conviction of Tony Rezko, a top fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In an hour-and-a-half of arguments before the judge handed down the sentence, Niewoehner said Vrdolyak, despite power and wealth he'd already accumulated prior to the building scheme, employed his smarts and influence to help defraud people of money they needed.

The money the school lost out on, he said, could have been used for scientific research.

"Mr. Vrdolyak has great skill," Niewoehner told the courtroom. "He may choose to use that for good or he may choose to use that for bad. In this case, he chose bad."