Blagojevich fundraiser Kelly gets 37 months in tax fraud case

Christopher G. Kelly, a fundraiser for indicted ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for trying to deceive the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Kelly, 50, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo in Chicago. In January, he pleaded guilty to structuring cash transactions to avoid IRS reporting requirements and to impeding the agency's ability to identify and assess his taxable income.

"I'm deeply sorry," Kelly told Bucklo before she imposed the punishment, which includes an order to pay $601,000 in restitution and a $7,500 fine. He still faces charges in two other criminal cases.

Kelly, of Burr Ridge, Illinois, was one of five people indicted with Blagojevich in April on public corruption-charges. Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat accused with Kelly of racketeering conspiracy, has pleaded innocent in that case.

Kelly and his business, BCI Commercial Roofing Inc., in February were indicted for allegedly overbilling UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and AMR Corp.'s American Airlines for work done between 1998 and 2006 on their terminals at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

He has entered pleas of not guilty in each of those cases. Bucklo ordered to Kelly to surrender to U.S. authorities for incarceration by Nov. 2.

Kelly was initially accused by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago in December 2007 of underreporting more than $1.3 million in personal and business income between 2000 and 2005 in a 12-count indictment.

Fitzgerald's spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment on the sentence