Chicago businessman, wife get federal prison in grant fraud
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A Chicago businessman convicted of pocketing nearly $3 million in state grants funds was sentenced to six years in prison Monday after a federal prosecutor declared that Illinois government corruption "seems to be the norm anymore, rather than the exception."
U.S. District Judge Richard Mills imposed the sentence - short of the eight years the government requested - on Leon Dingle Jr. for his role in a six-year fraud involving Illinois Department of Public Health funds. He was also ordered to pay $2.9 million in restitution.
After a sentencing hearing lasting more than two hours, Mills ordered Dingle's wife, Karin, to spend three years in prison for her role in the scheme. Leon Dingle, 78, was convicted last December of 17 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering. Karin Dingle, 76, was convicted on six counts.
The Dingles were ordered to report to federal officials within 90 days.
Mills took into consideration 55 letters of support for Leon Dingle, including from U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, a Chicago Democrat and uncle of a co-defendant in the case, and Alphonso Jackson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George W. Bush. The judge noted that Dingle became wealthy by investing in a cable television company and spent years in health care and doing charitable work.
"Dr. Dingle has done a lot of good in his life," Mills said. "But this is a very serious offense involving a staggering amount of money that went on for several years. It's not an aberration or something that occurred once or twice."
Noting Dingle's accumulated wealth, Mills said, "This offense was based on greed."
Dingle told The Associated Press after his wife's sentencing that neither judgment was fair. "We stand firm in our position that we're not guilty," he said. The Dingles' attorneys said each would appeal.
Before Mills, Leon Dingle was contrite.
"I worked very hard all my life," Dingle said. "My relationship with the Lord always let me to help those in need. ... Until this trial, I saw no need to change anything in my life. Maybe I was asleep at the wheel and for that I am sorry."
The grants, totaling $11 million, were meant to go toward AIDS awareness and to provide for cervical, breast and other types of cancer screening and education in minority and other underprivileged communities. They were no-bid, upfront-funded grants. Trial evidence showed the Dingles used not-for-profit organizations as straw grantees to solicit the grants and used millions to finance a lavish lifestyle: luxury cars; renovations of vacation homes in Savannah, Georgia, and Hilton Head, South Carolina; yacht-club expenses; and copious family gifts, including a $95,000 payment on their son's mortgage.
"It's another reflection, an unfortunate example of the corruption in Illinois state government, which seems to be the norm, anymore, rather than the exception," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass said.
The Dingles have already sold property totaling more than $1 million toward restitution. With the sale of vacation homes, a boat and a Chicago condo, Leon Dingle's attorney, Ed Genson, noted restitution could be completely satisfied - a rarity in such cases.
Among those who testified at least year's trial was Dr. Eric Whitaker, a close friend of President Barack Obama's who was director of the Public Health Department from 2003 to 2007. U.S. Attorney James Lewis said last year that Whitaker was not a target of the investigation.
The case had earlier snagged guilty pleas from four others, including Quinshaunta Golden, Davis' niece, who was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in a kickback scheme on the grants when she was chief of staff at the Public Health Department.
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Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/john-oconnor