This guy was supposed to be clean

Crestwood mayor indicted in red-light camera bribery scheme
Louis Presta has also been charged with filing false tax returns and lying to the FBI and IRS, allegedly about whether an envelope he took during a March 2018 meeting had been stuffed full of $5,000 in cash.

 
By Jon Seidel and Robert Herguth Aug 7, 2020, 3:17pm CDT


Louis Presta Rich Hein / Sun-Times

The mayor of southwest suburban Crestwood faces federal bribery charges in a new indictment made public Friday that centers on the politically connected red-light camera company SafeSpeed, court records show.

Louis Presta, 69, has also been charged with filing false tax returns and lying to the FBI and IRS,
allegedly about whether an envelope Presta took during a March 2018 meeting with a SafeSpeed representative had been stuffed with $5,000 cash.

Presta’s indictment is the latest public sign of the feds’ ongoing public corruption investigations, which last month led to a bribery charge against the utility company ComEd. However, Presta’s indictment appears to be part of a separate investigation that earlier this year led to a guilty plea by former state Sen. Martin Sandoval.

In the Presta case, prosecutors say he sought and received benefits from SafeSpeed representatives while SafeSpeed sought to expand its services in Crestwood. They also say Presta was interviewed by federal authorities Sept. 26 amid a series of raids by federal agents that included Sandoval’s office at the state capitol in Springfield.

During Presta’s interview, the feds say he denied receiving any gifts, cash or campaign contributions from SafeSpeed. Then, when shown a recording of a March 7, 2018, meeting at which the feds say he accepted the envelope with $5,000 in cash, Presta allegedly lied and said there was no money in the envelope.

Presta, who ran unsuccessfully for Cook County Board in 2018, is also charged with filing false income tax returns for the years 2015 and 2018, as well as failing to file an income tax return for 2014.

Reached in February by the Chicago Sun-Times, Presta said he wasn’t cooperating with authorities and hadn’t “heard from them in months . . . no communication at all going on.”


Presta said at the time that he wasn’t afraid of getting charged and hadn’t done anything wrong. “No, I’m doing business every day,” he said.

Presta, who was elected mayor in 2013, couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, nor could his defense attorney, Thomas Breen.

A source told a reporter earlier this year that IRS agents have been asking questions about Presta’s campaign fund and his Michigan vacation condominium, which sits on a lake.

Crestwood has been one of the most lucrative communities for SafeSpeed, and the village’s red-light program has also been the subject of a class-action lawsuit.

Sandoval pleaded guilty to corruption charges related to SafeSpeed in January and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. His plea agreement said he “engaged in corrupt activities with other public officials” and took more than $250,000 “in bribes as part of criminal activity that involved more than five participants.”

Sandoval’s name has also surfaced in the separate federal investigation of ComEd. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has been implicated in the ComEd investigation but he has not been charged with a crime and denies wrongdoing.

Also facing charges related to SafeSpeed is Patrick Doherty, once chief of staff to former Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski. Doherty worked as a paid consultant for SafeSpeed.

Zachary Fardon, the former U.S. attorney for the Chicago area, is representing SafeSpeed in a civil case but declined to say whether he’s also representing them in any criminal case. The company wouldn’t answer questions about whether SafeSpeed has been contacted by federal investigators or is now cooperating.

Previously, SafeSpeed has denied doing anything wrong and portrayed any misdeeds as the work of a rogue partner, Omar Maani, who is now believed to be cooperating with the feds.

In a statement Friday, the company said, “SafeSpeed does not condone the conduct alleged in the indictment against Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta. There is no place for that conduct by public officials, or people who operate in the red-light camera industry.”

“SafeSpeed certainly does not tolerate this behavior,” it said. “The company holds its employees and representatives to high standards of conduct and ethics.”

Maani’s name appeared Friday amid a flurry of filings by Presta’s campaign committee with the Illinois State Board of Elections. In one, Presta acknowledged a $5,000 in-kind contribution from Maani in March 2018 for “Election day workers and expenses.”


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