Worth Township trustee charged in federal court with failing to file tax return

Federal prosecutors kicked off the new year with a fresh public corruption case Monday, filing a misdemeanor tax charge against a Worth Township trustee.

Richard J. Lewandowski, 61, has been charged in a one-page document, known as an information, which alleges he failed to file his 2018 income tax return by April 15, 2019. The filing of an information typically signals a defendant’s intention to plead guilty.

Reached by phone Monday, Lewandowski declined to comment.

Lewandowski is president of Breaker Press Co., records show. The commercial printer promotes itself online as a third-generation family company founded in the 1970s that has become “a well-known name in the political and corporate printing industry.”

The charging document filed against Lewandowski contains little detail. But it amounts to the first federal public corruption case of 2021, following a flurry of public corruption charges in 2020.

One of the feds’ ongoing criminal investigations revolves around the politically connected red-light camera company SafeSpeed. It has brought scrutiny to former Worth Township Supervisor John O’Sullivan, who worked as a sales consultant for SafeSpeed. He has not been charged with a crime.

It’s unclear if the case against Lewandowski is connected to that investigation.

A former SafeSpeed partner, Omar Maani, was charged last year with a bribery conspiracy but struck what’s known as a deferred-prosecution deal with prosecutors, agreeing to cooperate with them. Others caught up in SafeSpeed scandals include the late former state Sen. Martin Sandoval, Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta and Patrick Doherty, the onetime chief of staff to ex-Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski.

SafeSpeed, which has not been charged with wrongdoing, has portrayed Maani as a rogue actor who long ago left the firm.

Contributing: Mark Brown