Joseph Weiss, brother of convicted businessman James Weiss, pleaded guilty Monday to lying to the FBI and the IRS about James Weiss’ ties to the late Chicago mobster Frank “The German” Schweihs.
The charges against Joseph Weiss became public last October, revealing the alleged connection between his brother and Schweihs days before James Weiss was set to be sentenced.
James Weiss is now serving a 5 ½-year prison term for bribing two state lawmakers: then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo and then-state Sen. Terry Link. James Weiss, who is in a federal prison facility in Minnesota, is not due to be released until August 2028. He is a son-in-law of former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios.
Arroyo is serving a sentence of nearly five years in Florida and is not due out until December 2025. Link cooperated with the FBI and was sentenced to probation after helping the feds secure the convictions of Arroyo and James Weiss.
Now Joseph Weiss faces a maximum of five years behind bars when he is sentenced, though federal guidelines call for a term of up to six months. That hearing is set for Aug. 12. He was charged in a two-count indictment that accused him of lying to the feds on Jan. 13, 2022, and attempting to obstruct justice. The charges were filed in August 2022 but kept under seal for more than a year.
**FILE** An undated file photo provided by the U.S. Attorney’s office, Northern District of Illinois, shows alleged mob enforcer Frank “The German” Schweihs. Schweihs, 78, died Wednesday, July 23, 2008, while awaiting trial on federal charges that he took part in a racketeering conspiracy and took part in two long-unsolved mob murders. (AP Photo/U.S. Attorney’s office, Northern District of Illinois, File)
AP
Prosecutors then revealed details of a secretly recorded conversation in which Joseph Weiss insisted James Weiss had been “partners” with Schweihs, and that James Weiss once turned to Schweihs for help with “some Russians” who had “busted up” his store.
“Jimmy and Frank were good friends,” Joseph Weiss said in that recorded conversation, according to federal prosecutors. “And some Russians were muscling Jimmy, but Frank was on the run. Frank was in hiding, and Jimmy called Frank and said, ‘Hey,’ ‘cause they were partners. And Jimmy says, ‘Hey, man, these guys just busted up my f---ing store. Scared the f--- out of the girls, this and that, you know, I need your help, where the f--- are you?’”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Stone explained in court Monday that agents questioned Joseph Weiss while exploring mob ties to sweepstakes gambling machines, which look like video slot machines but offer “free play” options and coupons to users.
Prosecutors tried to bring up the Schweihs connection during James Weiss’ sentencing hearing last October, but U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger said he wouldn’t consider it. He said, “I don’t know anything about Frank ‘The German.’”
But later, after the hearing, James Weiss confronted news reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse and accused them of recklessly reporting the allegation. He adamantly denied any tie to Schweihs, and he pointed to their age difference.
James Weiss is 45. Schweihs died 16 years ago, in 2008, at age 78.
