USA vs. James Weiss
Businessman James Weiss, son-in-law of former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, was accused of paying bribes to state lawmakers Luis Arroyo and Terry Link to advance legislation in the General Assembly.
The feds agreed that the Vernon Hills Democrat deserved probation despite his tax crimes, asking U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland for the light sentence in a memo last week.
A 10-page memo Tuesday offered few new details about Link’s cooperation or crime, but it showed the value of Link’s undercover work to the feds.
Link testified that he’d withdrawn money from his campaign account and “used some for gambling.” He also told jurors that “I was helping a friend who was in dire need.”
The judge spent part of the businessman’s sentencing hearing asking about Chicago’s persistent graft, saying to a prosecutor, ‘Why does public corruption keep happening?’
Prosecutors revealed secretly recorded conversations Wednesday as they sought a prison sentence of more than five years for James T. Weiss, convicted this year of bribing two Illinois lawmakers.
The indictment against Joseph Weiss was handed up in August 2022 but unsealed this week. Prosecutors moved to keep it under seal in February, saying the investigation “extends beyond Joseph Weiss, and is ongoing.”
Lawyers for James T. Weiss argued the bill he wanted to pass would have generated at least one penny in tax revenue on each transaction on so-called sweepstakes machines.
Link’s entanglement with the feds first became known in October 2019, when the Chicago Sun-Times and other media reported he was the unnamed state senator who wore a wire against then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo. Link lied to reporters at the time and claimed it wasn’t him.
The verdict is the second in less than two months to address separate bribery schemes inside the Illinois Capitol. Weiss is a son-in-law of former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios.
The jury of five men and seven women is expected to begin deliberations Thursday in the trial of James Weiss.
Weiss is accused of bribing two state lawmakers to push legislation in Springfield, but the focus Tuesday turned from the state capitol to City Hall.
The latest public corruption trial at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse appears to be nearing its end, with closing arguments possibly as soon as Wednesday.
They look like slot machines but are unregulated and untaxed thanks to loopholes in Illinois’ gaming laws. James T. Weiss is accused of paying bribes to a legislator to promote and vote for legislation related to sweepstakes machines.
Link gave his testimony in the trial of businessman James T. Weiss, who is accused of bribing Link and former state Rep. Luis Arroyo. Arroyo has pleaded guilty to the scheme and is serving a nearly five-year prison sentence.
Weiss is accused of bribing former state legislators Luis Arroyo and Terry Link to advance legislation in the General Assembly related to unregulated gambling devices known as sweepstakes machines.
Trial begins for businessman charged in bribery scheme that brought down former lawmaker Luis Arroyo
The trial of James T. Weiss is expected to feature secret FBI recordings, the business of lobbying and testimony from current and former state lawmakers.
James T. Weiss’ attorney wound up having to raise his hand to speak in court, including when he said he had to use the bathroom. He claimed he’d been unlawfully restrained and had thrown up in a cup. He told the judge, “look at the cup!”
Arroyo sat at the defense table and listened as the judge thoroughly denounced his crime and the pervasiveness of public corruption in Chicago.
Sending Arroyo to prison wouldn’t have any effect on other politicians’ behavior, his lawyers argued in a sentencing memo filed Saturday.
It’s been two years since prosecutors first charged Arroyo with bribery amid a series of burgeoning public corruption probes. The case revealed the on-and-off cooperation with the FBI of a state senator who wore a wire on Arroyo.