NYC construction firm reportedly linked to FBI raid on Mayor Adams' fundraiser is major player, has ties to Turkey
2023/11/03
NEW YORK — A Brooklyn construction firm reportedly identified as part of a federal corruption inquiry into Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign has an extensive real estate portfolio across New York City and ties to Turkey, whose government has also been named as a potential player.
KSK Construction Group, a Brooklyn-based firm, has real estate interests in the commercial, residential and hospitality fields across New York City. The firm has overseen at least 39 projects, including luxury properties in Manhattan and Brooklyn, a shopping center in Harlem and a Marriott Courtyard Hotel.
As first reported by The New York Times, a search warrant authorizing the early Thursday raid at the home of Adams campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs instructed the FBI to search for evidence of allegations that Adams’ 2021 campaign conspired with KSK and the Turkish government to funnel foreign cash into the campaign’s coffers via straw donors.
Neither Adams nor Suggs has been accused of any wrongdoing as part of the FBI probe that prompted the raid at Suggs’ home.
In a statement Friday afternoon, Adams said he’s “outraged and angry if anyone attempted to use the campaign to manipulate our democracy and defraud our campaign.”
“I want to be clear, I have no knowledge, direct or otherwise, of any improper fundraising activity — and certainly not of any foreign money,” his statement said. “We will of course work with officials to respond to inquiries, as appropriate—as we always have.”
KSK, which has its office on North 10th St. near Williamsburg’s McCarren Park, was incorporated in 2010, according to state business records. City records show 11 KSK employees gave nearly $14,000 to Adams’ campaign on the same day in 2021, with nearly all of them listed as donating $1,250 each. Among the KSK executives who contributed was Erden Arkan, who’s listed in records as the company’s owner.
KSK has a number of links to Turkey, the New York Daily News has found.
According to state commercial code records, KSK holds debt with the New York branch of Vakiflar Bankasi, Turkey’s second largest government-owned bank. The records do not make clear how much debt KSK holds.
Arkan states on his LinkedIn profile that he received his education at Istanbul University in Turkey.
There are also links between KSK and a major Turkish construction company, Kiska, which has not been named in connection with the investigation or accused of any wrongdoing.
One of Arkan’s fellow principals at KSK, Ulgur Aydin, told the trade publication Construction Today in 2021 that he, Arkan and a third partner, Selim Akyuz, launched the company after working together at KiSKA Construction, a Turkish-based firm that’s completed big projects for Turkey’s government.
“KSK is a company that was born from KiSKA Construction,” Aydin told the trade publication at the time.
KiSKA is one of Turkey’s largest construction companies, with offices in New York City and Ankara. On its website, KiSKA says it has carried out 91 public works projects in Turkey, including work for Turkey’s Ministry of Defense, General Directorate of Provincial Bank and General Directorate of State Airports Authority, according to the website.
KiSKA also has a major footprint in New York City real estate. The company owns Marmara, a hotel chain with two locations in Manhattan, and has worked on iconic construction projects in the city, including the High Line in the Meatpacking District, KiSKA’s founder Oguz Gursel told the Turk Of America magazine in 2014.
Representatives for KSK and KiSKA did not return requests for comment Friday.
There are also additional ties between the two entities beyond the fact that KSK’s partners used to work at KiSKA, according to records reviewed by the Daily News.
State business records show KiSKA Development Group, one of several limited liability corporations used by KiSKA Construction, was housed at the same Williamsburg address as KSK between 2008 and 2017.
On LinkedIn, Arkan, KSK’s owner, still lists himself as a “principal” at Kiska Group. His partner, Aydin, lists himself as a principal of KSK on his LinkedIn profile, but notes that KSK was “formerly known as Kiska Group.”
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© New York Daily News
‘You’ll find out that Chicago’s a very small town’: Evidence in ex-Alderman Edward Burke trial to lay bare inner workings of one of city’s last machine politicians
2023/11/04
Outlining the charges
Jury selection is set to get underway Monday morning in the 25th floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, a former federal prosecutor who inherited the case after the previous judge took a job with the U.S. Supreme Court.
A pool of more than 100 prospective jurors who were prescreened for their ability to sit for the potentially six-week trial filled out lengthy questionnaires at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Friday, answering questions about their knowledge of the case, their feelings about politicians, and other potential biases.
Live questioning of the jury pool will be done in groups of 50 and will likely take at least two days, with Kendall asking initial questions and each side getting the chance to follow up with specific issues. Opening statements in the case could come as soon as Wednesday.
Monday’s proceedings will mark the first time Burke has stepped foot in the federal courthouse since his arraignment on the indictment on June 4, 2019, shortly after Burke had been sworn in for a record 13th full term as alderman.
On that day, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot reiterated calls for Burke to resign, but he refused, hanging on to his longtime seat in the City Council until finally stepping down in May after deciding not to run for reelection.
Burke, 79, is charged with 14 counts including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
Burke’s longtime ward aide, Peter Andrews Jr., 73, is charged with one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity, and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
A third defendant, real estate developer Charles Cui, 52, of Lake Forest, is charged with one count of federal program bribery, three counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity, and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
All three have pleaded not guilty.
The allegations
At the heart of the indictment are four separate schemes.
The first, which is the only one to involve Solis, alleged Burke threatened to use his official office to corruptly induce the post office developer to hire his law firm, Klafter & Burke.
In that first meeting with Skydell, Solis recorded Burke telling the developer it would “be an honor to do business” with him, while also dropping remarks about his influence in the city, according to prosecutors.
“There aren’t too many people around town that we don’t know,” Burke said at one point.
“I’d be surprised if you don’t know somebody here,” Skydell replied. “If you don’t know somebody, he’s a nobody.”
According to the indictment, the post office project needed help negotiating with Amtrak over air rights the rail company had over part of the post office site. Burke repeatedly assured Skydell on the wiretaps that he had friends on the Amtrak board and could make any issues go away, according to the charges.
Months later, when Burke was told Skydell may need some help from the Water Department over access to water at the site, the alderman allegedly set up a meeting to discuss the issue.
But he abandoned the idea when the Tribune ran a March 21, 2017, story that reported possible ethical violations with the post office project, including an effort to help get access to Amtrak-controlled space beneath the building.
Burke backed out of the meeting, explaining he was “nervous” about the water commissioner and worried about whether his planned intervention could be kept discrete, prosecutors have alleged in court filings.
“In light of the Chicago Tribune expose, Burke was conscious that his activities were unlawful and that he would seek to exert his influence indirectly, including over the telephone,” according to prosecutors.
In the end, Skydell never did pay Burke for any property tax work, according to court records.
Hiring Burke’s firm
Another of the four alleged schemes in the 59-page indictment promises to give jurors an in-depth look at Chicago’s byzantine zoning and building processes that were allegedly threatening Cui’s development in the Six Corners area of Portage Park.
According to prosecutors, in mid-2017, liquor store chain Binny’s Beverage Depot had drastically cut its lease with Cui’s development at 4901 W. Irving Park Road because the city had denied use of an old, stand-alone pole sign previously used by a bank at the location.
Cui stood to lose $750,000 in the renegotiated lease deal, which could have in turn affected his $4 million in tax-increment financing from City Hall, according to prosecutors.
So in an attempt to get the Buildings Department to approve use of the sign, he decided to enlist Burke, leaving a voicemail on Aug. 23, 2017, about needing help with a “legal matter” and emailed him seeking advice about the pole sign dilemma, according to court records.
The next day, Cui emailed the attorney who had been doing his property tax appeals and asked if Burke could handle the Portage Park project, at least for the next year, records show.
“I have TIF deal going with City, and he is the Chairman of the Finance Committee,” Cui wrote. “He (handed) his tax appeal business card to me, and I need his favor for my tif money. In addition, I need his help for my zoning etc for my project. He is a powerful broker in City Hall, and I need him now.”
Cui also emailed Burke asking him for representation from Klafter & Burke, records show.
On Aug, 25. Burke responded to Cui’s email saying someone from his firm will reach out. Over the next week, Burke was caught on wiretaps telling his assistant to call then-Buildings Commissioner Judy Frydland about the pole sign, according to court records.
After Frydland talked about it with Cui, he had his zoning attorney submit a photoshopped image of the sign to the Buildings Department purporting to show the sign had been in recent use.
On Sept. 5, less than two weeks after his first outreach to Burke, Cui signed contingent-fee paperwork hiring Klafter & Burke for the Portage Park development, according to records.
By that time, however, Cui’s photoshopped image was red-flagged by a Buildings Department design specialist, who brought it to Frydland’s attention, according to court records.
Cui tried to claim the image came from a real estate broker who could vouch for the image’s accuracy, and, after learning about the issue, Burke allegedly had his assistant contact a zoning administrator to help resolve it, according to court records. Both efforts failed, and City Hall’s denial of the sign permit became final on Nov. 6.
Over the next several weeks, however, Burke voted in favor of several other measures involving Cui’s property that came before the City Council, including a permit for a different sign board and an ordinance granting a privilege “in the public way,” according to prosecutors.
Burger King ‘hard ball’
A third alleged scheme in the indictment accused Andrews, Burke’s longtime political aide, of assisting the alderman in attempting to shake down two Texas-based business owners after they came to him for help with a Burger King restaurant they were renovating in the 14th Ward.
According to the charges, Burke was captured in dozens of conversations from May 2017 to January 2018 talking bluntly about the alleged extortion of the executives, whose Dhanani Group is one of the country’s largest franchisees for Popeyes and Burger King restaurants.
In June 2017, the FBI intercepted a phone call between Burke and one of the executives, who still seemed caught off guard over the purported shakedown and uncertain how to react. At one point, Burke said he needed assurances that he’d get the business before “we can expedite your permits,” according to the allegations.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Burke. What was that last part?” the executive said, according to court records.
Later, after Burke drove by the restaurant on South Pulaski Road and realized they had moved forward with construction without hiring his law firm as promised, Burke was recorded strategizing with his staffers on how to play “hard ball,” according to prosecutors.
“I took ‘em to lunch,” Burke allegedly told Andrews in a phone call in October 2017. “I was playing nice with ‘em — never got back.”
“All right, I’ll play as hard ball as I can,” Andrews replied, according to court records.
Burke had a stop-work order placed on the project and also sent a Chicago Department of Transportation inspector to the site to issue tickets for failure to procure a permit for a driveway at the restaurant that actually had been previously obtained, according to the charges.
In October 2017, an architect for the Dhanani Group sent an email to the Department of Buildings complaining about the harassment, according to the charges. “This does not seem right that Burke can shut this project down considering we have our permit,” the architect wrote. “Please advise as soon as you can.”
That same month, a field representative for the restaurant company sent an internal email to company executives warning that Burke’s interference with the project could have a ripple effect that would cost them a lot of money.
“I know these guys are very powerful, and they can make life very difficult for all of our Chicago stores,” the rep allegedly wrote.
In December 2017, both executives traveled to Chicago again to meet with Burke to try to smooth things over. At the meeting, Burke reiterated his demand for business with his tax appeal firm and also encouraged them to “get involved with other politicians in Chicago” and attend an upcoming fundraiser for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who at the time was running for mayor.
The executive couldn’t attend because of bad weather but “felt it necessary” to donate $10,000 to the politician in order to keep Burke happy, according to the charges. The donation was later amended to $5,600 because of limits on contributions.
The internship
The fourth major scheme alleged in the indictment involved Burke threatening officials at the Field Museum to hold up their request for a fee increase at City Hall because he was angry they had ignored an application for an unpaid internship submitted by the daughter of Burke’s longtime friend, former alderman Terry Gabinski.
According to court records, on Sept. 8, 2017, Burke took a call from an museum official about the fee issue and “immediately chastised” the person for not getting back to him about the internship, saying he was disappointed and surprised.
As the caller began to speak, Burke interjected, “So now you’re going to make a request of me?”
“Well, uh, what I wanted to do was, uh,” the caller responded, only to be cut off again by Burke.
“I’m sure I know what you want to do,” Burke said. “Because if the chairman of the Committee on Finance calls the president of the Park Board your proposal is going to go nowhere.”
Afterward, Burke received an apologetic call from the museum, asking if the Gabinski’s daughter still wanted the internship. Burke allegedly retorted, “That ship has already left the dock.”
“I’m really sorry and now that I have her name, maybe we could find in emails or something what the hell happened here, because when you call Ed, everyone knows, we jump,” the museum official said.
The indictment alleged that after Burke’s dressing down, the museum emailed Gabinski’s daughter details about the job opportunity and how to set up an informational interview for later that week.
The next day, the Park District board approved the $2-a-person hike in the entrance fee for the Field. A few days later, Gabinski’s daughter declined the interview, according to the indictment.
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© Chicago Tribune
2023/11/03
NEW YORK — A Brooklyn construction firm reportedly identified as part of a federal corruption inquiry into Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign has an extensive real estate portfolio across New York City and ties to Turkey, whose government has also been named as a potential player.
KSK Construction Group, a Brooklyn-based firm, has real estate interests in the commercial, residential and hospitality fields across New York City. The firm has overseen at least 39 projects, including luxury properties in Manhattan and Brooklyn, a shopping center in Harlem and a Marriott Courtyard Hotel.
As first reported by The New York Times, a search warrant authorizing the early Thursday raid at the home of Adams campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs instructed the FBI to search for evidence of allegations that Adams’ 2021 campaign conspired with KSK and the Turkish government to funnel foreign cash into the campaign’s coffers via straw donors.
Neither Adams nor Suggs has been accused of any wrongdoing as part of the FBI probe that prompted the raid at Suggs’ home.
In a statement Friday afternoon, Adams said he’s “outraged and angry if anyone attempted to use the campaign to manipulate our democracy and defraud our campaign.”
“I want to be clear, I have no knowledge, direct or otherwise, of any improper fundraising activity — and certainly not of any foreign money,” his statement said. “We will of course work with officials to respond to inquiries, as appropriate—as we always have.”
KSK, which has its office on North 10th St. near Williamsburg’s McCarren Park, was incorporated in 2010, according to state business records. City records show 11 KSK employees gave nearly $14,000 to Adams’ campaign on the same day in 2021, with nearly all of them listed as donating $1,250 each. Among the KSK executives who contributed was Erden Arkan, who’s listed in records as the company’s owner.
KSK has a number of links to Turkey, the New York Daily News has found.
According to state commercial code records, KSK holds debt with the New York branch of Vakiflar Bankasi, Turkey’s second largest government-owned bank. The records do not make clear how much debt KSK holds.
Arkan states on his LinkedIn profile that he received his education at Istanbul University in Turkey.
There are also links between KSK and a major Turkish construction company, Kiska, which has not been named in connection with the investigation or accused of any wrongdoing.
One of Arkan’s fellow principals at KSK, Ulgur Aydin, told the trade publication Construction Today in 2021 that he, Arkan and a third partner, Selim Akyuz, launched the company after working together at KiSKA Construction, a Turkish-based firm that’s completed big projects for Turkey’s government.
“KSK is a company that was born from KiSKA Construction,” Aydin told the trade publication at the time.
KiSKA is one of Turkey’s largest construction companies, with offices in New York City and Ankara. On its website, KiSKA says it has carried out 91 public works projects in Turkey, including work for Turkey’s Ministry of Defense, General Directorate of Provincial Bank and General Directorate of State Airports Authority, according to the website.
KiSKA also has a major footprint in New York City real estate. The company owns Marmara, a hotel chain with two locations in Manhattan, and has worked on iconic construction projects in the city, including the High Line in the Meatpacking District, KiSKA’s founder Oguz Gursel told the Turk Of America magazine in 2014.
Representatives for KSK and KiSKA did not return requests for comment Friday.
There are also additional ties between the two entities beyond the fact that KSK’s partners used to work at KiSKA, according to records reviewed by the Daily News.
State business records show KiSKA Development Group, one of several limited liability corporations used by KiSKA Construction, was housed at the same Williamsburg address as KSK between 2008 and 2017.
On LinkedIn, Arkan, KSK’s owner, still lists himself as a “principal” at Kiska Group. His partner, Aydin, lists himself as a principal of KSK on his LinkedIn profile, but notes that KSK was “formerly known as Kiska Group.”
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© New York Daily News
‘You’ll find out that Chicago’s a very small town’: Evidence in ex-Alderman Edward Burke trial to lay bare inner workings of one of city’s last machine politicians
2023/11/04
Then- Chicago Alderman Ed Burke, right, listens to a City Council discussion on Nov. 7, 2022. -
E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS
CHICAGO — Five years ago this month, decades of political dominance by a pair of old school Chicago Democratic politicians began to unravel when FBI agents descended on City Hall on an otherwise quiet Thursday morning.
Even in a town accustomed to high-profile public corruption probes, the sight of brown butcher paper taped over the windows and glass doors of a storied seat of power such as alderman Edward Burke’s office suite was stunning.
But it was also just the beginning. In the ensuing months, the dominoes continued to topple, first with Burke’s indictment, then raids on a host of politicians and lobbyists connected to then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, followed by the indictment in March 2022 of Madigan himself.
Now, with the corruption trial of Burke and two co-defendants set to begin Monday, the inner workings of one of Chicago’s last machine politicians will be laid bare in a federal courtroom.
Burke, 79, who served more than 50 years before stepping down earlier this year, was long considered the dean of the City Council, a master parliamentarian who used his positions as fundraiser, chair of the Finance Committee, and Cook County judicial slate maker to wield enormous influence over the city’s politics.
But unlike the indictment against Madigan, which alleges a high-level scheme involving secret payments funneled from utility giants Commonwealth Edison and AT&T Illinois to Madigan-connected lobbyists, the allegations against Burke involved a decidedly more earthy, “where’s mine?” type of graft.
For all of Burke’s power, the trial evidence is expected to show him in the late stages of his career fretting about relatively mundane matters, including a driveway permit for a Southwest Side Burger King, a pole sign for a liquor store in Portage Park, and an overlooked application submitted by his good friend’s daughter for an unpaid internship at the Field Museum.
Even the centerpiece scheme alleged in the indictment, which involves the $800 million renovation of the Old Post Office, is, at its core, a well-worn scenario in Chicago: A politician with his hand out, allegedly leveraging the power of his elected office for a fairly modest personal gain.
“It’s a pleasure to deal with people who are so dedicated to the city, to have been here for so long,” the post office developer, Harry Skydell, told Burke in a September 2016 video-recorded meeting after Burke had allegedly pitched his private law firm for Skydell’s property tax appeals. “Almost half a century. It’s unbelievable.”
“You’ll find out that Chicago’s a very small town,” Burke told Skydell later in the meeting. “Everybody that’s anybody knows one another, and generally speaking, everybody gets along.”
Burke’s high-powered defense team, meanwhile, will try to show that Burke’s maneuvering was nothing more than politics as usual. In fact, Burke is not charged with performing a single official act as alderman in exchange for anything of value, and some of the projects he allegedly put his thumb on the scale for weren’t even in his ward, his attorneys have argued.
But the crux of Burke’s defense will likely be to knock down former alderman Daniel Solis, who was caught in his own corruption scheme before agreeing in 2016 to become an FBI mole and secretly record Burke and others over a period of nearly two years.
In exchange, Solis earned an unprecedented deferred prosecution deal from the U.S. attorney’s office that will not only leave him without a criminal conviction, but also allow him to continue to collect his nearly $100,000-a-year city pension.
Prosecutors left Solis off their witness list and said they’d introduce the recordings he made through other means. But Burke’s attorneys, Joseph Duffy and Christopher Gair, have promised to call Solis as their own witness in an effort to show to the jury he was desperate to help the feds land Burke and save his own skin.
“The jury cannot be presented the tape recordings Solis made without an understanding of who he is and why he cooperated,” Duffy and Gair wrote in a recent court filing. “To do so would be both confounding and misleading to the jury.”
CHICAGO — Five years ago this month, decades of political dominance by a pair of old school Chicago Democratic politicians began to unravel when FBI agents descended on City Hall on an otherwise quiet Thursday morning.
Even in a town accustomed to high-profile public corruption probes, the sight of brown butcher paper taped over the windows and glass doors of a storied seat of power such as alderman Edward Burke’s office suite was stunning.
But it was also just the beginning. In the ensuing months, the dominoes continued to topple, first with Burke’s indictment, then raids on a host of politicians and lobbyists connected to then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, followed by the indictment in March 2022 of Madigan himself.
Now, with the corruption trial of Burke and two co-defendants set to begin Monday, the inner workings of one of Chicago’s last machine politicians will be laid bare in a federal courtroom.
Burke, 79, who served more than 50 years before stepping down earlier this year, was long considered the dean of the City Council, a master parliamentarian who used his positions as fundraiser, chair of the Finance Committee, and Cook County judicial slate maker to wield enormous influence over the city’s politics.
But unlike the indictment against Madigan, which alleges a high-level scheme involving secret payments funneled from utility giants Commonwealth Edison and AT&T Illinois to Madigan-connected lobbyists, the allegations against Burke involved a decidedly more earthy, “where’s mine?” type of graft.
For all of Burke’s power, the trial evidence is expected to show him in the late stages of his career fretting about relatively mundane matters, including a driveway permit for a Southwest Side Burger King, a pole sign for a liquor store in Portage Park, and an overlooked application submitted by his good friend’s daughter for an unpaid internship at the Field Museum.
Even the centerpiece scheme alleged in the indictment, which involves the $800 million renovation of the Old Post Office, is, at its core, a well-worn scenario in Chicago: A politician with his hand out, allegedly leveraging the power of his elected office for a fairly modest personal gain.
“It’s a pleasure to deal with people who are so dedicated to the city, to have been here for so long,” the post office developer, Harry Skydell, told Burke in a September 2016 video-recorded meeting after Burke had allegedly pitched his private law firm for Skydell’s property tax appeals. “Almost half a century. It’s unbelievable.”
“You’ll find out that Chicago’s a very small town,” Burke told Skydell later in the meeting. “Everybody that’s anybody knows one another, and generally speaking, everybody gets along.”
Burke’s high-powered defense team, meanwhile, will try to show that Burke’s maneuvering was nothing more than politics as usual. In fact, Burke is not charged with performing a single official act as alderman in exchange for anything of value, and some of the projects he allegedly put his thumb on the scale for weren’t even in his ward, his attorneys have argued.
But the crux of Burke’s defense will likely be to knock down former alderman Daniel Solis, who was caught in his own corruption scheme before agreeing in 2016 to become an FBI mole and secretly record Burke and others over a period of nearly two years.
In exchange, Solis earned an unprecedented deferred prosecution deal from the U.S. attorney’s office that will not only leave him without a criminal conviction, but also allow him to continue to collect his nearly $100,000-a-year city pension.
Prosecutors left Solis off their witness list and said they’d introduce the recordings he made through other means. But Burke’s attorneys, Joseph Duffy and Christopher Gair, have promised to call Solis as their own witness in an effort to show to the jury he was desperate to help the feds land Burke and save his own skin.
“The jury cannot be presented the tape recordings Solis made without an understanding of who he is and why he cooperated,” Duffy and Gair wrote in a recent court filing. “To do so would be both confounding and misleading to the jury.”
Outlining the charges
Jury selection is set to get underway Monday morning in the 25th floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, a former federal prosecutor who inherited the case after the previous judge took a job with the U.S. Supreme Court.
A pool of more than 100 prospective jurors who were prescreened for their ability to sit for the potentially six-week trial filled out lengthy questionnaires at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Friday, answering questions about their knowledge of the case, their feelings about politicians, and other potential biases.
Live questioning of the jury pool will be done in groups of 50 and will likely take at least two days, with Kendall asking initial questions and each side getting the chance to follow up with specific issues. Opening statements in the case could come as soon as Wednesday.
Monday’s proceedings will mark the first time Burke has stepped foot in the federal courthouse since his arraignment on the indictment on June 4, 2019, shortly after Burke had been sworn in for a record 13th full term as alderman.
On that day, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot reiterated calls for Burke to resign, but he refused, hanging on to his longtime seat in the City Council until finally stepping down in May after deciding not to run for reelection.
Burke, 79, is charged with 14 counts including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
Burke’s longtime ward aide, Peter Andrews Jr., 73, is charged with one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity, and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
A third defendant, real estate developer Charles Cui, 52, of Lake Forest, is charged with one count of federal program bribery, three counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity, and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
All three have pleaded not guilty.
The allegations
At the heart of the indictment are four separate schemes.
The first, which is the only one to involve Solis, alleged Burke threatened to use his official office to corruptly induce the post office developer to hire his law firm, Klafter & Burke.
In that first meeting with Skydell, Solis recorded Burke telling the developer it would “be an honor to do business” with him, while also dropping remarks about his influence in the city, according to prosecutors.
“There aren’t too many people around town that we don’t know,” Burke said at one point.
“I’d be surprised if you don’t know somebody here,” Skydell replied. “If you don’t know somebody, he’s a nobody.”
According to the indictment, the post office project needed help negotiating with Amtrak over air rights the rail company had over part of the post office site. Burke repeatedly assured Skydell on the wiretaps that he had friends on the Amtrak board and could make any issues go away, according to the charges.
Months later, when Burke was told Skydell may need some help from the Water Department over access to water at the site, the alderman allegedly set up a meeting to discuss the issue.
But he abandoned the idea when the Tribune ran a March 21, 2017, story that reported possible ethical violations with the post office project, including an effort to help get access to Amtrak-controlled space beneath the building.
Burke backed out of the meeting, explaining he was “nervous” about the water commissioner and worried about whether his planned intervention could be kept discrete, prosecutors have alleged in court filings.
“In light of the Chicago Tribune expose, Burke was conscious that his activities were unlawful and that he would seek to exert his influence indirectly, including over the telephone,” according to prosecutors.
In the end, Skydell never did pay Burke for any property tax work, according to court records.
Hiring Burke’s firm
Another of the four alleged schemes in the 59-page indictment promises to give jurors an in-depth look at Chicago’s byzantine zoning and building processes that were allegedly threatening Cui’s development in the Six Corners area of Portage Park.
According to prosecutors, in mid-2017, liquor store chain Binny’s Beverage Depot had drastically cut its lease with Cui’s development at 4901 W. Irving Park Road because the city had denied use of an old, stand-alone pole sign previously used by a bank at the location.
Cui stood to lose $750,000 in the renegotiated lease deal, which could have in turn affected his $4 million in tax-increment financing from City Hall, according to prosecutors.
So in an attempt to get the Buildings Department to approve use of the sign, he decided to enlist Burke, leaving a voicemail on Aug. 23, 2017, about needing help with a “legal matter” and emailed him seeking advice about the pole sign dilemma, according to court records.
The next day, Cui emailed the attorney who had been doing his property tax appeals and asked if Burke could handle the Portage Park project, at least for the next year, records show.
“I have TIF deal going with City, and he is the Chairman of the Finance Committee,” Cui wrote. “He (handed) his tax appeal business card to me, and I need his favor for my tif money. In addition, I need his help for my zoning etc for my project. He is a powerful broker in City Hall, and I need him now.”
Cui also emailed Burke asking him for representation from Klafter & Burke, records show.
On Aug, 25. Burke responded to Cui’s email saying someone from his firm will reach out. Over the next week, Burke was caught on wiretaps telling his assistant to call then-Buildings Commissioner Judy Frydland about the pole sign, according to court records.
After Frydland talked about it with Cui, he had his zoning attorney submit a photoshopped image of the sign to the Buildings Department purporting to show the sign had been in recent use.
On Sept. 5, less than two weeks after his first outreach to Burke, Cui signed contingent-fee paperwork hiring Klafter & Burke for the Portage Park development, according to records.
By that time, however, Cui’s photoshopped image was red-flagged by a Buildings Department design specialist, who brought it to Frydland’s attention, according to court records.
Cui tried to claim the image came from a real estate broker who could vouch for the image’s accuracy, and, after learning about the issue, Burke allegedly had his assistant contact a zoning administrator to help resolve it, according to court records. Both efforts failed, and City Hall’s denial of the sign permit became final on Nov. 6.
Over the next several weeks, however, Burke voted in favor of several other measures involving Cui’s property that came before the City Council, including a permit for a different sign board and an ordinance granting a privilege “in the public way,” according to prosecutors.
Burger King ‘hard ball’
A third alleged scheme in the indictment accused Andrews, Burke’s longtime political aide, of assisting the alderman in attempting to shake down two Texas-based business owners after they came to him for help with a Burger King restaurant they were renovating in the 14th Ward.
According to the charges, Burke was captured in dozens of conversations from May 2017 to January 2018 talking bluntly about the alleged extortion of the executives, whose Dhanani Group is one of the country’s largest franchisees for Popeyes and Burger King restaurants.
In June 2017, the FBI intercepted a phone call between Burke and one of the executives, who still seemed caught off guard over the purported shakedown and uncertain how to react. At one point, Burke said he needed assurances that he’d get the business before “we can expedite your permits,” according to the allegations.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Burke. What was that last part?” the executive said, according to court records.
Later, after Burke drove by the restaurant on South Pulaski Road and realized they had moved forward with construction without hiring his law firm as promised, Burke was recorded strategizing with his staffers on how to play “hard ball,” according to prosecutors.
“I took ‘em to lunch,” Burke allegedly told Andrews in a phone call in October 2017. “I was playing nice with ‘em — never got back.”
“All right, I’ll play as hard ball as I can,” Andrews replied, according to court records.
Burke had a stop-work order placed on the project and also sent a Chicago Department of Transportation inspector to the site to issue tickets for failure to procure a permit for a driveway at the restaurant that actually had been previously obtained, according to the charges.
In October 2017, an architect for the Dhanani Group sent an email to the Department of Buildings complaining about the harassment, according to the charges. “This does not seem right that Burke can shut this project down considering we have our permit,” the architect wrote. “Please advise as soon as you can.”
That same month, a field representative for the restaurant company sent an internal email to company executives warning that Burke’s interference with the project could have a ripple effect that would cost them a lot of money.
“I know these guys are very powerful, and they can make life very difficult for all of our Chicago stores,” the rep allegedly wrote.
In December 2017, both executives traveled to Chicago again to meet with Burke to try to smooth things over. At the meeting, Burke reiterated his demand for business with his tax appeal firm and also encouraged them to “get involved with other politicians in Chicago” and attend an upcoming fundraiser for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who at the time was running for mayor.
The executive couldn’t attend because of bad weather but “felt it necessary” to donate $10,000 to the politician in order to keep Burke happy, according to the charges. The donation was later amended to $5,600 because of limits on contributions.
The internship
The fourth major scheme alleged in the indictment involved Burke threatening officials at the Field Museum to hold up their request for a fee increase at City Hall because he was angry they had ignored an application for an unpaid internship submitted by the daughter of Burke’s longtime friend, former alderman Terry Gabinski.
According to court records, on Sept. 8, 2017, Burke took a call from an museum official about the fee issue and “immediately chastised” the person for not getting back to him about the internship, saying he was disappointed and surprised.
As the caller began to speak, Burke interjected, “So now you’re going to make a request of me?”
“Well, uh, what I wanted to do was, uh,” the caller responded, only to be cut off again by Burke.
“I’m sure I know what you want to do,” Burke said. “Because if the chairman of the Committee on Finance calls the president of the Park Board your proposal is going to go nowhere.”
Afterward, Burke received an apologetic call from the museum, asking if the Gabinski’s daughter still wanted the internship. Burke allegedly retorted, “That ship has already left the dock.”
“I’m really sorry and now that I have her name, maybe we could find in emails or something what the hell happened here, because when you call Ed, everyone knows, we jump,” the museum official said.
The indictment alleged that after Burke’s dressing down, the museum emailed Gabinski’s daughter details about the job opportunity and how to set up an informational interview for later that week.
The next day, the Park District board approved the $2-a-person hike in the entrance fee for the Field. A few days later, Gabinski’s daughter declined the interview, according to the indictment.
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© Chicago Tribune
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