Park Building Contract, Coffee Included: One Mayor, Lightly Used

Item specifics

Condition	Convicted by a federal jury, 15 May 2019; affirmed on appeal (2021)
Location	Markham, Illinois, United States
Seller	Mayor of Markham. Name withheld.
Winning bidder	Tower Contracting LLC
Category	Construction
Sold	2012-2013
Payment method	Cash in coffee cups; checks to a shell remodelling company
Returns	No returns. Prison sentence (company president): forty-one months

Description

What the bribe bought

According to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Tower Contracting LLC's profit on the 2012 park district building contract was approximately $1.2 million.

Return on bribe: Every $1 of bribes earned about $12.Computed from the stated figures, both given as “approximately”.

What happened

Tower Contracting LLC paid the mayor of Markham, Illinois, nearly $100,000 in bribes to secure city work, including a 2012 contract to renovate and expand a park district building. Payments were cash handed over in coffee cups at City Hall and checks to a shell remodelling company the mayor had set up in his children's names. A federal jury convicted on all counts on 15 May 2019. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the company president's conviction and forty-one months' imprisonment in 2021.