Former U.S. Atty. Thomas P. Sullivan has completed his long-awaited report on corruption in Chicago`s government, though sources familiar with the study say it focuses on problems with the way the city does business rather than on specific instances of wrongdoing.
Sullivan, who said that he and his staff interviewed more than 135 people and reviewed thousands of pages of documents, gave the report to the city administration Friday. Sullivan said he could not make the study public. But Mayor Harold Washington has promised that the administration would release the results.
Sullivan, now a partner in a prestigious law firm, was hired to conduct the study by the city because of the scandal involving allegations that Chicago officials took bribes and that the Washington administration had failed to do anything about it. The officials reportedly accepted money from Michael Raymond, a corrupt businessman.
Raymond agreed to become a federal informant to win leniency in an illegal-weapons case. Posing as a top executive of a corrupt bill-collection company, Raymond tape-recorded his dealings with aldermen and other politicians in Chicago and New York, sources familiar with the inquiry have said.
Sullivan said that neither the mayor nor his top aides had seen the report before Friday.
By all accounts, Sullivan`s inquiry was limited because he had no subpoena power and could not force aldermen or people outside of government to cooperate. And the scandal he was supposed to help investigate has focused on aldermen and some private businessmen.
For example, Clarence McClain, a former top mayoral aide and a key figure in the federal investigation did not cooperate. And James Montgomery, who resigned has city corporation counsel at the height of the scandal, would answer questions only through his lawyer.
Sullivan`s report, which was started in early February, was released the day after a Raymond tape-recording was played for the first time publicly. The recording, of a discussion involving Raymond and two other men, was played in the trial of several New York officials and businessmen charged with taking bribes.
The scene was an unimposing Chinese restaurant on New York`s Lower East Side on Nov. 26, 1985. There, Raymond hatched a plan to lure a stubborn New York City official into a bribery scheme.
He would fly the official to Chicago on a private jet, set him up with women and introduce him to powerful politicians in town.
And if that didn`t work, said Raymond, ”I`ll hurt him like he`s never been hurt before in his life . . . take his eyes out.”
As he spoke of such matters–and also of his supposed clout with Chicago officials and his payoffs to politicians in New York City–Raymond`s lunch companions did not realize he was wearing a hidden microphone.
None of the disclosures in the tape-recording were new. But in a rambling, cynical lesson in civics, he bragged about his clout with Illinois and New York politicians and complained about what fundraising chicken dinners and his own gourmet cooking had done to his waistline.
Raymond was meeting with his boss, Bernard Sandow, the president of Systematic Recovery Service Inc., a bill collection agency, and with Geoffrey Lindenauer, a top New York parking bureau official, at Hisae`s restaurant. The subject of their conversation was Lester Shafran, another New York parking official who they feared was helping a competitor.
As a result of that tape recording and the following investigation, Sandow and Lindenauer have pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges and are listed as prosecution witnesses here.
The tape recording of Raymond, who led the FBI into a sweeping federal investigation of alleged payoffs to city politicians in Chicago and New York, dominated the court proceedings Thursday in the trial of Shafran and four other New York public officials and businessmen. The trial was moved to New Haven, Conn., because of publicity in New York.
The indictments of several city officials in Chicago are expected soon, and Raymond is expected to be the main witness in those cases.
Raymond, using the alias Michael Burnett, was the top marketing official of Systematic Recovery, a New York collection firm that sought and won contracts in Chicago and New York to collect millions of dollars in delinquent debts owed to the city.
In the conversation at Hisae`s, the informant boasted of his successes in Chicago:
”What I`m trying to tell you,” he told his companions, ”is that Chicago`s a winner. We`re doing beaucoup business and we got more coming.”
He attributed that success to an ability to influence Illinois officials. ”I`m close to the governor, and I`m close to his main people,” said Raymond of Gov. James Thompson. He also boasted he knew U.S. Sen. Paul Simon
(D., Ill.) and claimed he could arrange a meeting with him. There is no evidence Raymond has ever met either man. Both Simon and a Thompson press aide said Thursday that neither official knew Raymond.
He also made derisive comments about Mayor Washington, calling him a
”yutz” who ”can`t make a decision.” The real power in Chicago City Hall, Raymond continued, was then-Corporation Counsel Montgomery, who ”runs everything” in the administration. Unfortunately, Raymond said, Montgomery was backing Systematic Recovery`s competition, Datacom Systems Corp.
Montgomery`s attorney, Adam Bourgeois, said his client has never met Raymond and that Montgomery was not close to Datacom.
Over the course of conversation, Raymond made apparent references to influence he said he had over Chicago Ald. Clifford Kelley (20th) and Ald. Perry Hutchinson (9th), supporters of Mayor Washington. They have both acknowledged receiving money from Raymond but deny wrongdoing. In both cases, Raymond used only the men`s first names.
He also said he ”had a guy by the name of McClain who had the mayor`s ear.” The reference was apparently to former mayoral aide McClain, who has been named in published reports as a key target of the Chicago investigation. McClain has denied wrongdoing.
Raymond also claimed that one of his ”people” in Chicago was a close friend to Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), a member of the city council bloc opposing Washington. He was apparently referring to Michael Lambesis, then chief investigator for the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk`s office. Burke, who has said Lambesis unsuccessfully tried to set up a meeting between him and Raymond, has not been mentioned as a subject of the investigation.
In the tape recording, Raymond and the two other men were discussing how they could use Shafran, then director of the New York Parking Violations Bureau, to help raise business for Systematic Recovery in Chicago and elsewhere.
Raymond suggested that Systematic Recovery hire Shafran, who was then about to resign his city post.
Shafran is one of five defendants in the New Haven trial along with Bronx Democratic chairman Stanley Friedman. Shafran`s attorney, Larry Silverman, is trying to use the recording to show that his client knew nothing of the illegal schemes.
At the restaurant that day, Sandow has said, he paid Lindenauer $5,000 as a bribe. Lindenauer had admitted receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Sandow and other collection agencies` officials in exchange for steering business their way.
Raymond also said he would try to bribe top aides to New York Mayor Ed Koch. But Lindenauer, a product of the Democratic Party from New York`s borough of Queens, said Koch had failed to deliver patronage to the Queens organization.
