A veteran former state employee long active in Republican politics was sentenced to 27 months in prison Wednesday for acting as a bagman in a kickback scheme for three years.
James Battista, 45, of Chicago, was convicted by a federal jury in March 2000 of one count of aiding and abetting mail fraud.
Battista helped a friend, Richard Hendershot, collect hundreds of kickbacks from private investigators hired to check out insurance claims by injured workers, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Morris Pasqual.
Battista split kickbacks totaling $162,000 with Hendershot, an attorney who was sentenced earlier this month to 4 years in prison.
After his indictment, Battista was fired after 23 years with the Illinois Department of Transportation. Since the 1980s, he had been a Republican state central committeeman and GOP committeeman of Chicago’s 36th Ward.
