A former trusted lieutenant to one of the state’s most powerful lobbyists pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to federal investigators and agreed to cooperate in the continuing Operation Safe Road federal probe of corruption.
Julie Starsiak, a close aide to lobbyist Al Ronan for more than two decades, acknowledged she divulged confidential details of sealed bids on a Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority contract to an undisclosed associate–identified as Ronan by his lawyer–as well as the general manager of the consulting firm that ultimately won the allegedly rigged bid.
Starsiak admitted she had been given the nonpublic information by Alexandria Coutretsis, a top aide to Scott Fawell, then CEO of the authority, commonly known as McPier, and a close friend of Ronan’s.
Coutretsis and two former employees of Jacobs Facilities Inc., the consulting firm that won the rigged contract to oversee a huge expansion at McCormick Place, are all scheduled to plead guilty next week.
Ronan wasn’t charged, but his lobbying firm, Ronan Potts LLC, was. The firm pleaded not guilty on Monday.
Fawell, already in prison for corruption during former Gov. George Ryan’s tenure as secretary of state, is also expected to fight charges of wrongdoing at McPier.
Starsiak’s guilty plea brings to 60 the number of convictions in Operation Safe Road, which started out almost six years ago as a probe of bribes for licenses, expanded into an investigation of kickbacks and cover-ups among Ryan’s inner circle and then the former governor himself, and now is looking into contract irregularities at McPier, which runs McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
Without comment, Starsiak, wearing black sunglasses, hustled out of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse past reporters and cameramen and was driven off in a waiting car.
Her attorney, Chris Gair, told reporters that Starsiak regrets “the mistake she made.”
“She’s going to do what she can to make up for it,” Gair said. “She’s going to tell the truth, and she’s going to let the chips fall where they fall.”
Earlier this month, James Cutrone, an attorney for Ronan Potts as well as Ronan himself, charged that Starsiak was the only one connected to the firm who was to blame for wrongdoing.
Thursday’s guilty plea means that federal prosecutors now have the cooperation of two longtime confidants of Ronan and Fawell–Starsiak and Coutretsis, who has been cooperating with authorities since at least December.
As a trusted assistant of Ronan’s both at his lobbying firm as well as during his days as a Democratic state representative, Starsiak could be a fountain of intelligence for authorities.
Starsiak, 56, of Chicago faces up to 21 months in prison, but if she provides substantial assistance to authorities, prosecutors Patrick Collins, Scott Levine and Gayle Littleton have promised to recommend a shorter sentence. She could potentially even get probation. No sentencing date was set.
According to court records, after Fawell spoke with “Fawell Associate 1”–identified as Ronan by Cutrone and other lawyers–Fawell told Coutretsis that Starsiak would be the contact point for Jacobs Facilities on the contract to oversee the McCormick Place expansion.
Starsiak admitted she was given the exact, confidential bid amounts by Coutretsis in August 2001 after several teams submitted their sealed bids.
Starsiak acknowledged, she then passed on the exact amount of the sealed bids to “Fawell Associate 1” and James Nagle, then the general manager in Chicago for Jacobs Facilities.
Starsiak also admitted she took part in several meetings with Nagle and other Jacobs’ officials at which it was discussed how the firm would reduce its initial bid.
Armed with the competitors’ bids, Jacobs reduced its bid from $18.8 million to $11.5 million, the low bid, and won the contract, the charges allege.
In pleading guilty to a single count of making false statements, Starsiak admitted she lied to authorities on several occasions last year by trying to shift blame to Ronan and Nagle.
Starsiak lied despite being given immunity from prosecution if she told the truth.
Starsiak admitted that last July she denied passing the private bid numbers to Nagle and falsely claimed to have overheard “Fawell Associate 1” make incriminating remarks about the bid-rigging scheme.
Starsiak acknowledged she lied again to authorities in September when she falsely claimed that Nagle had tried to get her to lie to investigators.
The two indeed had met, but unknown to Starsiak, Nagle was then cooperating in the investigation and secretly recorded Starsiak’s comments under the direction of the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service.
A short time after the indictment earlier this month, the McPier board fired Jacobs Facilities from overseeing the $800 million expansion project at McCormick Place.
