A former contractor who became one of the early figures to fall in the federal probe that dismantled the scandal-plagued Blagojevich administration admitted additional wrongdoing today almost eight years after he first pleaded guilty.
Jacob Kiferbaum pleaded guilty in 2005 to one count of attempted extortion for threatening a suburban hospital administrator that major construction plans for a new hospital would not be approved if he were not awarded the contract for the work.
Kiferbaum admitted additional criminal conduct today — that while running Kiferbaum Construction Company he knew employees defrauded clients of money due to them when projects came in under budget.
The additional admission does not affect Kiferbaum’s prison sentence – he still faces 27 months of incarceration — but it did bring a fine of $250,000.
U.S. District Judge John Grady set sentencing for July 17 for Kiferbaum, 60.
Kiferbaum is the last defendant to be sentenced in connection with the federal Operation Board Games investigation of Blagojevich. His sentencing was indefinitely postponed in case prosecutors called him as a witness in any number of trials, but ultimately he never testified.
