Clinton Fund-Raiser Indicted In Chicago Contract Fraud

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The New York Sun

A major fund-raiser for Senator Clinton’s 2000 campaign and self-described close friend of President Clinton is under federal indictment in Chicago for minority-contracting fraud.

A grand jury charged James Levin, 47, with one felony count of mail fraud for his involvement in a scheme to convince the Chicago Public Schools that his companies subcontracted fencing and snow removal work to minority-owned firms, which allegedly did no actual work.

Mr. Levin, who formerly owned a Chicago strip club, Thee Dollhouse, has been cooperating with prosecutors. He is expected to enter a guilty plea, his attorney, Steven Shobat, said.

The indictment was returned late Tuesday and announced yesterday by the U.S. attorney in Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald, who also serves as the Justice Department’s special prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation.

The indictment also charges a former Chicago schools employee, James Picardi, 51, with conspiracy and tax evasion for allegedly accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from Mr. Levin for assistance in obtaining public contracts for his firms, Tru-Link Commercial and Tru-Link Fence and Products Co. An electrical contractor, Arthur Miller, 39, was also charged in the conspiracy for allegedly laundering payments to Mr. Picardi.

Mr. Levin’s legal troubles became public last year when he testified in Los Angeles against a senior fund-raising official on Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, David Rosen. Mr. Rosen was charged with deliberately omitting hundreds of thousands of dollars in in-kind gifts from campaign finance reports related to a star-studded August 2000 fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Levin told the jury in that case that Mr. Rosen acknowledged knowing that costs for the dinner and concert, which featured Cher, Diana Ross, and other celebrities, had far exceeded the budget. Mr. Levin testified that Mr. Rosen said “the costs of this event will never be the costs of this event … meaning that we will never admit how much we spent on this event.”

Mr. Rosen denied knowing of the cost overruns and was acquitted on all charges.

Mr. Levin was listed as one of the “host committee chairs” for the August 2000 gala, along with such notables as a supermarket magnate, Ron Burkle, a television producer, Norman Lear, a veteran actor, Gregory Peck, and a creator of children’s entertainment, Haim Saban.

Mr. Levin said he was asked to keep tabs on the hastily planned gala by Mr. Clinton, whom he first met at a birthday party in 1997. “I consider him a dear friend, and I would hope he considers me a dear friend,” the Chicago business executive said at Mr. Rosen’s trial.

Mr. Levin and his wife, Mary, also were overnight guests in the Lincoln bedroom during the Clinton presidency, according to a list released in 2000. The Levins were included in a group described as “friends and supporters” of the Clintons.

According to Federal Election Commission records, the Chicago couple gave more than $30,000 to Democratic candidates in 1998 and 1999, including $12,000 to committees supporting Mrs. Clinton’s Senate bid, $14,000 to funds backing Vice President Gore, and $1,000 to Senator Schumer.

In 2000, Mr. Levin served on the national finance committees for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and Mr. Gore’s presidential bid. After the Chicago-Sun Times reported Mr. Levin’s past ownership of the topless bar, Republicans sought to use his history to embarrass the Clintons and Mr. Gore.

At the Los Angeles trial, Mr. Levin described the club as a “bikini bar” and said he owned it only for a short time.

A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, Philippe Reines, declined to comment on Mr. Levin’s indictment or his role in her campaign.

Mr. Clinton was traveling in Africa yesterday in connection with anti-AIDS programs run by his foundation. His spokesman, Jay Carson, had no comment.

In papers released in connection with Mr. Rosen’s trial, Mr. Levin admitted to giving Mr. Picardi more than $57,000 in bribes, as well as an expensive watch and tickets to Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks games. The former Tru-Link executive also admitted inflating bills submitted to the schools.

Mr. Levin, who is white, said the minority-contracting fraud began without his knowledge, but he later paid owners of minority-owned firms to keep quiet about the deception.

Lawyers involved in the case said they did not believe the indictment was connected to Mr. Fitzgerald’s ongoing probe into patronage hiring in Chicago. However, the Sun-Times noted in a report posted on the Web yesterday that one of the defendants in the Tru-Link case, James Picardi, is the brother of Chicago’s streets and sanitation commissioner, Michael Picardi.

James Picardi’s lawyer, Theodore Poulos, declined to be interviewed for this article. An attorney for Mr. Miller, Richard Jalovec, did not return a call seeking comment.

Asked if the case was likely to go to trial, Mr. Levin’s lawyer, Mr. Shobat, said, “I doubt it, but I really don’t know.”

Mr. Levin’s agreement to plead guilty in the case was first reported in May 2005 by The New York Sun. The deal calls for a sentence of between zero and six months in jail, though Mr. Levin said he was facing up to 20 years if he did not cooperate.

The expected guilty plea of Mr. Levin will bring to four the number of people involved with the August 2000 gala who have felony records. A former Internet executive who bankrolled the event, Peter Paul, had three convictions at the time and later pleaded guilty to securities fraud. A key organizer of the evening, Aaron Tonken, pleaded guilty in 2004 to two felony counts of defrauding charities and donors. A New Orleans political consultant who was on the gala’s host committee and also testified against Mr. Rosen, Raymond Reggie, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of bank fraud.

While contradicting many of Mr. Rosen’s statements about the gala, Mr. Levin attended Mr. Rosen’s wedding and called the prosecution of the former aide to Mrs. Clinton “politically motivated.” Justice Department officials denied that politics played any role in their decisions.


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