Posted on 03/29/2009 1:33:51 AM PDT by STARWISE
Mayor Daley's son and nephew have hired a criminal defense attorney to represent them in the ongoing investigation of their investment in a sewer-cleaning company that won millions of dollars in no-bid contract extensions from City Hall.
Charles Sklarsky, a former federal prosecutor now with the law firm of Jenner & Block, confirmed Thursday he is representing Patrick Daley and his cousin Robert Vanecko.
Sklarsky wouldn't discuss the investigation, which the city's inspector general and federal authorities began in December 2007.
That was days after the Chicago Sun-Times disclosed that Daley's son and nephew had held a hidden ownership stake in Municipal Sewer Services and that the company saw its city business -- inspecting and cleaning sewers -- soar during the time they were owners.
Patrick Daley and Vanecko invested $65,000 in the company in 2003, but Municipal didn't disclose their interest on documents it filed with City Hall. At the time, a city ordinance required such disclosure by city contractors. Daley and Vanecko have said they cashed out in late 2004. That was as the Hired Truck scandal prompted reforms at City Hall.
Patrick Daley then enlisted in the Army, and Vanecko started a pension investment company with Allison S. Davis. One of the mayor's top allies in the African-American community, Davis once ran a small law firm where Barack Obama worked for years.
Vanecko and Davis' company, DV Urban Realty Partners, is also under investigation by city Inspector General David Hoffman, who wants to know why five city pension funds hired the company to invest $68 million.
Davis and Vanecko have said they plan to use the money for real estate projects in neglected city neighborhoods -- including those surrounding Washington Park, a focal point of the mayor's plans for the 2016 Olympics.
Hoffman recently issued subpoenas to three city pension funds for records involving DV Urban Realty. One of those funds, the Chicago police pension fund, is refusing to comply with Hoffman's subpoena. Hoffman doesn't have the authority to subpoena records from the pension fund, its attorney David Kugler said Thursday.
Vanecko and Davis are guaranteed $3 million in fees for managing the pension fund investments under a deal that runs through Dec. 31, 2014. Among the real estate deals in which they have invested so far, they have bought an apartment building at 1212 S. Michigan and loaned $1 million to help restaurateur Matthew O'Malley redevelop the former Chicago Defender building.
Separately, a federal grand jury has subpoenaed records from the state housing authority for all records involving its dealings with Davis.
The authority has financed several low-income housing projects for Davis, including some involving Tony Rezko, the convicted influence peddler and onetime key adviser to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Rezko and Davis were longtime business partners.
Pension funds may not cooperate on subpoena
Trustees for at least two city pension funds are considering stonewalling Chicago's inspector general over a subpoena for records involving their investments with a company co-owned by one of Mayor Daley's nephews.
The funds invested millions of dollars in DV Urban Realty Partners, founded by Daley nephew Robert Vanecko and Allison Davis, a mayoral supporter whose law firm once employed Barack Obama.
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Follow the Money: Obama-Rezko-Davis: Political favors—no, well, maybe one two (Updated)
*snip*
Tim Novak wrote April 23, 2007, in the Chicago Sun-Times that in 1993 Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) started working at Allison S. Davis's "small Chicago law firm". In 1998, Davis left the firm to invest in indicted political fixer Antoin 'Tony' Rezko's "final government-subsidized, low-income housing project" and the deal was "handled by Davis' former law firm."
~~Chicago Way ........ PING!
Nothing to see here....Just the usual Chicago Mafia politics.
Get bent coppers ! We earned this payola fair and square !
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