Posted on 06/09/2006 9:10:21 AM PDT by FlyVet
(AP)— A longtime suburban mayor was arrested Thursday on federal charges of steering business to a friend's insurance agency in return for bribes over almost two decades.
Nicholas Blase, mayor of Niles for 45 years, was arrested as he left his house on his 78th birthday.
According to court documents, Blase threatened to withhold liquor licenses and business licenses from restaurant owners unless they bought insurance from the agency once owned by his late friend Ralph Weiner and now run by Weiner's sons.
The fraud began at least 17 years ago, an FBI affidavit said.
"Businesses were being pushed to buy insurance that they didn't either need or want," said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary S. Shapiro.
The affidavit said Blase used a shell company to receive the insurance agency's bribes. In the three years beginning in April 1997, the shell company deposited $281,000 in agency checks, the document said.
It said that Weiner's 53-year-old son Steven, who was president of the insurance agency, delivered checks from Ralph Weiner & Associates to the shell company. Steven Weiner was arrested Thursday and charged with one count of mail fraud.
Both men appeared in federal court and were released on their own recognizance. Blase has a preliminary hearing set for June 21.
Blase, who is an attorney, has denied any wrongdoing and said he steered business to Weiner simply because he liked him.
Steven Weiner and his brother became the agency's license-holders and co-owners after their father died last year, prosecutors said.
Blase attorney Harvey M. Silets said he was disappointed his client was arrested on his birthday in front of his wife and grandchildren.
Federal officials said the arrest was planned days in advance and that they only learned Tuesday that Thursday was Blase's birthday.
Niles, just north of Chicago, has 30,000 residents.
On the Net:
Village: http://www.vniles.com
Insurance agency: http://www.ralphweiner.com
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
His grandchildren are probably disappointed that their grandfather is a crook and needed to be arrested.
No mention of the mayor's party affiliation. Hmmmmm. I wonder why.
Culture of Corruption bump.
He's a Democrat. What a shock.
Report this to Nancy Pelosi ASAP!
I don't know for sure in this case. But in a great many Chicago suburbs, most candidates run only under the banner of a local party (the current party running my town is the "Village Independent Party") and are not affiliated with either the Democrats or the Republicans.
I can't find a record of this mayor's political party affiliation. So while I don't know in this particular case, I do know that in a great many Chicago suburbs, the local politicians run under the banner of local parties (the administration running my village is mostly made up of members of the "Village Independent Party") that have no national party affiliation.
Where did you see a record of the mayor's party affiliation?
"For years, he also held the powerful post of Democratic committeeman for Maine Township."
Googled it - it was in an article.
Search string: Nicholas Blase, mayor of Niles party affiliation
http://www.russstewart.com/2-9-05.htm
Blase is a Democrat, and he served as Maine Township committeeman for over 20 years. His successor as committeeman was Andy Przybylo, a Niles trustee and Blase's presumed successor as mayor. Przybylo quit as committeeman in 2002. Blase's ticket in the 2005 election is running on the Present Leaders for Future Security slate, with Trustees Przybylo and Bob Callero running for re-election to 4-year terms and Kim Sychowski Biedermann seeking a 2-year term. Joe LoVerde is running for one of the 4-year terms as a Democrat, and Ray Czarnik and Rich Harczak are both running for the 2-year term as independents.
Typing "Nicholas Blase party affiliation" in Clusty, I'm finding references to ties to the DNC... but who knows.
Thanks!
So he's personally a Democrat. Did he run as a Democrat, or as one of these local parties they have all over the suburbs out here?
Start in the suburbs and end in the city. Next up, Mayor Daley.
In Illinois? Dems have no monopoly here.
Not a word about party affiliation.
Who'd have thunk it?
It's Illinois fer cryin out loud.
"Combine" is the corect term here in Illinois.
Congratulations are in order to FReeper friend and Niles Twp GOP Committeeman Joe Hedrick who beat the combine incumbent in 2002 and again won in 2006. Joe has been key in working the trenches tirelessly to oust the combine. His township is one of the few in which the GOP vote is increasing in the Chiago area. That surge is best described as pro-Iraq war, anti-obsession with political correctness.
Joe's a friend and an OK guy but, in his lust for an ILGOP SCC seat, he quietly supported Rosemary Mulligan's puppet, Mark Thompson, for Maine Township GOP Committeeman. Mark won, and with his share of the weighted vote could have put Joe on the SCC ... BUT NO ... Thompson shafted Joe and supported Don Stevens' handsock, Dorgan.
BTW, I never knew Joe was a FReeper !?
"Freeper friend"
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