McHenry County Blog

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

FORMER CHICAGO POLICE OFFICER CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED EXTORTION OF TOW TRUCK DRIVER AND SELLING GUNS TO FELON

CHICAGO — A former Chicago police officer was charged today with attempting to extort a cash bribe to steer business to a tow truck owner and also with selling three firearms to the same towing operator, who is also a convicted felon.

The defendant, ALI HALEEM, was charged as part of Operation Tow Scam, a federal investigation of past bribery and extortion involving police officers and towing operators in several Chicago police districts.

Haleem is the 11th Chicago police officer to be charged in the corruption probe since 2008.

So far, seven officers and three civilians, including two tow truck drivers, have been convicted. Charges are pending against three other officers who were charged last fall.

Haleem, 45, of Chicago, a police officer from 1994 to 2012, was assigned to the 8th District, also known as Chicago Lawn.

He was assigned to desk duty after being confronted by law enforcement authorities in 2008 until he resigned last September.

He was charged with one count of attempted extortion and two counts of selling firearms to a convicted felon in a criminal information that was filed today. No date has been set yet for his arraignment in U.S. District Court.

Gary Shapiro

The charges were announced by Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Garry McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.

According to the charges, between March 13 and 20, 2008, Haleem attempted to extort Individual A, who owned a towing business, and who unbeknownst to Haleem was cooperating with law enforcement at the time.

On Dec. 11, 2007, Haleem allegedly sold a.32 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a.25 caliber semi-automatic pistol to Individual A, knowing that Individual A was a convicted felon.

On March 13, 2008, Haleem allegedly sold a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol to Individual A, knowing that Individual A was a convicted felon. The indictment seeks forfeiture of the three firearms.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Donovan.

Attempted extortion carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, while each count of delivering a firearm to a convicted felon carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, and all three counts carry a $250,000 maximum fine. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The public is reminded that the charges are not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

TWO CHICAGO POLICE OFFICERS INDICTED ON ATTEMPTED EXTORTION CHARGES IN VEHICLE TOWING INVESTIGATION

CHICAGO — Two Chicago police officers were indicted separately on federal charges for obtaining an extortion payment from a cooperating tow truck driver, and one of them allegedly received an additional payment for making a false police report of an auto accident to defraud an insurance company.

Both officers, assigned to the South Chicago District at the time, were relieved of their police powers following the alleged crimes that occurred in late 2007 and early 2008.

Deavalin Page, 46, of Chicago, an officer for approximately 19 years, was arrested this morning and later released on a $10,000 unsecured bond after appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown in U.S. District Court.

Page was charged with

• two counts of attempted extortion

and his indictment seeks forfeiture of $3,200 in proceeds.

Francis Zoller, 43, also of Chicago, an officer for approximately 17 years, was also released on a $10,000 unsecured bond after being notified to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney I. Schenkier in Federal Court.

Zoller was charged with one count each of

• attempted extortion and
• mail fraud.

The indictment against him seeks forfeiture of $4,000 in proceeds Both defendants pleaded not guilty.

The indictments, which were returned yesterday by a federal grand jury and unsealed today, are part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Operation Tow Scam.

So far, seven Chicago police officers and three civilians, including two truck drivers, have been charged and convicted in the corruption probe.

Gary Shapiro

The charges were announced today by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; William C. Monroe, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.

Page allegedly obtained extortion payments from the cooperating tow truck driver in November 2007 and January 2008, which also violated various Chicago Police Department rules and orders. Similarly, Zoller was charged with obtaining an extortion payment in January 2008.

Also in January 2008, Zoller allegedly created a false police report for a traffic accident involving an individual’s vehicle and a tow truck, knowing that no accident had actually occurred. The individual who owned the automobile made an insurance claim, and Zoller later accepted a $2,000 payment from the cooperating tow truck driver for participating in the scheme, the indictment alleges.

Each count of attempted extortion and mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and restitution is mandatory. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Donovan.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

TWO CHICAGO AREA MEN ARRESTED ON EXTORTION-RELATED CHARGES INVOLVING ALLEGED PLOT TO ABDUCT AND MURDER VICTIM

CHICAGO — Two Chicago area men were arrested last night and charged today with attempted extortion and extortion conspiracy involving an alleged plot to abduct, extort, murder, and dismember a victim whom they believed had access to large amounts of cash generated from commercial real estate holdings.

The arrests followed an undercover FBI investigation during which the intended victim, who was not identified, was never exposed to any immediate danger.

Steven Mandell, formerly known as “Steven Manning,” 61, of Buffalo Grove, and Gary Engel, 61, of Homer Glenn, were each charged with attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court. They were scheduled to appear at 11 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown.

Gary Shapiro

The arrests and charges were announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and William C. Monroe, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The investigation is continuing, they said.

The defendants were arrested last evening after they traveled to the vicinity of the planned abduction on the city’s northwest side.

According to the complaint affidavit, both men possessed what appeared to be “prop” firearms and various fake law enforcement credentials.

Engel also possessed handcuffs and Mandell also possessed a fake arrest document that appeared to name the victim as a criminal defendant.

After the arrests, FBI agents searched the location where the defendants allegedly planned to carry out their plans and seized

• a loaded .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol and additional ammunition, as well as
• saws,
• a butcher knife, and
• multiple zip-ties suitable for use as restraints.

Mandell, a former Chicago police officer for approximately 10 years until 1983, and Engel, a former Willow Springs police officer, allegedly intended to abduct the victim, referred to as “Soupie” or “Soupie Sales,” while posing as law enforcement officers purporting to “arrest” the victim while the victim attended a meeting with another person identified only as Individual A.

They allegedly planned to take the victim to a nearby office location, referred to in the affidavit as “Club Med,” where they planned to carry out the extortion and murder after Mandell drove the victim’s car to the victim’s residence to make it appear that the victim had disappeared after returning home from the meeting with Individual A.

The defendants planned to extort the victim to turn over cash and some 25 commercial real estate holdings before murdering the victim, the complaint alleges.

During the investigation, which included audio and video recordings, Mandell speculated that the victim generated as much as $100,000 a month in cash from rental properties. At one time, Mandell and Engel allegedly discussed demanding at least $500,000 from the victim to be released, while still planning to murder the victim.

During the last month, Mandell arranged to outfit the “Club Med” location with a large deep sink, a long counter capable of supporting several hundred pounds, and a shower. He took possession of the extortion location this past Monday, and met there with Engel over the next three days to plan how they would abduct the victim while posing as police officers, how they would restrain the victim, and dismember the victim after the extortion and murder.

On Oct. 10, Mandell discussed the abduction and extortion with Individual A, saying, “My guy knows what he’s doing, he knows how to waterboard, do interrogation, psy-ops,” according to the affidavit. When Mandell and Engel met at the extortion location this week, they allegedly discussed using the counter and sink area to drain the victim’s blood before dismembering the body.

The affidavit describes Mandell discussing the plot with Individual A initially on Sept. 22, followed by additional discussions in late September and throughout this month. On Oct. 4. Mandell and Individual A traveled to a vacant office space to discuss how the location could be renovated to use for the extortion.

Attempted extortion and extortion conspiracy each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amarjeet Bhachu and Diane MacArthur.

The public is reminded that a complaint contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

INDIANA COUPLE SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR STAGING VIOLENT PHONE CALLS TO VICTIM IN CONSPIRACY TO EXTORT AT LEAST $54,000

CHICAGO — An Indiana couple who engaged in a cruel hoax were sentenced to federal prison for an extortion conspiracy in which they obtained more than $54,000 from a Chicago victim they knew by pretending that the husband was and would continue to torture his wife and her two young daughters if the victim did not pay him.

Patrick Fitzgerald

Juan Hacha and his wife, Ixchel Guadalupe Solano, were sentenced to 87 and 42 months, respectively, after a hearing in U.S. District Court, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today.

U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo imposed the sentences yesterday in Federal Court after a hearing in which the victim testified and recorded telephone conversations of the extortion threats were admitted. The judge also ordered restitution of $54,834 to the victim.

Hacha, 32, and Solano, 30, both formerly of Hammond, have been in federal custody since they were arrested last September.

Both pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy and communicating extortion threats by phone.

Between April and September, 2011, Hacha and Solano repeatedly manipulated and emotionally tortured the victim — a man Solano knew and who had previously expressed romantic interest in her not knowing that she was married to Hacha — by demanding thousands of dollars while Hacha described the horrific violence that he was and would continue to inflict upon Solano and her two daughters, whose well-being the victim cared about.

In some of the more than 25 extortion calls, Solano cried and screamed as if she was in excruciating pain, telling the victim that she had been shot in the leg, that her fingers had been broken, that she did not know where her children were, and begging the victim to help her and her daughters.

At the same time, Hacha threatened to brutally kill the victim and his family if he did not receive the money he demanded.

In all, Hacha and Solano demanded approximately $75,000 and obtained at least $54,834 from the victim as a result of their threats. The victim testified in court yesterday that his life was ruined by his fear for the safety of himself and his family, as well as the safety of Solano and her two children.

After the victim turned to law enforcement for help and the conversations with Solano purporting to scream in pain were recorded, FBI agents and local police, who at the time were concerned that her injuries were real, found and arrested the couple at a restaurant in Munster, Ind., discovering that the purported violence was a hoax.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennie Levin.

That’s the best line in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article by Daniel Brice on former Governor Tommy Thompson top aide Nick Hurtgen’s having his trial date set for extortion and mail fraud.

Hurtgen was head of Bear Stearns’ Chicago office when Republican National Committeeman Bob Kjellander got $913,000 for on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s $10 billion pension bond deal in his first year in office.

In an official filing, Bear Stearns said Kjellander did no work on the deal. Kjellander has not been accused of doing anything wrong.

Hurtgen’s not important enough in the scheme of things for Chicago media to keep on top of what’s happening to him, but, in Milwaukee, he’s big news.

The article says,

“Federal Judge John F. Grady had wanted to start the trial sooner, but the assistant U.S. attorney overseeing Hurtgen’s case had another corruption trial that she has to prosecute first, according to The Bond Buyer, a trade publication.

“That’s Chicago for you:

So much corruption, so few prosecutors.”

The trial starts November 3rd before Senior Judge John F. Grady.

That’s the best line in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article by Daniel Brice on former Governor Tommy Thompson top aide Nick Hurtgen’s having his trial date set for extortion and mail fraud.

Hurtgen was head of Bear Stearns’ Chicago office when Republican National Committeeman Bob Kjellander got $913,000 for on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s $10 billion pension bond deal in his first year in office.

In an official filing, Bear Stearns said Kjellander did no work on the deal. Kjellander has not been accused of doing anything wrong.

Hurtgen’s not important enough in the scheme of things for Chicago media to keep on top of what’s happening to him, but, in Milwaukee, he’s big news.

The article says,

“Federal Judge John F. Grady had wanted to start the trial sooner, but the assistant U.S. attorney overseeing Hurtgen’s case had another corruption trial that she has to prosecute first, according to The Bond Buyer, a trade publication.

“That’s Chicago for you:

So much corruption, so few prosecutors.”

The trial starts November 3rd before Senior Judge John F. Grady.