The Chicago Tribune reports:
Mayor Richard Daley's administration has banned the head of Windy City Maintenance and two others convicted of contract fraud from doing business with the city for three years, despite a recommendation from the inspector general that they never be allowed to do work for City Hall again.
James Duff, who cheated the city and insurance companies out of millions of dollars, should be subject to the stiffest penalty outlined in policies drawn up in 2005 following a series of contracting scandals, Inspector General David Hoffman said Wednesday.
Duff, a member of a mob-connected family with strong ties to the mayor, became the face of contracting fraud in Daley's administration after creating phony minority-owned and woman-owned businesses to get city work.
A federal prosecutor once called Duff "the epitome of greed" and a city official previously gave assurances that City Hall had no interest in ever again doing business with Duff-related companies.
After Duff was sent to prison in 2005 for racketeering and fraud, Hoffman recommended in late 2006 that Duff and two co-defendants, William Stratton and Terrence Dolan, receive lifetime bans.
"Allowing the defendants in this case to be eligible for city contracts in the future sends a message that is inconsistent with deterrence and integrity in the system," Hoffman said Wednesday. "If racketeering, fraud and money laundering only merit three years' debarment, then it will be hard to convince other contractors that their misconduct will result in a powerful financial sanction."
Recently,the patriarch of the Duff family
died:
John F. "Jack" Duff Jr., 82, the patriarch of a politically connected family that garnered millions of dollars in illicit city contracts, has died, according to the funeral home handling arrangements.
Details of his death were not available.
Mr. Duff's son Patrick declined an opportunity to comment, and officials at Cumberland Chapels funeral home in Norridge said they had no further information.
Mr. Duff, a Chicago native who raised his family in Oak Park, was for decades tightly tied in with City Hall, unions and the Chicago Outfit.
In 1960, he was a tavernkeeper, a union official and a city investigator when he testified that he had once bought beer from longtime mob boss Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo, who was on trial for tax fraud.
His testimony helped Accardo, but Mr. Duff lost his city job because his supervisors learned he was holding three jobs at once.
Mr. Duff later became a vice president of the Allied Distillery and Wine Workers International Union and an official of the union's Chicago affiliate, Local 3.
In 1982, he was sentenced to 17 months in federal prison for embezzling union funds. After that, his sons ran the union.
Mr. Duff continued to oversee businesses, including a janitorial company, Windy City Maintenance, which reaped a windfall in city contracts after Richard M. Daley became mayor in 1989.
A 1999 Tribune investigation revealed that Mr. Duff's wife, Patricia, was a sham owner of Windy City Maintenance.
Stay tuned to Newsalert, we will be posting a long blog entry on the Daley family and the Chicago Mob in the near future.
