Illinois Exec. Sentenced for Fraud Scheme

A trucking executive convicted in federal court for defrauding the town of Cicero, Ill., of $12 million-plus in an insurance scheme was sentenced to more than 12½ years in prison, according to the Chicago Tribune.

John LaGiglio set up an insurance company used to advance the scheme, Specialty Risk Consultants, in 1992 with financial help from alleged mob boss Michael Spano Jr. He is one of five convicted co-conspirators in the case.

Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese was sentenced to more than 8 years earlier this month for convincing the town’s supervisory board, which she chaired, to change the town’s medical insurance coverage from Travelers to Specialty Risk.

U.S. District Senior Judge John Grady, who handed down the sentencing, said Loren-Maltese “made it easy for these co-conspirators to dupe the town.” The former town president’s late husband, Frank “Baldy” Maltese had promised Spano Cicero’s insurance business, witnesses said during her trial.

According to an Associated Press report, Cicero’s medical coverage costs skyrocketed from $50,000 a week to $128,000 a week after Specialty Risk became the town’s insurer. The company’s general manager, Frank Taylor was the prosecution’s star witness against LaGiglio. Taylor had pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next week.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider noted that LaGiglio tried to hide his role in Specialty Risk by using his mother’s and father’s names in financial records.

LaGiglio’s wife, Bonnie, was a co-defendant in the scheme and was sentenced to 31/2 years for tax fraud earlier this month. LaGiglio owes $7.9 million in personal and business taxes he attempted to avoid through fraud and has been ordered to pay $8.3 million in restitution to Cicero.

At the sentencing LaGiglio apologized “to the government and to the people of the Town of Cicero,” and indicated he would live a life free of crime after serving his time in prison.