Alex Nitchoff, 56, of Lemont, Illinois, has copped to federal bribery charges for his role in a shady deal intended to swing low property assessments in his favor, as revealed in a recent federal court proceeding. The owner of a suburban Chicago construction outfit pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official and one count of using an interstate facility to facilitate bribery, crimes that could land him in the clink for up to ten years.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Nitchoff admitted that from 2016 to 2019, he engaged in a conspiracy where he provided free home improvement perks to Cook County Assessor's Office employee Lavdim Memisovski, who was responsible for setting property values and weighing tax appeals for commercial properties, these upgrades included a concrete slab, decking materials, and other valuable home improvements, in exchange for Memisovski pulling strings to reduce Nitchoff's property taxes to the tune of at least $550,000.
This graft confession has U.S. District Judge John F. Kness penciling in May 8, 2024, on his calendar for sentencing. Meanwhile, Nitchoff's worker bee, John Bodendorfer, 56, pleads innocence and awaits his day in court. The feds already have Memisovski, aged 45, from Burbank, Illinois, on their guilty roster from last year, with his sentencing hangover still pending.
The guilty plea throws a spotlight on corruption within the Cook County Assessor's Office, where investigators found a small cohort of culprits, including Basilio Clausen of Crown Point, Indiana, and Lumni Likovski of Burbank, Illinois, who has yet to admit any wrongdoing they allegedly took bribes from a fence company mogul looking for tax breaks, Robert Mitziga of Dyer, Indiana also stands tall in the docks pleading not guilty alongside those two, in a related bribery fiasco, Joseph E. Garcia, a former Chicago building inspector, has been handed probation for pulling the wool over the city's eyes by claiming to have inspected projects for the needy when no such checking had been completed.
The men who have pleaded not guilty are marinating in the presumption of innocence soup, as mandated by the justice system which demands the government to establish their guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt to win conviction, and if that happens, it's up to the court to dish out sentences that are in line with federal guidelines and the law’s good sense.
