The project manager for a Chicago-area construction company is the latest to be charged in an alleged scheme to bribe an employee of the Cook County assessor’s office, part of a larger corruption probe that also ensnared former 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin.
John Bodendorfer, 55, of Chicago, was charged with bribery conspiracy and wire fraud in a three-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court last week, court records show. An initial court date had not been set as of Monday.
His attorney, Steven Shobat, could not immediately be reached.
The indictment alleged that between 2016 and 2019, Bodendorfer, a project manager at Summit-based Oakk Construction, conspired with his boss, Oakk Construction owner Alex Nitchoff, to provide free home improvement materials and services, jewelry, meals, tickets to sporting events and other items, to Lavdim Memisovski, a commercial group leader at the Cook County assessor’s office.
In return, prosecutors allege, Memisovski made sure that appeals of property assessments related to Nitchoff and his business associates were routed to him so he could extend deadlines for the filing of appeals and reduce assessed property values.
Nitchoff was indicted on nearly identical charges in March and has pleaded not guilty.
Memisovski pleaded guilty last August and is cooperating with the investigation.
According to the indictment filed last week, Bodendorfer called Nitchoff in June 2017 to let him that up to $20,000 was set to be performed on Memisovski’s house. Over the next several months, the work Bodendorfer supervised included drywalling, gutters and windows and a delivery of gravel, the charges alleged.
In September 2017, Bodendorfer told Memisovski in a recorded call that he knew that the work amounted to “not even 5%” of the assistance Memisovski had given them with the property assessments, according to the indictment.
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In another call two months later, Bodendorfer asked Memisovski to keep him informed of what his workers were doing at the home, and said that Memisovski’s address was not on any invoices so there was “no paper trail” and nothing “to worry about,” the indictment alleged.
Meanwhile, a federal grand jury subpoena stemming from the same probe in 2019 sought records relating to several interrelated companies and their officers, including Oakk Construction.
The FBI raided Austin’s office in June 2019. She stepped down from her seat in February and is currently awaiting trial along with her former top aide, Chester Wilson, on charges they shepherded a new real estate development through the City Hall approval process beginning in 2016 and were given home improvement perks from a now-deceased developer seeking to influence them. They have pleaded not guilty.
The same investigation also ensnared former Chicago city inspector Joseph Garcia, who pleaded guilty to fraud for falsely claiming to have inspected homes supposedly worked on by Oakk Construction and found the work completed as required.
The city then paid the company up to $100,000 for replaced porches when the work hadn’t actually been done, according Garcia’s plea agreement
Garcia was sentenced to probation in 2021.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
