CHICAGO—A Chicago man employed by the
Cook County Department of Revenue to conduct inspections and ensure merchants
selling tobacco products have paid required taxes was arrested by special
agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for allegedly taking bribes
to alert nonpaying merchants of upcoming inspections. The arrest was announced
today by Robert D. Grant, Special Agent
in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Gary S. Shapiro,
Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Robert Mitchell, 39, whose last known
address was 2411 West Flournoy, Chicago, was arrested Tuesday evening on
Chicago’s near west side following the filing of a criminal complaint in U.S.
District Court on August 6, 2012, and unsealed after the arrest. The
investigation that led to yesterday’s arrest began in late 2011 when a
Cooperating Witness (CW) told the FBI of an alleged offer from Mitchell. The CW
is the manager of a convenience store that sells cigarettes and other tobacco
products and knows the owners of several other convenience stores in the
Chicago area that also sell tobacco products. The complaint alleges that
Mitchell identified himself to the CW as a Cook County tobacco inspector
willing to provide advance notice of upcoming tobacco inspections in exchange
for money.
According to the complaint, Mitchell and
the CW then settled into a routine of monthly $600 payments from the CW to
Mitchell. In return for the monthly payments, the complaint alleges that
Mitchell provided information about inspections at the store managed by the CW
as well as stores owned by associates of the CW. The complaint further alleges
that Mitchell directed the CW to purchase a pre-paid cell phone to facilitate
the delivery of the inspection warnings.
According to the complaint, beginning in
December 2011 and continuing until July 2012, the CW made monthly payments to
Mitchell using money provided to the CW by the FBI. During that same time
frame, the complaint alleges that Mitchell sent a series of text messages to
the CW’s cell phone indicating dates, times, and locations of scheduled Cook
County tobacco inspections.
Mitchell appeared earlier today in U.S.
District Court in Chicago before Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys, at which time
he was formally charged. Mitchell was released on bond pending his next court
appearance, scheduled for August 17, 2012.
If convicted of the attempted extortion
charge filed against him, Mitchell faces a possible maximum sentence of 20
years in prison and a possible fine of up to $250,000.
The public is reminded that a criminal
complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case
are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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