Attorney General declares victory in long-running RICO case against former Mayor Pastrick

INDIANAPOLIS - Today a federal court ordered East Chicago political figures including former Mayor Robert Pastrick, former mayoral aide James Fife III and former city councilman Frank Kollintzas to pay more than $108 million in damages in the history-making federal racketeering lawsuit filed by the State of Indiana over the 1999 "sidewalks-for-votes" scheme.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller issues this statement about the ruling in the East Chicago Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) case:

"This is a victory for the State of Indiana. I am enormously pleased that the federal judge awarded triple damages against former Mayor Pastrick and the other remaining defendants as a symbol of how brazen and shameless the public corruption was in the municipal government of East Chicago during the Pastrick regime," said Zoeller, who has continued to litigate the RICO case originally filed by former Attorney General Steve Carter in 2004. "This case is historic; never before has a city government been adjudged a corrupt organization under federal racketeering laws," Zoeller said. 

"We will diligently pursue public corruption in Lake County; we will fight it on all fronts," added Zoeller, who today discussed the East Chicago RICO case with officials of the U.S. Department of Justice. That was a follow-up to meetings he held last week with United States Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington D.C., where he discussed the cooperation between the Department of Justice and the State of Indiana in investigating public corruption in Northwest Indiana.

"In my recent appearance before the East Chicago City Council where I encouraged council members to reject a bad settlement deal with the Pastrick-created entity Second Century Inc., it was clear to me that many residents have grown weary of their city's reputation for crooked cronyism, bloated government payrolls and waste. They deserve better; and as the State's lawyer whose office brought this RICO lawsuit on their behalf, I am committed to dismantling the corrupt organization," the Attorney General said.

Now that the U.S. District Court has ordered the defendants to pay $108,007,584.33 in damages to the City, the Attorney General's Office will dedicate all necessary efforts to collect that judgment.

A copy of the Court's order in the case of State of Indiana and City of East Chicago vs. Pastrick et al, setting forth the triple damages awarded to the plaintiffs and against the defendants in the $24 million fraud, is found at this link:

http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/files/State_of_Indiana_v__Pastrick_Opinion_and_Order.pdf

Here is a link to the Attorney General's page on Combating Public Corruption:

http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/2689.htm

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