A former suburban Chicago highway commissioner was sentenced to three and a half years in prison Tuesday for accepting more than $280,000 in bribes from an excavation company.
Robert Czernek, 71, a former elected chief of the Bloomingdale Township highway commission, pleaded guilty last March to one count of honest services wire fraud. He was charged in an August 2020 indictment along with Debra Fazio, owner of Bloomingdale-based Bulldog Earth Movers Inc., and his employee Mario Giannini.
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Czernek read a written statement in court.
“I don’t make excuses for my conduct,” he said. “My crime was not a mistake, it was something I did to get rich.”
A former Bloomingdale, Illinois highway commission official was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for taking bribes.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly gave Czernek credit for agreeing to a plea deal with prosecutors and testifying at Giannini’s 2021 trial.
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Giannini is appealing his May conviction on 14 counts of wire fraud. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Last March, Kennelly dismissed a wire fraud charge against Fazio, saying prosecutors had not proven that she knew of or participated in the scheme.
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Czernek and Giannini will have to pay more than $500,000 in restitution to the municipality.
