Legal
Former Chicago Transportation Official Sentenced in Bribe Scheme Tied to Contractor
A federal judge in Chicago sentenced William Helm Nov. 20 to 18 months in prison.
Photo courtesy Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
A federal judge sentenced a former Chicago transportation official to 18 months in prison Nov. 20 for his role in a scheme to bribe a state senator on behalf of a contractor, and for filing a false tax return.
William Helm was a deputy commissioner for the Chicago Dept. of Aviation in 2018 when a construction company offered to pay him $20,000 as a consultant to assist with approvals from the Illinois Dept. of Transportation for signalization and road work related to a development project in East Dundee, Ill., he admitted in a plea deal earlier this year.
Helm then offered a portion of that money to then-State Sen. Martin Sandoval, who was chair of the senate transportation committee, for his help in gaining IDOT’s approval. Sandoval attended a meeting with IDOT, the contractor and Helm, and tried to get IDOT to approve the signalization and road work, though Sandoval told Helm that he did not trust the contractor and Helm never paid him, the plea deal states.
Sandoval later resigned from the state senate while under investigation. He pleaded guilty in 2020 to charges of bribery and filing false tax returns unrelated in a separate case. Sandoval died in late 2020 from COVID-19 before ever being sentenced.
The Chicago Tribune reported the unidentified company was one controlled by Joseph Palumbo, who in 1999 had been sentenced to 21 months in prison for over billing for materials on road projects in a separate case.
Helm faced up to 13 years in prison and fines of as much as $500,000 for the two counts, but prosecutors recommended just 18 months, writing in a sentencing memorandum that Helm had admitted to other instances of corruption he had participated in. The apparent details were blacked out in court records, but prosecutors previously wrote he admitted to offering and obtaining other bribes totaling more than $40,000.
An attorney representing Helm did not immediately respond to inquiries.
