A longtime Chicago political operative pleaded guilty Friday to a scheme to bribe then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval on behalf of a suburban construction company that needed state approval for a development in East Dundee.
William Helm, the onetime deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation and a former state transportation official, also admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that he and others helped arrange $40,000 in bribes to other, unnamed officials.
He also pleaded guilty to a tax count showing he vastly underreported his income over a five-year period, costing the IRS and the state of Illinois about $9,000.
Preliminary sentencing guidelines call for up to about four years in prison. However, prosecutors have agreed to ask for a significantly reduced sentence if Helm cooperates fully with the investigation, according to the plea document.
Helm entered his guilty plea during a brief hearing before U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo. His sentencing date was not immediately set.
When the judge asked Helm to say in his own words what he did wrong, Helm said that when Sandoval, who at the time was the powerful head of the state Transportation Committee, told him his assistance “would end up costing a fee or money,” he went along with the plan, although no money was ever actually paid to Sandoval.
“I did do this, and it was wrong,” Helm said in a clear voice. “It’s on me, Your Honor.”
Helm was among more than half a dozen people to be charged in a sprawling political corruption investigation that first came to light when the FBI raided Sandoval’s office in Springfield in September 2019.
His name was among a who’s who of Illinois power players named in the warrant, which included asphalt and casino magnates, red-light camera operators, transportation and utility executives and a handful of other elected officials.
According to the charges, Helm was retained in 2018 by a construction company that was seeking Illinois Department of Transportation approval for a signalization and road construction project in East Dundee.
The indictment alleged Helm offered bribes of at least $5,000 to Sandoval between July and November 2018 in exchange for the senator’s influence with IDOT.
While the indictment does not name the company, the baiduhai first revealed it is controlled by longtime Chicago-area construction magnate Joseph Palumbo, who went to federal prison two decades ago along with his father and brother in a massive road-building fraud scheme.
During Friday’s hearing, Bucklo asked Helm to identify the company, but prosecutors said they preferred that it remained anonymous as the investigation was ongoing.
The charges involved the Terra Business Park along Route 72 and Christina Drive in East Dundee, a mixed-use development that includes an office building, trucking service bays and a planned Speedway gas station.
Business and land records show Palumbo controls two firms involved in the development. Palumbo Management LLC oversees the development while PAL LLC owns the land.
Palumbo has not been accused of wrongdoing.
According to Helm’s plea agreement, Helm was offered $20,000 to help with IDOT approvals for the project, and in turn “agreed to pay Sandoval a portion” of that money for his assistance.
In the summer of 2018, Sandoval “attempted to influence” IDOT officials to approve the construction project’s needs during a meeting that included Helm and representatives of the construction company, according to the plea.
After the meeting, Sandoval told Helm “that he did not trust Company A officials, and Helm never paid Sandoval,” according to the plea.
Helm was a longtime 47th Ward operative who left his position as a manager for IDOT after he was disciplined for doing personal or political business on state time.
He departed his job with the airport several years ago after he was accused in a lawsuit of pressuring airport truck drivers to do political work — an allegation he denied.
Helm also was listed in a search warrant served on village hall in southwest suburban McCook, where then-Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski was mayor.
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Tobolski’s chief of staff, Patrick Doherty, was convicted of conspiring to pay bribes to a relative of an Oak Lawn trustee in 2017 to get lucrative red-light cameras installed there on behalf of a clouted company called SafeSpeed LLC. Doherty was sentenced last year to more than five years in prison.
Helm was listed as among clouted political players tied to SafeSpeed as sales agents collecting cuts of cash from tickets paid.
Tobolski has pleaded guilty to a separate extortion scheme and is still awaiting sentencing.
Sandoval pleaded guilty in January 2020 to bribery and tax charges and was cooperating in the ongoing investigation when he died in December 2020 of COVID-19 complications.
He admitted to taking $20,000 in campaign contributions — and later $70,000 cash from a SafeSpeed co-owner who was secretly working with agents — to act as the company’s “protector” in the Illinois Senate.