A top aide to former Ald. Carrie Austin admitted in a federal courtroom Wednesday that he helped the longtime South Side lawmaker improperly get home improvement perks from developers seeking to influence them.
Chester Wilson, 59, pleaded guilty only to one misdemeanor count involving the unrelated theft of “SNAP” state food subsidies, for which he faces up to a year behind bars.
But in his plea agreement with prosecutors, Wilson, who served as Austin’s chief of staff admitted that for a three-year period beginning in 2016, he helped facilitate benefits from three people seeking to influence Austin in her official capacity.
U.S. District Judge John Kness set sentencing for Wilson for Feb. 13.
Austin, who represented the 34th Ward in the City Council for more than 30 years before stepping down in 2023, was indicted in 2021 on charges of bribery and theft of government funds related to those same alleged home improvement perks. Earlier this year, however, Kness ruled that Austin, now 76, was medically unfit to stand trial.
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According to the indictment, Austin and Wilson shepherded a new real estate development through City Hall bureaucracy beginning in 2016 and received between them new kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, bathroom tiling, sump pumps and an HVAC system for free or at a discount.
The developer, Boris Nitchoff, has since died. His son, Alex, pleaded guilty to separate charges of bribing an employee of the Cook County assessor’s office and was sentenced to five years in prison.
The charge Wilson pleaded guilty to involved a separate scheme to illegally obtain the subsidies by paying the intended recipient less than the face value.
On Dec. 8, 2017, for example, an associate texted Wilson offering to sell a $400 card for $280 in cash, the plea agreement stated. Wilson picked up the card from her workplace and later used it to purchase $372 of groceries at a store in Calumet City, according to the plea.
The plea stated Wilson knew that his salary as chief of staff made him ineligible for SNAP benefits.