A former suburban contractor was sentenced to five years of probation Thursday for paying bribes and acting as bagman for corrupt McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski in exchange for lucrative contracts with the village.
In sparing Simo “Sam” Krneta from prison, U.S. District Judge April Perry noted he’d turned his life around in the seven years since the case first started, and that serious health issues would make it difficult for the Bureau of Prisons to manage his care.
But the judge also noted Krneta’s dual role in facilitating the corruption of Tobolski, both paying bribes and collecting extortion payments from other contractors on the then-mayor’s behalf.
“Obviously, we have a lot of problems in Illinois with public officials taking bribes,” Perry said. “Those problems would not persist if not for people like you acting as a middleman.”
Krneta pleaded guilty earlier this year to a single count of filing a false tax return in 2017. In addition to the term of probation, Perry ordered Krneta, who now lives in Albany, New York, to pay a $30,000 fine, about $59,000 in restitution, and serve 100 hours of community service per year he’s being supervised by the court.
In her remarks, Perry also said she was troubled by Krneta’s previous criminal record, which, though relatively minor, included at least one battery conviction “linked to this public corruption.”
“You felt comfortable assaulting a woman and dropping the mayor’s name, saying you would not get caught,” Perry said. “And I take that very, very seriously.”
The judge appeared to be referencing Krneta’s 2019 conviction for misdemeanor battery stemming from an incident at Tobolski’s August 2018 golf outing and fundraiser at Gleneagles Country Club in Lemont.
A former manager at the Alta Grill in McCook accused Krneta of fondling her from behind and attempting to take her phone out of her back pocket, according to the court records. When she protested, Krneta allegedly grabbed the victim by the throat at the event and said, “I’m untouchable. I always get what I want,” the records show.
Krneta pleaded guilty and was given six days in Cook County Jail in that case.
The case against Krneta stemmed from a sprawling probe into corruption in Chicago’s western suburbs that brought down more than a dozen people, including Tobolski and several other suburban mayors, state legislators, political operatives and businessmen.
Krneta, formerly of Western Springs, was a friend of Tobolski’s, and his company, Renovation Associates, did many projects for the village of McCook while Tobolski was mayor.
According to his 18-page plea agreement with prosecutors, Krneta agreed to kick back 5% of any work billed to McCook to Tobolski in 2011 in exchange for the mayor’s help landing new business. Over a period of about eight years, Krneta paid Tobolski about $17,500 as part of the agreement, the plea stated.
During the same time period, Krneta also collected about $40,000 in bribe and extortion payments on Tobolski’s behalf from others doing business with McCook. Krneta kept about $16,000 of those payments for himself, the plea agreement stated.
On his 2017 tax return, Krneta reported $321,000 in net income, even though his total income, which included about $4,000 derived from criminal activity, exceeded $400,000, the plea stated.
Krneta also underreported his income on tax returns for three other years, omitting bribe payments he received for his work as a construction manager for the neighboring village of Summit, the plea stated.
Krneta’s name first surfaced in a search warrant executed by the FBI in 2019 at village hall in McCook as part of the Tobolski investigation.
At the time, Krneta had just completed a major renovation of the Alta Grill restaurant inside the McCook Athletic & Exposition Center facility, also known as The Max. The FBI search warrant sought checks and other evidence regarding The Max project, as well as information about a “Latino Nights” event held there, records showed.
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Krneta was not charged at the time.
Tobolski, meanwhile, pleaded guilty in September 2020 to conspiring with McCook’s then-police chief, Mario DePasquale, to extort a restaurant owner at The Max who needed permission to host events serving alcohol on village-owned property. At the time, Tobolski doubled as McCook’s liquor commissioner.
In all, Tobolski, who was also a Cook County commissioner, admitted to accepting more than a quarter of a million dollars in bribes or extortion payments over the years. He also was showered with a variety of other benefits, including cash, cigars, dinners, holiday gifts, sporting event tickets and free air-conditioning units, which an unidentified developer installed at Tobolski’s home at a cost of $18,000.
Tobolski was sentenced to four years in prison and had been set to report in January. He fell ill last fall, however, and died in November, two days after the charges against Krneta were brought.
Before he was sentenced Thursday, Krneta stood at the lectern and choked back emotion as he read some brief remarks, apologizing for his conduct, which was done under a cloud of drug and alcohol addiction and caused him to “completely lose sense of myself.”
“I have done what I can to make amends, and will continue to do so,” he said.
Federal guidelines had called for up to 16 months in prison. Prosecutors had taken no position on whether he should serve prison time, given the health concerns, but said he was squarely responsible for his own conduct.
“Blaming his corrupt conduct on Tobolski and his drinking and drug addictions is no excuse for his choice to engage in criminal conduct for many years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hogan wrote in a recent sentencing filing.
Krneta’s attorney, Josh Herman, said Thursday that Krneta “was a complete and utter wreck” when he first met him nearly seven years ago, adding he’s now gotten sober and “come out of this really dark place he was in.”
Herman also said Krneta was paying the cost for coming into the “orbit” of Tobolski’s corruption.
“There is no price worth being adjacent to illicit and corrupt power,” Herman said. “Sam made these choices deliberately, he made them consciously … Once he got close to that power and some of it rubbed off on him, he didn’t get out. He should have, but he didn’t and he owns it.”