Judge dismisses lawsuit alleging violations in lucrative Illinois vendor program
A Cook County judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging a company violated the terms of a lucrative state contract in ways that included failing to inform the state that a pair of political insiders profited from the deal.
In a one-page order issued without commentary on Feb. 21, Judge Jerry Esrig dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it can't be amended or refiled.
The whistleblower lawsuit involved a state program started more than a decade ago that allowed certain contractors to buy up unpaid bills from the state, then collect the late fees. One of the companies that got in on the program was the Vendor Assistance Program owned by Brian Hynes, a longtime political insider.
The lawsuit, filed by a Chicago attorney acting as a whistleblower for the state, alleged that Hynes' company and associated trusts purchased $5.7 billion in receivables through the state program but assigned many of them to 'a vast network of third parties' and granted 'profit participation rights to individuals never disclosed to the state.'
An initial lawsuit was previously dismissed but the plaintiff last year filed an amended complaint that included allegations that former Democratic state Sen. James DeLeo and veteran Republican lobbyist Nancy Kimme were undisclosed recipients of profits from VAP's contract with the state. The amended complaint has now also been dismissed.
In response to an earlier complaint and motion to dismiss, Esrig said all counts should be dismissed in part because the allegations were too similar to claims that had been publicly disclosed by outlets such as the news media, and that the plaintiff was not the original source of information presented in the suit.
Michael Forde, the attorney whose firm filed the complaint and a former lawyer for former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, did not respond to requests for comment.
A lawyer for the defendants, Benjamin Haskin, declined to comment on the dismissal Monday.
The Vendor Assistance Program also became a major issue during the recent testimony of former Ald. Daniel Solis, who worked undercover for the FBI, in the corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Solis' sister, longtime Democratic operative Patti Solis Doyle, who co-founded VAP with Hynes, paid her brother more than half a million dollars over a period about about seven years, much of which was never reported on Solis' tax returns, according to testimony.
What's more, Solis's sister was recorded by the FBI telling the alderman to 'revise' financial records in his tax filings and claim the $230,000 she'd paid him in 2016 as capital gains on a prior investment — which was not true.
Solis acknowledged on the witness stand he'd done no work for VAP in return for the money. He also said he generally did not understand how taxes work and was acting on his sister's recommendations.
'Did you realize that your sister was recommending tax fraud?' Collins asked.
'No,' Solis said.
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Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
