Oct 12, 2006 5:03 pm US/Central
Fawell Fiancee Sentenced In Bid-Rigging Case
Coutretsis Sentenced To Four Months After Prosecutor Asks For Leniency
CHICAGO (AP) ―
Alexandra Coutretsis, a key figure in the government's case against former Gov. George Ryan, was sentenced to four months in prison Thursday for her role in a bid-rigging scheme.
U.S. District Judge Blanche M. Manning ordered Coutretsis, the fiancee of former Ryan aide Scott Fawell, to serve the prison time concurrently with another four-month sentence she received in July.
"I'm ready to put this behind me," Coutretsis said as she exited the federal courthouse.
In a rare move, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins strongly argued for leniency, noting that Coutretsis played a major role in the government's successful prosecution of Ryan.
"She was a very significant player in all of this," he told the judge.
Her greatest contribution was convincing her fiancee to testify against his former boss, and then getting Fawell to cool the outward hostility he showed toward prosecutors when he initially took the stand, Collins said.
The government was not expecting Fawell to testify. But when the time came, he was the leadoff witness at Ryan's trial, which ended in a conviction in April. Ryan has since been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.
The hearing on Thursday marked the second time in less than three months that Coutretsis has been sentenced in federal court for criminal conduct. She was ordered to serve four months in prison by a different judge on July 31 for lying to a grand jury investigating corruption under Ryan.
She is scheduled to begin serving both prison sentences on Nov. 2.
Coutretsis and Fawell, who were both married to other people at the time, met while he was Ryan's chief of staff in the secretary of state's office.
A romantic relationship developed between the two and they eventually divorced their spouses and got engaged. But those wedding plans were put on hold in November 2003 when Coutretsis was first questioned by federal authorities.
She quickly agreed to cooperate, Collins said.
"She was candid. She was forthcoming. She volunteered information," he said.
Coutretsis feared losing custody of her young son and daughter.
It was Ryan who had appointed Fawell head of the Chicago Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, known as McPier. Coutretsis followed Fawell and became McPier's director of operations.
The authority operates the Navy Pier recreational area and the big McCormick Place exposition center on Chicago's downtown lakefront. The couple became ensnared in the government's Operation Safe Road investigation because of their handling of a McPier contract.
Fawell and Coutretsis provided inside information about the bidding process on an $11.5 million contract to supervise a massive McCormick Place expansion project to a St. Louis-based company.
That allowed Jacobs Facilities, a construction-management firm, to lower its bid and land the contract. Two Illinois employees of the firm were sentenced to five years of probation.
Coutretsis faced a possible 12-month prison sentence Thursday in the bid-rigging scheme. She pleaded guilty to mail fraud on March 4, 2004, but her sentencing had been delayed for more than two years as the U.S. attorney's office built its case against Ryan.
Fawell, who is also serving a 6 1/2-year racketeering sentence, was ordered to serve 30 months in prison for his role in the bid-rigging scheme on Oct. 5.
Collins said Coutretsis received no financial gain from the scheme and was likely only involved because of her relationship with Fawell.
"This case here was her doing what we would describe as Mr. Fawell's dirty work," he said.
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