Lake Station tow truck owner implicated in a bribery scandal faces a new charge of failing to pay federal taxes
NWI Times
July 27, 2017
HAMMOND — The U.S. attorney's office has filed a new felony charge against a Lake Station tow truck owner implicated in the federal bribery case against Lake County Sheriff John Buncich.
The government names William Szarmach, of Hobart, in information it filed late Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court here.
It alleges Szarmach, who owns and operates CSA Towing, on the 2500 block of DeKalb Street, Lake Station, failed to file a federal income tax return reporting he received more than $75,000 in taxable income during 2015 and owed more than $17,000 in federal taxes.
Szarmach's towing company was one of more than 10 the sheriff approved to tow vehicles from public streets and highways for county police before the Lake County Board of Commissioners took over the towing contract approvals this year.
A federal grand jury indicted Szarmach, Buncich and Timothy Downs, the sheriff's former second-in-command, on Nov. 18, 2016.
Szarmach has been pleading not guilty to bribery and wire fraud counts alleging he paid the sheriff $9,500 between June 2015 and last August to influence the sheriff into giving Szarmach more lucrative towing assignments.
Szarmach's lawyer, Daniel Purdom of Lisle, Illinois, signaled on June 20 that Szarmach and the U.S. attorney's office were trying to conclude a plea agreement in the bribery case. No plea agreement was made public Thursday afternoon.
Seven months earlier, Downs pleaded guilty to collecting Buncich's campaign contributions on public time. He agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in return for a lenient sentence.
Buncich is pleading not guilty to allegations he solicited and received campaign contributions from towing firms and is preparing to stand trial beginning Aug. 7 before Senior U.S. District Court Judge James T. Moody.
Buncich's lawyer, Bryan Truitt, earlier stated in pre-trial motions the improper activity was confined to Downs, Szarmach and a government witness, Scott Jurgensen, owner of Samson’s Towing of Merrillville.
Truitt claims they conspired to take over all Lake County towing, while the sheriff was busy overseeing the largest department in Lake County government. "In short, the tow operations were the least of the sheriff's concerns," Truitt said in court documents.
Truitt argues other tow truck drivers are expected to testify they were never pressured to buy political fundraising tickets.
"Sheriff John Buncich maintains he has done nothing wrong. There is little to no direct evidence or a smoking gun," Truitt said in court records.
The U.S. attorney's office has said Jurgensen deserves credit for uncovering public corruption.
No comments:
Post a Comment