03222007 - News Article - Bobby Cantrell has seen it coming - CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Tough and competitive, he may fight feds hard - ROBERT CANTRELL

Bobby Cantrell has seen it coming
CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Tough and competitive, he may fight feds hard
NWI Times
Mar 22, 2007
nwitimes.com/news/local/bobby-cantrell-has-seen-it-coming/article_3b9a7f24-bfed-5bbc-9624-7b7754b86497.html
EAST CHICAGO | A year ago, Robert Cantrell was well aware federal investigators were tracking his actions and digging into his business deals.

But asked to publicly comment on what the feds were after, Cantrell took his attorney's advice: Don't appear arrogant or dismissive.

"I'd rather not go into it. I don't want to piss them off. I have my own theories, of course," Cantrell told The Times during a lengthy interview in the East Chicago poor relief office where he worked at the time.

Now Cantrell knows that it was his involvement with Nancy Fromm's Addiction and Family Care that investigators were interested in most.

Cantrell freely acknowledged Fromm had paid him under yearly contracts to use his connections in government to generate work for her firm.

Investigators allege much of this payment was in cash and not reported on Cantrell's tax forms and that Cantrell had an illegal conflict of interest because he had convinced the township to sign a contract with Fromm without officially disclosing he would profit from it.

Fromm, the sole owner of Addiction and Family Care, pleaded guilty last week to tax evasion and withholding information that would have disclosed how much she and Cantrell earned from government contracts.

In pleading guilty, Fromm agreed to cooperate with investigators on cases against Cantrell or anyone else she has information about.

Would Cantrell also flip? Political figures were asking that question Wednesday afternoon.

One observer said, no, Cantrell would pursue a court battle with the government with the same vigor that he fights political races, a vigor that grew from his competitiveness and success on the basketball court in high school.

"One thing about politics and about winning," Cantrell said last year. "It's just like playing basketball: If you're organized, you're well coached, you're well disciplined, you win."