Cantrell hears list of fraud charges after return to U.S.
Political insider says he will enter a plea in April on 11-count indictment
Post-Tribune (IN)
March 27, 2007
Political insider Robert J. Cantrell was back on American soil and in U.S. District Court.
Cantrell was visiting Italy last week when a federal grand jury returned an 11-count indictment against him for alleged fraud involving a counseling service that paid him for help getting contracts with the North Township Trustee's office while he was on staff with the trustee.
He formally heard the charges against him for the first time Monday and was released on a $20,000 unsecured bond. He will enter a plea next month, when his attorney, Kevin Milner, returns from an out-of-state trip.
Cantrell said his trip had been planned for more than a year, and he returned late Saturday as scheduled. U.S. Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen's office announced Cantrell's indictment Wednesday, ending years of speculation about a lengthy federal investigation of the trustee's office and Cantrell.
Reached at his home in Schererville after his court appearance, the 65-year-old chatted amiably about East Chicago Central High School winning the state basketball title over the weekend, but deferred comment on his case to Milner.
Cantrell has long been known for his extensive, and often shifting, ties to Lake County political figures. Federal investigators apparently began their probe of Cantrell's duties at the trustee's office more than three years ago.
Cantrell allegedly used his connections to former North Township Trustee Greg Cvitkovich to win a contract for Addiction and Family Care, a counseling company that paid him half of the fees the company earned from the township.
The indictment also alleges Cantrell had company owner Nancy Fromm fraudulently add two people to the company's group insurance plan, even though they were not full-time employees, and that Cantrell did not include cash and other payments he received from the company on his tax returns.
Fromm pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of justice charges the week before Cantrell was indicted, and her plea agreement requires her to cooperate with federal investigators.
The charges against Cantrell also include honest services fraud, for violations of state conflict of interest laws that required him to declare his financial interest in AFC.
Honest services statutes have been applied in several notable prosecutions of political figures, most notably former Illinois governor George Ryan and City of Chicago patronage boss Robert Sorich, said Gary attorney James B. Meyer, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted crooked judges-- without the benefit of honest services statutes-- during the 1980s.
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