Rosemont casino figure indicted

Mike Robinson

Friday, Jan. 18, 2002 | 10:04 a.m.

CHICAGO -- A former business associate of Rosemont Mayor Don Stephens was indicted Thursday with an insurance agent on charges of fraudulently pocketing $288,670 in insurance premiums paid by Rosemont.

Nick S. Boscarino, 49, of Barrington, a key figure in the Illinois Gaming Commission's decision to block the Emerald riverboat gambling casino's license, was also charged along with Ralph E. Aulenta with laundering the money through a series of bank and brokerage accounts.

The Sherri Boscarino Trust, named for Boscarino's wife, was an investor in the Emerald. The gaming board said in blocking the license in March 2001 that he "has been identified as a known associate of organized crime."

The decision to deny the license came as a paralyzing blow to a big-money deal fashioned by top Illinois political leaders.

Boscarino and Stephens were at one time partners in a forklifting company, although the mayor has since ended the relationship.

The 15-count indictment charged Boscarino and Aulenta with wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering.

It said they engaged in a scheme to siphon the $288,670 in premiums out of an agency known initially as American Business Insurance of Illinois Inc. The Schaumburg-based agency later became Acordia Inc., a local affiliate of Acordia insurance, a major national carrier.

Between 1990 and 1997, the two men swindled the agency out of the premiums and converted them to checks payable as rebates to two Boscarino companies, O.G. Service Corp. and Ribs, a restaurant located in the Rosemont Village Hall, according to the indictment.

Asked why the businesses would receive rebates on their insurance premiums, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Netols said, "There was no reason." He said it was simply a fraud.

According to prosecutors, one Boscarino company paid $15,000 in premiums one year and got back $33,000 in such rebates.

The two men then plunged the $288,600 into the go-go stock market of the 1990s and ended up with $460,000, according to the indictment. Prosecutors asked for a court order requiring forfeiture of that amount.

Netols told reporters the investigation is ongoing but declined to comment on where it might lead. Stephens has not been accused of wrongdoing in the investigation.

Federal prosecutors claim Aulenta falsified documents to hide that not all of the premiums were being paid to the insurance company. But they said that eventually the company notified the federal government and an investigation was launched.

Aulenta's attorney, Tom Breen, said he had not seen the indictment and would not comment.

Attorney Charles Sklarsky, representing Boscarino, said, "We are going to vigorously defend the indictment and look forward to our day in court."