Boscarino relatives donated to Rosemont mayor after he cut ties

Maura Kelly Lannan

Wednesday, June 8, 2005 | 9:22 a.m.

CHICAGO -- Relatives and a business associated with Nick Boscarino, who was sentenced to prison for a scheme to defraud suburban Rosemont, have donated more than $55,000 to political funds tied to Rosemont Mayor Donald Stephens since December 2001 -- when Stephens publicly severed ties with Boscarino, state campaign finance records show.

Angels on Design Inc., a furniture rental company that lists Boscarino as its secretary, donated $17,400 to two funds tied to Stephens: the Rosemont Voters League, which lists Stephens' son Mark as treasurer, and the Donald E. Stephens Committeeman Fund, which lists Stephens' son Bradley as chairman and Mark as treasurer.

The bulk of the remaining $37,877 was given by Boscarino's mother, Ida Hansen; and Boscarino's stepbrother, Michael Hansen. That money went to the same funds as Angels on Design's donations, as well as to Friends of Mark Stephens.

The money came up during an Illinois Gaming Board hearing Tuesday aimed at revoking the gambling license of Emerald Casino, which planned to build in Rosemont.

The Gaming Board has been trying to revoke Emerald's license since 2001 over concerns that company officials lied to regulators and some investors allegedly had ties to organized crime. Among them, the board alleges Boscarino has ties to organized crime and held a hidden interest in Emerald Casino through a trust named after his wife, Sherri.

The trust invested in Emerald, but Boscarino's attorney Patrick Tuite said Tuesday that the trust was withdrawing its participation in the casino and wanted its money back.

Boscarino, his wife and his mother were all called to testify during the hearing but refused, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Robert Stephenson, attorney for Rosemont, said Tuesday that he did not know about the donations.

"I'm going to go back and determine if the money's been received. If it's been received, it will go back because it shouldn't have been accepted," Stephenson said.

Stephens publicly said he had severed ties with Boscarino, 52, in 2001. He said he acted after FBI agents questioned him about one Rosemont's former insurance brokers and Boscarino, who was convicted in February 2004 of money laundering, tax fraud and other offenses in a scheme that involved pocketing insurance premiums paid by Rosemont and laundering them through a series of bank and brokerage accounts.

Stephens had defended Boscarino against organized crime allegations in the past, but he said then that he was cutting all ties, saying: "I feel betrayed. So today I walk away from Nick Boscarino."

During Tuesday's hearing, attorneys for both the Gaming Board and Emerald Casino peppered Boscarino with questions, despite his refusal to answer.

"Was the Sherri Boscarino Trust created to hide your interest in Emerald Casino Inc.?" Assistant State's Attorney Paul Gaynor asked.

Emerald attorney Robert Clifford asked Boscarino if it was true that his alleged connection to organized crime and to the trust were never made known to Emerald.

Boscarino did not answer Gaynor or Clifford.

Clifford asked Abner Mikva, a former U.S. Court of Appeals chief judge and congressman who is the judge in the Emerald license revocation hearing, not to consider Boscarino's nontestimony and requested a mistrial. Mikva denied his requests.