Three subcontractors on City of
Chicago contracts worth millions of dollars have been accused in federal
criminal complaints of defrauding the taxpayers by falsely claiming to have
worked as certified woman owned or disadvantaaged businesses for which a
percentage of work is set aside in City of Chicago contracting requirements.
Perdel Contracting and Accurate Steel Installers, owned by Elizabeth Perino of Lockport
and Diamond Coring, owned by Anthony Cappello of Homer Glen, are accused of
submitting false invoices and purchase orders in support of minority and
disadvantaged business set aside requirements on City of Chicago contracts with
major Chicago area construction businesses.
In addition to evidencing how
deeply political corruption runs through Chicago and Illinois public
contracting, these criminal informations, unsealed last week, demonstrate that
the laudable policy goal of making the American construction industry more
minority and gender inclusive is often corrupted in the execution, to the
considerable disadvantage of both the public and those honest business owners
who go to the trouble of obtaining proper minority or woman owned, and
disadvantaged business certifications from government agencies, and then submit
genuine bids to general contractors to work on federal, state and local
government projects.
