The man who made a bombshell undercover recording of then-Ald. Danny Solis with House Speaker Michael Madigan in 2014 has been charged with wire fraud and appears on track to plead guilty, court records show.
See Y. Wong was charged in a seven-page document known as an information filed in federal court Wednesday. It alleges a scheme revolving around a $13.7 million construction loan from Cathay Bank to Emerald Homes to develop and build a condominium building called Canal Crossing. Wong was an owner of Emerald Homes.
The fraud allegedly cost buyers about $1 million and cost Cathay Bank $1.8 million.
Wong’s arraignment has been set for Tuesday in front of U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle. The filing of an information is a typical signal that a defendant plans to plead guilty.
Wong was identified by the Chicago Sun-Times in January 2019 as the individual who, in the midst of trying to help build a 60-room hotel at Clark and Archer in Chinatown, met with Solis and Madigan as they discussed whether the hotel developer would hire Madigan’s law firm to handle its real estate tax work.
Wong expected to be charged in a fraud scheme and began cooperating with investigators in hopes of a reduced sentence, records show.
The details of the recording made by Wong wound up in a federal court affidavit filed in 2016 that helped lead to the cooperation of Solis against the now-indicted Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th). The affidavit was first obtained by the Sun-Times.
This is a developing story.
Contributing: Mark Brown
