CHICAGO _ The former CEO of Chicago's longtime red light cameras vendor was sentenced to 2 { years in prison Thursday for her role in a $2 million cash-for-cameras bribery scheme with a top City Hall manager who rigged the contract for a decade.
Karen Finley wept as she apologized to the judge, the prosecution, the citizens of Chicago and competitors of Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., the company she headed through much of the massive, long-running corruption scheme.
"I am sorry that my conduct has contributed to the public's mistrust of the government," said Finley, her voice breaking with emotion. "I am ashamed of myself."
The Chicago Tribune first exposed the scheme that brought traffic cameras to the city.
In addition to imposing the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall ordered Finley, 57, to pay $35,000 up front in restitution and then 10 percent of whatever net income she makes for the rest of her life.
The judge said she hopes the prison term sends a message.
"Chicagoans are so sick of seeing their leaders walk through the revolving doors of the federal building year after year after year with no change in the government," she said. "And when we have a corporation that is in the community making millions of dollars on a product that abuses the people, there is no sense of corporate social responsibility. ... That impact cannot be underestimated."
The sentence will run concurrent with the 14-month prison term given to Finley in federal court in Ohio last month for her role in a smaller bribes-for-contracts scheme there.
Finley's sentence marks the apparent end of the prosecution in Chicago. However, Finley has said she continues to cooperate with authorities investigating the company in Australia, its parent headquarters.
Finley, 57, had faced up to five years in prison, but she won a break because of her cooperation with prosecutors, most importantly her testimony against John Bills, a longtime City Hall insider who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash bribes and lavish gifts from Redflex.
U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon, who personally led the prosecution, sought 2 { years in prison for Finley. Her attorneys asked for a 14-month prison term _ the same sentence she received for the smaller bribery scheme in Ohio.
Finley testified in January that in exchange for the bribes, Bills, at the time the No. 2 official in then-Mayor Richard M. Daley's Department of Transportation, steered the multimillion-dollar contracts to Redflex, helping grow the city's camera program to the largest in the nation. At its peak, 384 cameras peppered the city, raking in more than $600 million in automated traffic fines.
Finley told jurors that Bills, a longtime precinct captain in the powerful patronage army of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, instructed company executives which lobbyists to hire and even met with Daley and Madigan to discuss the program. He also orchestrated votes, providing inside information to Redflex executives and sabotaged competitors' bids.
At the trial, Bills' lawyers tried to deflect blame by asserting the bribe money went to elected officials and well-connected lobbyists, but the defense never provided evidence to back up those assertions.
No elected officials have been charged or implicated in the Chicago probe.
A federal jury convicted Bills on all 20 counts, finding him guilty of taking up to $2,000 in cash for each of the 384 cameras installed throughout the city as well as accepting gifts from Redflex that included lavish vacations, a Mercedes-Benz, pricey hotel stays throughout the country, even a condominium in Arizona.
Bills was sentenced in August to 10 years in federal prison, one of the stiffest sentenced handed down in Chicago's federal court for a corruption conviction. He is set to surrender next month.
A third conspirator, Martin O'Malley, was a Bills friend hired as a "consultant" by Finley to act as the bagman for the cash bribes. O'Malley also pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors at Bills' trial, saying he passed Manila envelopes stuffed with thousands of dollars in cash to Bills at Manny's Deli and other restaurants. He was sentenced in September to six months in prison.
Finley pleaded guilty in Columbus to one bribery count for helping to steer at least $70,000 concealed as campaign contributions to elected
In a personal letter to the federal judge in Ohio, Finley called Redlfex "a toxic and soul sucking place to work."
"I do not think I will ever know the exact reasons that I participated in the fraud," she wrote. "Looking back now, I believe it may have been a combination of things, including a misguided sense of loyalty to Redflex, a fear of losing my job ... and an unfortunate desire to fit in."
Redflex's business practices have come under scrutiny throughout the country as well as in Australia, home to its publicly traded parent company, Redflex Holdings.
Redflex company shares, once worth nearly $4 each before the scandal broke, were trading at 32 cents Wednesday on the Australian Securities Exchange.
In the wake of the scandal, Emanuel fired Redflex from the Chicago contract and turned over operations of the program to one of its competitors. During his 2015 re-election bid, Mayor Rahm Emanuel also ordered the removal of 50 cameras throughout the city.
The embattled program remains the largest automated camera enforcement operation in the nation. A series of Tribune reports have also revealed unfair enforcement practices, failed program oversight and a dubious safety record of the cameras.
In response, Emanuel has appointed a panel of experts led by Northwestern University to study the program and recommend reforms.
