A mob-connected Chicago businessman has been indicted on tax evasion
charges alleging he had a hidden interest in a sweepstakes gaming
company run by the now-imprisoned son-in-law of Joe Berrios, the former
Cook County assessor.
Robert “Bobby” Dominic, 71, a longtime
associate of the Outfit’s Grand Avenue crew known for his connections to
Richard’s Bar on the Near West Side, was charged in a five-count
indictment made public Tuesday in U.S. District Court with tax evasion
and failure to file tax returns.
An arraignment date has not been
set. The docket showed that Dominic, of Morton Grove, is currently
representing himself. He could not be reached for comment.
The
indictment alleged that from 2014 to 2020, Dominic was secretly paid
hundreds of thousands of dollars from two sweepstakes gaming companies
through a sham entity owned by his then-girlfriend.
A month after
his girlfriend died in January 2020, Dominic allegedly set up another
phony company through another woman, identified only as Individual B,
and continued to receive payments from the sweepstakes businesses,
according to the indictment.
On March 30, 2021, the stock
certificate for Sham Company B “was amended to reflect that all shares
were to transfer to Dominic upon Individual B’s death,” the indictment
stated.
Last fall, the U.S. attorney’s office subpoenaed
Individual B to appear before a federal grand jury investigating
Dominic, and sent a letter to her attorney indicating she would be
compelled to testify through a grant of immunity, according to the
indictment.
A few days before her scheduled grand jury appearance
on Oct. 7, 2024, however, Individual B, who at the time was 80 years
old, agreed to marry Dominic in order to prevent her testimony, the
indictment stated.
State records show Dominic’s wife, who is not
charged, formed a company generically titled Promotional Consulting Inc.
on Sept. 19, 2020, listing the business’s address as 725 W. Grand Ave. —
the same address as Richard’s Bar and an adjoining single-room
occupancy hotel also associated with Dominic.
The agent listed for
Promotional Consulting, attorney Edward Eberspacher, also represented
Dominic in previous lawsuits involving the hotel, known as the Acacia,
records show.
Eberspacher did not return calls Tuesday seeking comment.
The
indictment does not state how much Dominic allegedly failed to pay in
income taxes over the years, but lists payments he allegedly received
from the sweepstakes gaming companies totaling more than $1.2 million.
The charges also allege Dominic failed to file personal tax returns
reflecting any of that income.
The charges against Dominic are an
offshoot of a bombshell investigation into the shady world of
sweepstakes gaming machines that brought down former state Rep. Luis
Arroyo and businessman James Weiss, who is married to Berrios’ daughter,
former state Rep. Maria “Toni” Berrios.
The case also had mob connections simmering in the background. The
Tribune first reported last year that the grand jury sent a subpoena to
the Illinois Department of Insurance on July 28 seeking applications,
communications and other records involving a state Comprehensive Health
Insurance Plan in Dominic’s name.
Around that same time, federal
prosecutors alleged in a sentencing filing in Weiss’ criminal case that
he was allegedly “good friends” with notorious mob hit man Frank “The
German” Schweihs and once went to him for protection for his massage
parlors being threatened by other gangsters.
Weiss’ brother, in
fact, was caught on an FBI wiretap telling someone Weiss had partnered
with “a known longtime mob associate” after Weiss had reportedly gone to
Schweihs for help.
Details included in the new charges against Dominic reveal that he was the associate referred to on the recording.
“Yeah,
well, Jimmy and Frank were good friends, and some Russians were
muscling Jimmy, but Frank was on the run,” the brother, Joseph Weiss,
told an unidentified person in the wiretapped call. “Frank was in hiding
and Jimmy called Frank and … says, hey man, these guys just busted up
my (expletive store). Scared the (expletive) out of the girls, this and
that, you know, I need your help, where the (expletive) are you?
At
the time, Schweihs had been charged in the landmark Family Secrets mob
case and was on the run. According to the brother’s story, The German
told Weiss, “‘Jim, I’m underground right now … but I’ll have someone
call you right back.’”
“Somebody called Jimmy” and told him to go
see Dominic, who “straightened it all out,” Joseph Weiss said, according
to prosecutors.
“Ever since then, they’re partners on
everything,” Joseph Weiss said. “The problem is (Dominic’s) like a
gangster but he’s an honest guy. If you’re his friend, you’re his
friend.”
Prosecutors called the description of Dominic as a gangster “an apt
one.” In a separate undercover recording, Dominic admitted that James
Weiss ‘is with me,’ referencing their joint involvement with gaming
machines,” the filing stated.
“Insofar as (James) Weiss seeks to
portray himself as a community-minded and otherwise law-abiding
individual, his longtime partnership with (Dominic) and his own
brother’s recording discussing his prior association with his ‘good
friend,’ mob killer Frank Schweihs, demonstrates otherwise,” prosecutors
wrote.
The filing also alleged that Dominic’s now-deceased
girlfriend was a partner in one of James Weiss’ gambling businesses and
received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from him.
Schweihs,
who according to authorities spent decades as a reputed enforcer for
the mob’s Grand Avenue street crew, died of cancer in 2008 while
awaiting trial.
Weiss’ brother, Joseph Weiss, was charged in 2023
with lying to federal investigators about his brother’s reputed mob
ties, including his previous contacts with Schweihs and Dominic.
James Weiss’ attorney, Ilia Usharovich, said his client had no ties at all to Schweihs.
“Jim
denies ever speaking to Mr. Schweihs, ever meeting with Mr. Schweihs
and ever doing business with Mr. Schweihs,” Usharovich said.
The
Tribune has previously reported that James Weiss’ sweepstakes company,
V.S.S., was connected to a former Chicago police officer, John Adreani,
through a complex web of corporations, many of which list the same
address in a south suburban strip mall as their headquarters.
Adreani
was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 2015 for associating
with a major drug trafficker after he was captured on a wiretap
discussing gambling and drinking excursions and real estate ventures
with him, according to Chicago Police Board records.
Adreani was not charged; however, his name came up several times during James Weiss’ trial.
Another
one of Weiss’ business entities, Mac-T Retail LLC, which was formed in
2015, shares the same address in the 800 block of Sibley Boulevard in
Dolton with V.S.S., state records show.
At least three companies
that include “Mac-T” in their titles appear to be linked, according to
state records. The first of them, Mac-T LLC, was organized by Anthony
DeMarco of River Grove in 2014 and was also registered to the Sibley
Boulevard address.
DeMarco originally incorporated Mac-T using the
Grand Avenue address for the building that houses both the Acacia Hotel
and Richard’s, as well as the Italian restaurant La Scarola.
La Scarola was the scene of a 2012 lunch meeting with top Grand
Avenue crew members that led to the FBI sting of hit man Steve Mandell,
who was plotting, among other things, to kidnap, rob and murder a
mobbed-up strip club owner.
Richard’s is owned, on paper at least,
by the sister of Dominic, a reputed Outfit associate who, according to
FBI and Chicago records, ran pornography and gambling interests for the
Grand Avenue crew, which was headed by legendary mobster Joseph “The
Clown” Lombardo.
James Weiss was convicted by a jury in June of
seven counts of bribery, wire fraud, mail fraud and making false
statements. The charges alleged Weiss then agreed to pay monthly $2,500
bribes to get language helping his sweepstakes business added to state
gambling legislation, first to state Arroyo and later to state Sen.
Terry Link, who was a chief sponsor of the gambling bill in the Senate.
Arroyo
and Weiss didn’t know that Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat, was
cooperating with the FBI. Link, who is hoping for a break in his own
federal tax conviction in exchange for his cooperation, testified over
two days about his undercover role.
Arroyo, meanwhile, pleaded
guilty to bribery for his role in the scheme but did not agree to
cooperate with prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger sentenced
Arroyo to nearly five years in prison last year, calling him a
“corruption superspreader.”
Arroyo was released to a halfway house late last year, federal prison records show.
James
Weiss was sentenced in October 2023 to 5 ½ years in prison. He’s
currently serving his term in Leavenworth, Kansas, and is due to be
released in March 2027, records show.
Joseph Weiss pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to two months in jail.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/25/mob-connected-chicago-businessman-indicted-on-tax-charges-alleging-hidden-interest-in-sweepstakes-gaming/
