Alex Nitchoff was charged with conspiring to bribe a Cook County assessor employee with home improvement goods and services, jewellery, meals and sports tickets, in return for property assessment reductions, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
The property assessments influence the amount of tax paid on the properties.
Nitchoff reportedly also offered the employee, Lavdim Memisovski, the use of his Florida home and asked if he had any more housing projects that needed work done, adding that he was “gonna owe ya”.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, companies owned by Nitchoff, his late brother Constantino and their late father Boris Nitchoff, had carried out millions of dollars-worth of construction work for the city of Chicago.
Memisovski’s job was to assess the value of commercial properties in Cook County and review their property tax appeals. Prosecutors say that, in return for the alleged bribes, Memisovski “ensured that appeals of property assessments related to Nitchoff and his business associates were routed to himself so that he could extend deadlines for the filing of appeals and reduce assessed property values”, leading to lower taxes.
Nitchoff and his brother and father were named in a subpoena used by federal authorities to search the office of Carrie Austin, alderman of the 34th ward on Chicago’s far south side.
In July 2021 Austin was indicted for allegedly taking bribes from a private development firm. She resigned from office on 1st March 2023.
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