Jury convicts politically connected James Weiss of attempted bribery

Today, a federal jury convicted the politically connected businessman James Weiss of attempting to pay off two state legislators to pass a bill beneficial to his sweepstakes gaming company and then lying about it to the FBI.

Weiss is the son-in-law of former Cook County Assessor and Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, Joe Berrios. He is married to former State Representative Toni Berrios,

Weiss’ attorney Ilia Usharovich defended his client telling the jury in his closing remarks: “This is a dirty place (the Illinois General Assembly) where the rules seem to be gray, where a contribution can be considered a bribe, a bribe a contribution... It is all messed up.”

Read the entire story in the Chicago Tribune.