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More Corruption In Aurora: Richard Irvin Secretly Gave City Contracts To Business Partners
Illinois GOP candidate for governor Richard Irvin may portray himself as a political outsider ready to clean up corruption, but his past tells quite a different story.
Two years ago, Irvin co-founded a consulting firm with a top city aide and two men from Virginia, the Chicago Tribune reported. The firm’s conflicts of interest are endless, from the mayor of the second-largest city in the state going into business with a city employee so close that he calls him a stepbrother, to said city employee dodging the formal reporting process for side jobs, to the Virginia men scoring a $15,000 city contract without disclosing their ties to Irvin.
And to make matters worse, Irvin never reported his ownership in the firm, and it isn’t disclosed on the state ethics form he filed at the start of his gubernatorial campaign. The business isn’t even in good standing with the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.
This is just the latest example in a long string of corruption and pay to play scandals. There’s Scientel, which donated over $100,000 to Irvin’s campaign and committees connected to him, and in return, received millions in city contracts and permission to build a high frequency trading tower that sparked concern it would interfere with fair access.
There’s the time Mayor Irvin arrived at the scene of an arrest of his then-girlfriend, accused of hitting a security guard at a marijuana store — promising the charges against her “would be taken care of.”
And now, there’s apparently a sham consulting firm he founded with a city aide and two Virginia men that scored city contracts during Irvin’s mayoral term.
“While Richard Irvin parades around as an anti-corruption political outsider, the exact opposite is true,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Time and time again, we’ve seen Irvin bend the rules to enrich himself, his friends, and his donors. That’s how he behaved as mayor of Aurora, and that’s exactly how he’ll behave as Governor. Illinoisans deserve better.”