(WTTW News)
The owner of a suburban construction company allegedly offered jewelry, meals, tickets to sporting events and other items to bribe a Cook County Assessor’s Office employee, who in turn helped lower the company’s assessed property values.
Alex Nitchoff, 56, of Lemont, was charged in an information with one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official and two counts of using a facility in interstate commerce in order to facilitate the acts of bribery, federal authorities announced Monday.
An information often indicates the person charged intends to plead guilty.
Federal prosecutors claim that from 2016 to 2019, Nitchoff and others conspired to bribe Lavdim Memisovski, a commercial group leader with the Cook County Assessor’s Office — a role that gave Memisovski authority to assess property values and review property tax appeals for Cook County commercial properties.
Memisovski pleaded guilty in federal court last year to a conspiracy count.
According to the information, Nitchoff and others provided Memisovski with sports tickets, jewelry and meals — as well as home improvement materials and services and contracts for electrical work. In return, Memisovski allegedly extended deadlines for property assessment appeals and ensured those appeals from Nitchoff’s company were routed to him.
The information states that in 2017 and 2018, Nitchoff directed housing work to be done on Memisovski’s behalf.
In one instance in May 2019, Nitchoff allegedly met with Memisovski and offered to let him use a home Nitchoff owned in Florida, before asking Memisovski if he had other house projects that needed work because Nitchoff was "gonna owe ya," according to court documents.
Nitchoff faces up to five years in prison on each charge he’s facing.
Contact Matt Masterson: @ByMattMasterson | [email protected] | (773) 509-5431
