While many political junkies like to know who’s contributing money to political campaigns, sometimes it’s also interesting to look at where that money is being spent.
Brookfield’s VIP Party, for example, paid a man named Vince Iaccino $200 in August and September of 2004 for “political writing.”
Last week, Iaccino was indicted for felony theft and official misconduct by the Cook County State’s Attorney for allegedly stealing more than $300,000 from the Town of Cicero between 1998-2003.
According to a statement issued by the State’s Attorney’s Office, Iaccino was employed by the town as a newsletter writer and allegedly pocketed checks for newsletter postage.
He also allegedly altered and fabricated printing invoices and deposited checks for those invoices into his personal bank accounts.
In addition, Iaccino also allegedly picked up checks from newsletter advertisers and deposited them into two bank accounts, one of which was opened up under four names including his dog, Rocco J. Dawge. He allegedly wrote over $30,000 worth of checks using his dog’s name.
Expense listings in VIP’s D-2 show that Iaccino’s checks were sent to 3208 S. Grove Ave. in Berwyn. That’s the address of the Berwyn Gazette, which also publishes the Brookfield Gazette.
Brookfield Village President Bill Russ, running for reelection at the top of the VIP slate in April, said that he did not know Iaccino personally and that the VIP never used the materials he produced.
“Vince wrote a couple of things for us, but we didn’t use it,” Russ said. “We didn’t like the way it was written. We want to try new things sometimes, and it didn’t work out.”
Gazette Publisher Steve Iwaniec said that Iaccino “did freelance work for us” for “a very short time.”
“The more I found out about the guy the less I liked it,” Iwaniec said. “The less I have to be associated with him the better.”
?”Bob Uphues
