CHICAGO — Ahead of next week’s hearing to sentence a former state senator for tax fraud, both the defense and prosecution agree that the convicted politician should be spared prison time.
Terry Link, 76, was the chairman of the Lake County Democrats from 1992 and a state senator in the north suburban 30th District from 1996 until he resigned both roles in 2020 after prosecutors revealed that he had filed false tax returns and misappropriated campaign funds for personal use.
According to his attorney, Catherine O’Daniel, Link began loaning campaign funds in 2012 to a close friend who was driven to financial ruin by the cost of a spouse’s medical care and a child’s residential drug rehab, all three of whom died in 2018.
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“[Link] also used some of the campaign funds for personal expenses. This continued for a period of years,” O’Daniel said in a sentencing memo.
Link admitted in his plea agreement that he lied on five years of income tax forms. In 2016, for instance, he had more than $358,000 in income but reported less than $265,000. He also misappropriated about $73,000 from his political action committee.
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At a trial last year, Link admitted he used some of the money for gambling.
“He made a terrible mistake in committing this offense,” his attorney said. “In the years since, Mr. Link has done everything in his power to right his wrong.”
Link immediately agreed to cooperate with the FBI when agents approached him, O’Daniel said. In 2018 and 2019, he was an informant for the government and wore a wire at the request of federal agents.
The then-state senator’s testimony to grand jury in October 2019 led to the indictment of former Rep. Luis Arroyo and James Weiss, the businessman son-in-law of former Cook County Democratic Party boss Joe Berrios.
Arroyo was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison in May 2022. And Weiss got 5 years and 6 months after Link testified at his trial last year.
“[Link] allowed the FBI to record his phone conversations, monitor his emails, and receive would-be bribes to defendant’s P.O. Box to further the investigation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine O’Neill said in the government’s sentencing memo.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of 6 months to a year in prison.
“A Guidelines sentence, however, is greater than necessary given [Link’s] acceptance of responsibility and substantial assistance to the government,” O’Neill said, agreeing with the defense that probation is a sufficient sentence.
“The steps [Link] has taken to admit his guilt and assist the government for years, and his agreement to pay restitution, reflect that a below-Guidelines sentence is sufficient to meet the sentencing goals of specific deterrence and just punishment,” the prosecutor said.
Link also agreed to pay more than $82,000 in restitution, the amount of unpaid federal income taxes that he was deemed to have defrauded the government.
The former senator’s sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland is scheduled for 11 a.m. March 6 in Chicago.
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