Topinka refuses to return “tainted campaign contribution” from company controlled by federally convicted contractor

“In January 1999, two Palumbo corporate entities–Palumbo Brothers Inc. and Monarch Asphalt–admitted to inflating bills on more than 60 Chicago-area road projects during an 11-year period. The cheating cost government entities more than $10 million. Both companies were banned from state and federal work and are no longer active, though not formally dissolved.

In their plea agreement, the Palumbos as individuals pleaded guilty to a separate scheme–failing to pay employees for overtime work and underpaying required contributions to the Teamsters and Laborers union pension funds. That scam cost 900 workers about $3.3 million in lost pay and benefits, according to prosecutors’ estimates, a sum later reimbursed as part of the plea agreements.

Orange Crush was not part of the criminal prosecution, but the Palumbos’ plea agreements bar any company in which any of the Palumbos owns more than 5 percent from taking state or federal money.”

According to a Glenview Journal & Topics story from August 25, 2010:

“Family patriarch Sebastian Palumbo holds a majority interest in Orange Crush”