Joliet Game Firm Exec Charged With Illegal Political Donations June 29, 1990|By Bob Merrifield. The president of a Joliet firm owned by a prominent political contributor has been indicted on charges that he helped funnel corporate funds to Republican campaigns and reported them as a business loan. A federal indictment issued Wednesday accused Joseph Cusimano Jr. with three counts of tax fraud. He is president of International Games Inc., best known as the maker of the popular card game, Uno. The company is owned by Robert Tezak, a former Will County coroner and a millionaire businessman who was a major GOP figure in the county for more than a decade. Tezak was not indicted. Also indicted was Van Thompson, the firm`s auditor, who was treasurer of the Will County Republican Party in 1982. Cusimano and Thompson are accused of using $200,000 in corporate funds to help finance Republican campaigns in 1982 and then writing the money off on tax returns as business debts. According to the indictment, tax returns prepared by Thompson described the contribution as a business loan to Jack Dinoffri, current head of the Will County Forest Preserve District and a candidate in 1982 for county treasurer. Cusimano was a candidate that year for the County Board. Dinoffri, who was not charged, and Cusimano and Thompson could not be reached for comment. Instead of a business loan, the funds actually were a political contribution from the corporation and should have been subject to income taxes, the indictment charged. Cusimano and Thompson are charged with falsifying tax returns, tax fraud and conspiracy. Each offense is punishable by up to 5 years in prison. John Annerino, current County Republican chairman and once a close political ally of Tezak, said the indictments were over ``an internal matter between two people.`` ``The party had no action in that at all,`` he said.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 01:13:27 +0000
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