Federal prosecutors say Karen Finley, the former Redflex Traffic Systems CEO, provided a bribe in exchange for city of Chicago contracts worth $124 million to the official previously responsible for managing the city's red-light camera program.
Both Finley and John Bills, the city's former red-light camera manager, were indicted Wednesday on federal corruption charges. Bills was also arrested in May on a federal bribery charge in connection with the Redflex scandal.
Also charged Wednesday with "one count of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery" was Redflex's Martin O’Malley, who federal prosecutors say received $2 million to serve as a Chicago consultant to the firm, which the city fired as its red-light camera vendor last year. Bills allegedly received the bribes, including $570,000 in cash and other benefits, from O'Malley.
The indictment alleges "Finley and other officials of Phoenix-based Redflex arranged to funnel the cash and benefits to Bills through his friend, Martin O'Malley ... who passed much of his $2 million compensation on to Bills."
Click through for more on the indictments, as detailed in a news release from the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.