83-year-old ex-Chicago alderman Eddie Vrdolyak ordered to begin serving tax evasion prison sentence

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a former prominent member of the Chicago City Council to report to prison at the end of the month to begin serving a 18-month sentence for tax evasion.

Concerns about Edward Vrdolyak's health amid the COVID-19 pandemic had kept the 83-year-old out of prison following his sentencing last year after he pleaded guilty to seeking to help another lawyer to evade paying about $800,000 in income taxes.

But on Monday U.S. District Judge Robert Dow ordered Vrdolyak to self-surrender on Nov. 30 to a federal medical center in Rochester, Minnesota. Dow said officials there told him the facility, which has 24-hour nursing care and "ready access to Mayo Clinic," could tend to Vrdolyak's needs.

Vrdolyak is a former Chicago alderman nicknamed "Fast Eddie" for his backroom dealing.

He pleaded guilty in March 2019 to a tax charge alleging that he obstructed an IRS investigation into payments to and from his friend and associate Daniel Soso related to Illinois' the state's $9.3 billion settlement with tobacco companies in the late 1990s.^[1]

Prosecutors said Vrdolyak had been paid at least $12 million in fees stemming from the settlement even though he did no legal work on the case.

Soso, 70, was sentenced in March 2020 to two years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of income tax evasion for failing to report more than $3 million in income in the deal.

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