Chicago, ILLINOIS

INDICTED
On May 28, 2008, Chicago 29th Ward Alderman Isaac "Ike" Carothers, 54, (D) was indicted Thursday on federal fraud and bribery charges for allegedly accepting $40,000 in home improvements from a developer in return for supporting a zoning change for the city's largest undeveloped tract of land.

Carothers is the powerful chair of the City Council Police and Fire Committee. He e previously worked as an investigator with the Cook County Public Defender's Office before being appointed as superintendent with the city's water department in 1989. Four years later, he was appointed as Director of Internal Audit for the city's park district.

He was charged with wire and mail fraud, accepting a bribe and filing a false federal income tax return. Calvin Boender, the developer of Galewood Yards, was also named in the indictment. Boender allegedly made $3 million more off the sale of 25 acres of the land than he would have without the zoning changes. The zoning was changed from manufacturing use to the more profitable residential and commercial use, boosting the sale value by $6 million.

Carothers is the 31st council member in four decades to be indicted. Thirty have been convicted.

Carothers father was one of them, an alderman and Democratic committeeman on the West Side. In 1983, Bill Carothers was convicted of extortion. He tried to block a $14 million hospital expansion project unless and until he got $15,000 worth of improvements for his office.

Ike Carothers is described as Mayor Daley's most outspoken African-American supporter. See Is Is Ald. Isaac Carothers following his father's footsteps? (Be sure to scroll to the bottom)

Complete Indictment (from Huffington Post)

Carrothers has pleaded not guilty.