FBI mole can enjoy his Christmas
BY JON SEIDEL Staff Reporter jseidel@suntimes.com December 20, 2012 1:48PM
Anthony Cappello
Updated: January 22, 2013 6:25AM
An FBI mole who pleaded guilty this summer to a federal fraud charge may spend the holidays with family after a judge delayed his sentencing until next month.
Anthony Cappello, of Homer Glen, admitted he ran a phony woman-owned business called the Stealth Group to get more than $2.3 million in deals from City Hall. He told Judge Joan Lefkow Thursday he’s “deeply ashamed” of his crimes, and his attorneys asked the judge to give him probation.
Prosecutors want Cappello to go to prison for about 13 months — a sentence that knocks significant time off the penalty he would face if he hadn’t offered an “extraordinary” amount of cooperation to the government.
Lefkow said she takes public corruption “very seriously” and wants time to consider a sentence that sends a strong message but gives Cappello the chance to “do something valuable for the community.” She delayed the sentencing until Jan. 25.
A product of Chicago’s East Side neighborhood, Cappello was charged last Valentine’s Day when the FBI revealed he had been working undercover for months during an investigation of city contractors to ferret out minority-contracting fraud, a crime that’s plagued City Hall for years.
He admitted he created the Stealth Group, known as SGI, in his wife’s name to cash in on the city’s set-aside program for businesses owned by women and minorities.
