The brother of James Weiss, the politically connected business owner convicted of bribing two state elected officials, was sentenced to 2 months in jail Wednesday for lying to federal investigators about his brother’s mob contacts, including connections to notorious Outfit hit man Frank “The German” Schweihs.
Joseph “Joey” Weiss, 44, of Oak Lawn, pleaded guilty in May to one count of lying to the FBI.
The charges which were made public in October 2023, brought new mob intrigue to a case that already had elements of political corruption, a state senator-turned-government mole, a corrupt former police officer and the shady world of sweepstakes gaming machines.
In asking for a sentence of up to four months behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rothblatt said Wednesday that federal investigators were looking into whether Weiss’ brother, James Weiss, had mob-connected figures as shadow partners in his sweepstakes gaming business, as well as whether the mob was involved in a bribery scheme to expand the largely unregulated industry.
“There were millions of dollars flowing to various individuals who have connections to organized crime,” Rothblatt said. “These were matters of paramount importance … and the defendant had relevant information.”
Instead of telling the truth, Joseph Weiss, who worked for his brother collecting cash from sweepstakes machines around the Chicago area, tried to shield his brother by hiding his mob ties, Rothblatt said.
“He knew right from wrong,” Rothblatt said. “He had a moral compass and when push comes to shove he chose to lie.”
Weiss’ attorney, Lisa Wood, asked for probation, saying that it was “reaching” for the government to suggest that her client could have hindered the federal investigation, particularly since agents already had the answers they were looking for on wiretapped conversations and there was no indication Joseph Weiss was involved in his brother’s illegal scheme.
“The fact that he lied didn’t stymie them any more than if he had just refused to talk to them, which is what he should have done,” Wood said. “There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Mr. Weiss has any involvement in organized crime.”
Weiss issued a short statement to the judge before he was sentenced, saying he was sorry for his wrongdoing and the effect the “unwanted attention” has had on his family and friends.
In declining the defense request for probation, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly agreed that while Weiss’ lies weren’t the crime of the century, he could have just declined to talk to agents if he wanted to show loyalty to his brother.
“Everybody has the right to tell the law enforcement they don’t want to talk to them,” Kennelly said. “No one has the right to lie to them.”
The sentencing wraps up a case that first went public in October 2020, when James Weiss, who is the son-in-law of former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, was charged in a superseding indictment with attempting to pay off two state legislators to pass a bill beneficial to his sweepstakes gaming company and then lying about it to two FBI agents.
The next year a new federal grand jury investigation was initiated to determine whether James Weiss, his company or another co-owner of the company, identified only as Individual B, had any ties to the Chicago Outfit, and in particular Schweihs, the mob hit man who was charged in the landmark Family Secrets case more than a decade earlier, according to Joseph Weiss’ 15-page plea agreement with prosecutors.
Schweihs, who according to authorities spent decades as a reputed enforcer for the mob’s Grand Avenue street crew, died of cancer in 2008 while awaiting trial.
In January 2022, more than a year after his brother’s indictment, Joseph Weiss lied to FBI and IRS agents in an interview when he denied knowing anyone who used to do business with Schweihs, including both his brother and Individual B, according to the plea agreement.
After being told that a federal grand jury was examining the connections, Weiss allegedly told investigators, “I swear I’ve been honest. I think I’ve given you what I know,” the charges alleged.
But it turned out that Joseph Weiss had been caught on a federal wiretap saying his brother was “good friends” with Schweihs and once went to him for protection for his massage parlors being threatened by other gangsters.
Joseph Weiss was also recorded telling someone his brother had partnered up with “a known longtime mob associate,” Individual B, after Weiss had reportedly gone to Schweihs for help, according to prosecutors.
“Yeah, well, Jimmy and Frank were good friends, and some Russians were muscling Jimmy, but Frank was on the run,” Joseph Weiss allegedly told an unidentified person in a wiretapped call. “Frank was in hiding and Jimmy called Frank and says, hey man, these guys just busted up my (expletive store). Scared the (expletive) out of the girls, this and that, you know, I need your help, where the (expletive) are you?”
At the time, Schweihs had been charged in the Family Secrets mob case and was on the run. According to the brother’s story, The German told Weiss, “‘Jim, I’m underground right now … but I’ll have someone call you right back.’”
“Somebody called Jimmy” and told him to go see Individual B, who “straightened it all out,” Joseph Weiss said, according to the transcript of the call that was detailed in James Weiss’ sentencing papers. “Ever since then, they’re partners on everything. The problem is (Individual B)’s like a gangster but he’s an honest guy. If you’re his friend, you’re his friend.”
Prosecutors have called the description of Individual B as a gangster “an apt one.”
In a separate undercover recording “Individual B admitted that James Weiss ‘is with me,’ referencing their joint involvement with gaming machines,” prosecutors said in their sentencing filing in that case.
The filing also alleged that Individual B’s now-deceased girlfriend was a partner in one of James Weiss’ gambling businesses and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from him.
James Weiss’ attorneys have denied that Weiss has any connection to Schweihs, saying he had never met him and never did business with him.
Weiss, who was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger in October 2023 to 5 ½ years in prison, is at a federal prison facility in Minnesota and due to be released in August 2028, records show.
The Tribune has previously reported that Weiss’ business partners used a complex web of limited liability company names that often shared addresses, including one called Mac-T that used an address of 723 W. Grand Ave. in Chicago, which is a single-room occupancy hotel in the same building that houses the Italian restaurant La Scarola and Richard’s Bar.
Richard’s is owned, on paper at least, by the sister of Robert “Bobby” Dominic, a reputed Outfit associate who, according to FBI and Chicago records, ran pornography and gambling interests for the Grand Avenue crew, which was headed by legendary mobster Joseph “The Clown” Lombardo.
Meanwhile, records obtained by the Tribune show the same federal grand jury looking into Weiss’ mob connections is also interested in Dominic, though he has not been charged.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
