(CHICAGO) Two prominent Chicago businessmen – including a major donor to President Barack Obama – could be called to testify in an income tax evasion case involving former Congressman Mel Reynolds.
Real estate developer Elzie Higginbottom and onetime-mayoral candidate Willie Wilson separately hired Reynolds, an ex-felon, to do consulting work involving Zimbabwe on their behalf in recent years.
Reynolds on Wednesday maintained his innocence against a current income tax case, saying he would go to trial on the misdemeanor counts, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
That could mean Higginbottom and Wilson could be tapped as witnesses in the case.
U.S. authorities accuse Reynolds of failing to pay taxes on money derived from Higginbottom and Wilson.
Reynolds resigned from his congressional seat in 1995 after he was convicted of sexual misconduct, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. President Bill Clinton commuted his sentence before leaving office.
Higginbottom has told the Sun-Times he hired Reynolds after Reynolds said he had contacts in Zimbabwe and spoke of business opportunities there.
The businessman, who has contributed more than $400,000 to Obama, told an African publication, the Mail & Guardian, that he had sought to enter the diamond mining industry but then had backed away from it.
“We are no longer pursuing any diamond interests,” he told the publication in 2013. “The Zimbabwe state diamond entities engaged in the diamond trade are sanctioned and thus we have eliminated this area from our potential ventures.”
Higginbottom could not be reached for comment.
“I did hire him as a consultant,” Wilson said Tuesday. Wilson, who is now running for president, said he paid Reynolds but couldn’t remember the amount. “We paid him, you know? It was in the 10s, 20s, 50s [thousands of dollars].”
Asked if he was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors, Wilson replied:
“Well, I cannot comment on that at the advice of legal counsel. … Everything has been investigated and there’s nothing that I’ve done that’s illegal,” he said.
Wilson’s attorney, Pat Carter, said his client would cooperate if tapped to testify and that he already had given authorities information on the case.
“Wilson was requested that he provide some information to the federal investigators, and he did,” Carter said. When asked about a Reynolds accusation that Wilson delayed in giving him proper tax documents, Carter responded: “The U.S. Attorney looked at this case, and they charged Mr. Reynolds with criminal behavior, and I think that speaks for itself.”
Wilson said he hired Reynolds to help secure a contract to sell medical supplies, “gloves and that” in the African country. Wilson owns a company called Omar Medical Supplies.
Reynolds called a news conference on Wednesday charging he was unfairly targeted in the case. He said he wasn’t earning income but had his expenses, including travel, covered by Higginbottom and to a lesser extent, Wilson. Reynolds then also said that some of that money went toward his children’s college payments.
“It wasn’t income. The government says it was,” Reynolds said. “I was never contacted by the IRS at any point related to any kind of civil matter. They never called me in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, never once … How does it go from nothing to criminal?”
Asked why his high-profile defense lawyer Ted Poulos wasn’t standing with him as he made the accusation, Reynolds said: “When I go into court tomorrow, I will be with my attorney,” Reynolds said, adding he would have a new lawyer then.
— Chicago Sun-Times
