McCormick Place operations manager charged with pocketing kickbacks from snowplow vendor

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An operations manager at McCormick Place has been indicted on federal fraud charges for allegedly pocketing kickbacks from a company contracted to provide snowplow services at the facility, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois said in a news release Wednesday.

Dominick Gironda was employed on behalf of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which operates McCormick Place, and managed contracts with vendors that provided services at the McCormick Place campus, the release said.

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According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, Gironda schemed with an associate, James Sansone, to approve inflated invoices for services that were not actually provided at McCormick Place.

The false invoices included compensation for individuals who had not worked on particular snow removal projects and equipment that had not been used, the indictment states.

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After Gironda approved full payment of the false invoices, cash was kicked back to Sansone, who then passed on some or all of the money to Gironda, the indictment states.

From 2022 to earlier this year, Gironda and Sansone allegedly received kickbacks totaling approximately $26,700. The indictment alleges that when Gironda, Sansone and others texted with each other about the scam, they used coded language that referred to the kickback payments as bottles of wine.

Gironda, 54, of Bloomingdale and Sansone, 38, of Batavia were arrested Wednesday morning.

Gironda is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court at 2 p.m. Wednesday, followed by Sansone at 2:15 p.m.

The indictment charges them with three counts of mail fraud, each of which is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for McCormick place said, "The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), owner of McCormick Place, learned today (Wednesday, December 4) that charges were filed against a person employed by the private management company for McCormick Place. MPEA and McCormick Place are cooperating fully with the authorities."