From the Sun-Times: 
 
Contractor who won hospital pact indicted 
 
September 16, 2005 
 
BY NATASHA KORECKI AND ABDON PALLASCH Staff Reporters 
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 A politically connected contractor was indicted Thursday on charges he paid a $20,000 bribe to a county employee to help win a $49 million radiology contract at Stroger Hospital. 
 
Faust Villazan, 44, of Boca Raton, Fla., was charged with bribery along with his Faustech Industries Inc., an Elmhurst consulting firm certified by Cook County as a minority-owned business. 
 
 On Sept. 23, 2000, Villazan, formerly of Western Springs, allegedly paid off an unnamed employee with the Cook County Office of Contract Compliance to win a lucrative hospital radiology equipment contract. 
 
GE sues county 
 
 Cook County commissioners voted in 2000 to award the $49 million contract for radiology services at the new Stroger Hospital to DD Industries, a joint venture of Faustech Industries and Siemens Medical Systems. 
 
The contract later came into question after General Electric, which lost out on the bid, filed a federal suit against the county, saying it violated its own bidding procedures and let DD Industries cheat to get the winning bid. A federal judge found there was fraud in rewarding the contract, ruling that Faustech -- which had no experience in radiology -- wasn't a legitimate minority partner in the deal, but only a facilitator to arrange "access to county officials." 
 
 Villazan has contributed to the campaigns of commissioners Joseph Mario Moreno and Roberto Maldonado and County Board President John Stroger. 
 
Stroger, Maldonado and Moreno said Thursday that they did not know who the unnamed county employee was. 
 
Villazan used to patronize Maldonado's annual golf outing and helped Moreno with his run for mayor of Cicero. 
 
 Moreno sat down with an assistant U.S. attorney and answered questions about Villazan. Maldonado and Moreno gave federal officials copies of the campaign contributions Villazan made to them. 
 
'No respect' 
 
 But they and Stroger insisted they never interfered with the sealed bid process that resulted in Faustech and Siemens initially getting the contract before a federal magistrate judge blasted the award. 
 
"If there is anyone in the county government who accepted any gratuity for receiving illegal service, they should not only be indicted but prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Stroger said. "I have no respect for people who misuse government funds. I'm going to ask my inspector general to work with the federal government on this. We would like to know who that employee is." 
 
 Faustech and Siemens gave $3,000 to Maldonado before the bids were to be submitted. They gave Moreno $1,500 on July 2, 1999, and John Stroger $500 on April 26, 2000.