Nicholas B. Blase

Longtime Niles, Illinois Mayor Nicholas B. Blase, an attorney, was arrested today on federal corruption charges for accepting kickbacks in a scheme that authorities alleged went back at least 17 years.

In a criminal complaint unsealed this morning, Blase—whose 78th birthday is today—was charged with one count of mail fraud for allegedly steering local businesses to buy insurance from Ralph Weiner & Associates, which kicked back bribes to the mayor.

Steven Weiner, president and co-owner of the Wheeling insurance agency, was also charged today with one count of mail fraud.

The two men appeared this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason, who released them on their own recognizance and set a June 21 preliminary hearing for Blase.

Blase attorney Harvey M. Silets said he was ``disappointed in the approach the government has taken by arresting Mr. Blase on his 78th birthday in front of his wife and grandchildren.''

He said Blase could have been invited to surrender in dignified fashion as Weiner was because the mayor ``has been a resident of the community for 50 years and has certainly never been a threat to anybody.'' He said Blase ``expects to be exonerated.''

In interviews with the Tribune on Tuesday, Blase, mayor of the north suburb since 1961, denied wrongdoing and Weiner declined to comment.

The Tribune, citing an FBI sworn statement since sealed by court order, reported Wednesday that federal agents raided Weiner's insurance agency on Tuesday as part of a probe into the alleged kickback scheme.

According to the charges, Blase used his position as mayor since at least 1989 to influence business owners in Niles to buy insurance through the Weiner agency.

In return, Weiner and the agency paid bribes and kickbacks to Blase by secretly funneling a percentage of the premiums and fees collected from clients who owned businesses in Niles.

The charges allege that the kickback scheme originated with Weiner's father, Ralph, a close friend of the mayor's, but that after the father's death in 2005 Steven Weiner began delivering the monthly bribe payments to Blase.

Bank records show that a shell company effectively controlled by the mayor received more than $280,000 in "commissions" from the Weiner agency between 1997 and 2003, authorities said.

One cooperating witness who worked at the Weiner agency asked Blase in 2004 for a list of new Niles businesses to solicit for insurance, according to the complaint. Blase mailed the informant a computer-generated list of more than 70 new businesses, authorities said.

The cooperating witness "felt like I was putting a gun to somebody's head" to buy insurance from the Weiner agency, the complaint said.

Niles mayor arrested, charged with fraud