FBI says Solis secretly recorded some of 18,000 conversations

CHICAGO - Although corrupt former Alderman Danny Solis is collecting a city pension worth a reported $95,000-a-year, Mayor Lightfoot predicts Solis will eventually lose it once he faces a federal judge.

Long before he became a sharply dressed, city hall lobbyist, Roberto Caldero got his first taste of politics at the University of Northeastern Illinois with his longtime friend, future Congressman Luis Gutierrez. 

However, conversations secretly recorded by the FBI show Caldero was also close to corrupt, former Ald. Danny Solis. He supplied Solis with Viagra and arranged sexual encounters for him at a North Side massage parlor, apparently in exchange for official acts by Solis.

Now, Chicago’s Board of Ethics has voted unanimously to fine Caldero $25,000 for "unregistered lobbying to influence a city elected official in both a legislative and an administrative matter." 

Mayor Lightfoot foresees a day of reckoning for Solis. 

“It's not based on something somebody has told me,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “Obviously, that would be inappropriately and, candidly, a violation of the law. But I’m confident he will face a moment of reckoning. What that will be, when that will be, that is not under my control.”

During his work as an FBI mole, former Ald. Solis helped the feds to record some of the 18,000 conversations they say they have during this investigation. Others are expected to be charged. 

The way these things generally work is those who cooperate are the last to be charged.