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Chicago

Feds’ probe of South Side alderman sweeps up developer

Federal investigators are seeking records from Boris Nitchoff, a developer and businessman who has done business in Alderman Carrie Austin’s ward

An investigation into Alderman Carrie Austin has ensnared businessman Boris Nitchoff (Credit: 34th Ward)
An investigation into Alderman Carrie Austin has ensnared businessman Boris Nitchoff (Credit: 34th Ward)

A real estate developer whose companies made millions doing business with City Hall has been caught up in the federal investigation of Alderman Carrie Austin.

A grand jury looking into the 34th Ward alderman’s purchase of a home in her South Side neighborhood also is seeking records from businessman Boris Nitchoff and his family, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The relationship between Nitchoff and Austin is not yet clear, and the businessman has not donated to the alderman’s campaigns.

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Nitchoff, however, has developed residential projects in the alderman’s ward. His companies have secured more than $100 million in city contracts, including for repairing roofs and porches of low-income residents and soundproofing homes near Midway and O’Hare airports, the Sun-Times reports.

Nitchoff also is leading the development of 250 single-family homes on the Far South Side. The project, which is in Austin’s ward, has received $12 million in city subsidies, and investigators are seeking records relating to the development, according to the Sun-Times.

Austin in 2016 sponsored a resolution seeking to rename a stretch of South Glenroy Avenue “South Nitchoff Avenue,” though the change was never made. The same year, Austin sponsored a proclamation honoring a late teenage relative of Nitchoff, according to the Sun-Times.

Federal investigators have been looking into a number of people in and around City Hall, including powerful Ald. Ed Burke (14th), who is accused of shaking down developers to get business for his private law practice. [Chicago Sun-Times] — Joe Ward