'Fast Eddie' Identified As 'Individual A' in Chicago Attorney's Tax Evasion Indictment

Ex-Alderman Edward Vrdolyak was revealed as “Individual A” in a federal indictment against an Alsip attorney for failing to pay $800,000 in income taxes, including legal fees he received in connection with the State of Illinois’s lawsuit against various tobacco companies.

Attorney Daniel Soso, 63, who was indicted last week with one count of income tax evasion, pleaded not guilty to the charge before U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve on Thursday.

Soso and “Individual A,” identified in the federal indictment as “an individual formerly licensed to practice in Illinois,” allegedly entered into a secret agreement with the partner of another law firm identified in the i\as “Individual B.”

According to the indictment, Sosa and Vrdolyak were to receive a portion of the attorney fees collected in connection to the $9.2 billion settlement between the state and the tobacco companies. The indictment further charges that Soso and Vrdolyak concealed these agreements from the state, the Illinois Attorney General and others.

Vrdolyak and Mayor Harold Washington battle in a 1986 Ch. 2 News interview.

Federal prosecutors confirmed during Soso’s arraignment on Thursday that the former alderman was “Individual A.” Vrdolyak was never authorized to perform any work on the lawsuit, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Vrdolyak has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu revealed in court that Vrdolyak is a witness in the case, and the ex-alderman’s sons, Peter, John and Edward J. Vrdolyak, as potential witnesses, the Tribune said.

“Individual B” was also unveiled as Washington state attorney Steve Bermann. Bhachu asked the judge to prohibit Soso from having any contact with Vrdolyak while the case is pending.

In 2008, Vrdolyak pleaded guilty to taking a kickback from a Gold Coast Apartment deal on the day he was scheduled to go to trial. He received probation instead of prison on a fraud conviction as part of his plea agreement, based on letters the court received of the ex-alderman’s acts of kindness and generosity.

That sentence was later reversed in federal appeals court when prosecutors protested that the sentence was too light. Another judge sentenced Vrdolyak to ten months in a federal prison in 2010.

Vrdolyak earned the nickname “Fast Eddie” for his skills as a backroom political dealer during his years as a powerful and influential alderman under Mayor Richard J. Daley, representing the 10th Ward from 1968 to 1988.

He and 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke later led the Chicago City Council’s opposition to Mayor Harold Washington dubbed the “Vrdolyak 29,” during the infamous Council Wars.