City official helps nab businessman in payoff plot

CHICAGO (AP) — A suburban businessman who wanted five restaurant locations at Chicago airports has been arrested on bribery charges after allegedly paying $9,000 to an indicted city official cooperating with federal investigators.

Wafeek Aiyash of Naperville promised the official an eventual $100,000 if he got the locations, according to a complaint filed in federal court Thursday.

The Chicago Sun-Times said it had learned the official who captured many of the conversations in recordings was Alderman Isaac Carothers, who is charged with taking money from a developer in exchange for a zoning change.

Carothers fits the description of the anonymous cooperating witness, but his attorney, Lawrence Beaumont, declined to comment on whether it was his client.