A former Cook County Assessor’s employee admitted Tuesday he helped hatch a scheme that illegally lowered tax bills for certain commercial properties by more than $150,000 over three years — in exchange for two golf outings.
Basilio Clausen, 51, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and formally agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. Though he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, the feds are likely to ask for a light sentence if Clausen lives up to his end of the deal.
The scheme Clausen admitted to Tuesday took place in 2017, when Joseph Berrios served as Cook County assessor. Clausen is not due to be sentenced until his cooperation with prosecutors is complete.
Clausen, who worked in the assessor’s office as a residential field inspector, was originally charged in April along with Lumni Likovski and Robert Mitziga. Likovski also previously worked for the assessor’s office as a director of taxpayer services. Mitziga founded the company Fence Masters Inc.
Also allegedly involved in the scheme was Lavdim Memisovski, another former assessor’s office worker who pleaded guilty in 2022 and is also cooperating with prosecutors.
The indictment against Clausen, Likovski and Mitziga alleged that in early 2017, Mitziga told Clausen that Mitziga and an unnamed individual would pay for Clausen and other assessor office workers to golf at a club in Bridgman, Michigan.
He said he’d do so if they would lower property assessments for a Chicago Heights property from which Fence Masters operated, as well as separate property in Dolton owned by the business of the unnamed individual.
Property assessments are a key factor in determining property tax bills.
Clausen, Likovski and Memisovski agreed to circumvent the random assignments of tax appeals and arrange for the properties in question to be directed to Memisovski, according to the indictment. The three then golfed at the Michigan golf club on Sept. 9, 2017, and Oct. 19, 2017.
Soon after that first round of golf, Clausen called the unnamed individual and left a voicemail that said his “appeal’s not going to be an issue at all, doesn’t look like.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rothblatt on Tuesday told U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly that the scheme lowered taxes on the properties in question by a total of more than $150,000 in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
