‘I’m built for that country club life’: Contractor accused of bribing county assessor employees with golf outings set to go on trial

Whether it was a bribe or not, one thing is clear: Former Cook County assessor’s office employee Lumni Likovski really loved playing golf on someone else’s dime.

“It was fun, it was a very nice course,” Likovski told a colleague in September 2017 after allegedly being gifted a round at the exclusive Lost Dunes club in Bridgman, Michigan, according to court records. “You know, I’m built for that country club life. I’m not going to lie to you. It (expletive) suits me nicely, you know what I’m saying? I’m made for that (expletive), bro … Somebody else is paying, so I got (to) love that (expletive).”

Likovski’s rant about living high on the hog — which was being secretly recorded by the FBI — is at the center of a trial set to kick off Tuesday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where a fencing contractor is accused of arranging golf outings for Likovski and others at the assessor’s office in exchange for getting his property taxes reduced.

Robert Mitziga, 66, of Dyer, Indiana, is charged with bribery and conspiracy in an indictment that was part of a larger investigation that so far has netted charges against seven people, including three assessor’s office employees and one former Chicago buildings inspector.

Mitziga was accused of paying for food, drinks and rounds of golf at Lost Dunes for Likovski and two other assessor’s office employees who helped steer commercial properties for Mitziga’s company, Fence Masters Inc., through the appeals system and ultimately saved him about $45,000 in taxes over three years — without the added expense of hiring an attorney.

While the charges involve relatively low-level graft, Mitziga’s trial will include a number of colorful recordings and offer a glimpse into the bureaucracy of the county’s property tax appeals system, which has been described by some as a legalized racket where initial assessments are artificially inflated, forcing property owners to jump through hoops to get them lowered.

At the time of the alleged scheme in 2017, the boss of the assessor’s office was Joseph Berrios, the then-chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party whose office was often criticized as a den of clout and patronage.

Berrios, who has not been charged, lost his bid for a third term as assessor in the 2018 Democratic primary to Fritz Kaegi, who instituted a strict ethics code for all employees, “which forbids the use of the assessor’s office for personal gain.”

Two former assessor’s office employees, Basil Clausen and Lavdim Memisovski, have pleaded guilty to taking bribes and are expected to testify against Mitziga. Prosecutors also plan to put on an expert witness who will walk jurors through a “how-a-bill-becomes-a-law” version of the byzantine workings of the assessment appeals system, court records show.

Likovski has pleaded not guilty and had been scheduled to go on trial with Mitziga, but won a severance and will instead be tried in February, records show.

The investigation also has connections to another intriguing bribery case unfolding hundreds of miles away in Pennsylvania, where Mitziga’s longtime friend, Mark Snedden, has been under scrutiny for allegedly helping arrange a slew of bribes — including trips to exotic islands, Bruno Mars tickets and a German shepherd puppy — to a corrupt Amtrak official to win millions of dollars in contract work to renovate the old 30th Street train station in Philadelphia, court records show.

Snedden has not been charged in either case, and he’s not expected to testify in Mitziga’s trial. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia filed a criminal information against a top executive with Snedden’s firm, Dolton-based MARK 1 Restoration, alleging the scheme to bribe the Amtrak official. Attorneys for Snedden’s company have previously told the Tribune that Snedden is cooperating with the U.S. attorney’s office there.

Meanwhile, attorneys for Mitziga have argued there is no connection between the golf outings and Mitziga’s property tax appeals, which they characterize as routine. They also intend to argue there’s no proof Mitziga believed he was helping his chances of lowering what he owed in taxes by paying for the rounds at Lost Dunes.

Mitziga said the same when he was confronted by two FBI agents in 2022 and shown some of the evidence in the case. A transcript of the interview recently filed by prosecutors shows Mitziga had just finished up a round of golf at a club in south suburban Flossmoor when he agreed to meet with the agents in the parking lot.

“How’d you shoot today?” one of the agents asked.

“You know, good,” Mitziga allegedly replied. “I three-putted the last two holes.”

During the three-hour interview, Mitziga was shown receipts from Lost Dunes and played recordings made during the investigation. He said he was just doing a favor for some friends when he set up the rounds of golf and had no expectation that his taxes would be lowered because of it, according to the transcript.

“My only point is it wasn’t uh, uh, God how do you call that when you see it on TV … like, pay-for-play or whatever,” Mitziga said in the interview, according to a transcript in court records. “It wasn’t a deal setup.”

“You didn’t think it would help with your taxes at all?” one of the agents asked.

“No. I didn’t know that,” Mitziga replied. “I didn’t know anything about Lost Dunes was, was, uh, gonna help with my taxes at all. I can honestly tell you that.”

The transcript also showed that Snedden was a main focus of the agents, who repeatedly asked Mitziga if he knew anything about Snedden’s project in Philadelphia and whether he’d gotten into any legal trouble there.

Mitziga said he “wasn’t privy to what was going on, but I knew they were having discussions over a job that was not going right or there were problems,” according to the transcript.

“Do you know, uh, Mark Snedden to ever have done anything illegal or unethical?” FBI Special Agent Brian Etchell asked.

“No,” Mitziga replied, according to the transcript.

The discussion grew testy at times, with Mitziga seeming to take exception to how the agents were characterizing his actions and at one point saying they’d “kinda lied” to him about the reason for the interview in the first place. Near the end, Mitziga appeared to be struggling to find the right words as he said he was not trying to “disrupt or inhibit” the investigation going forward.

“I’ll answer the questions to the best of what I can,” he said, according to the transcript. “And I can’t remember every single thing, but a $520 bill (from Lost Dunes) is the only thing that I know of, and it’s ’cause you just showed it to me, or I would’ve never even known that.”

According to a recent filing by prosecutors, Clausen, who was a residential field inspector for the assessor’s office, is expected to testify that he met Mitziga more than a decade ago at the Innsbrook Country Club in Merrillville, Indiana, where they were both members. At some point during their friendship, Mitziga asked Clausen about reducing property tax assessments for Fence Masters as well as Snedden, who was also a member at Lost Dunes, prosecutors said.

“Clausen will testify that he understood the offer to constitute a this-for-that — guaranteed reduced property assessments for the Fence Masters Property and the Mark 1 Properties in exchange for free golf at Lost Dunes for Clausen and Likovski and Memisovski,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

Clausen and his colleagues were treated to several rounds of golf at Lost Dunes in fall 2017, with Mitziga and Snedden splitting the tab, according to prosecutors. On Nov. 9, 2017, the FBI recorded a call between Clausen and Memisovski regarding the Snedden’s appeals, which had just been significantly lowered, according to prosecutors.

“Well, sir. Absolutely awesome,” Clausen said on the call, according to the prosecution filing.

Later that month, the two had another call to discuss Mitziga’s appeal.

“He got a nice one too,” Memisovski told Clausen. “I think he’s actually gonna be happier than the other buddy.”

“That’s exactly what we want,” Clausen allegedly responded. “Yeah. That’s awesome, that’s awesome.”

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com