Former Ald. Ed Vrdolyak out of prison, moved to Downers Grove halfway house

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Former Ald. Ed Vrdolyak has been released from federal prison, after spending about five months of his 18-month sentence at a medical prison in Minnesota, and is now completing his sentence at a halfway house in Downers Grove.

Vrdolyak, 84, had been sentenced to 18 months in December 2020 for federal tax evasion charges related to millions of dollars in payments he and a friend received from the state's $9 billion settlement with tobacco companies. But, due to Vrydolyak's age and health and the pandemic, a federal judge held off on sending him to prison until last November.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Vrdolyak is now in custody at a federal halfway house in Downers Grove. His sentence is scheduled to be completed in March 2023.

Vrdolyak pleaded guilty in 2019 to seeking to help another lawyer to evade paying about $800,000 in income taxes. The scheme was part of a plan to siphon off millions of dollars in legal fees stemming from the tobacco settlement, even though he did no legal work on the case.

Vrdolyak did a 10-month stint in federal prison in 2011 in a $1.5 million real estate kickback scheme. In the mid-1980s, he led an aldermanic bloc staunchly opposed to Chicago's first Black mayor, Harold Washington, and later focused on his law practice.