John Coli, Former Chicago Teamster Boss Gets 19 Months Prison Time

(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

John Coli, Former Chicago Teamster Boss Gets 19 Months Prison Time in Extortion Case. He was sentenced for his role in extorting $325,000 from a film studio in Chicago.

Secretly recorded tapes were presented as evidence at his trial where he can be heard threatening Cinespace Chicago Film Studios President Alex Pissios with shutting his theater down if Pissio didn't continue to make the illegally extorted payments.

According to the AP, Prosecutors agreed to dismiss several counts against the 63-year-old
Coli in exchange for his guilty plea to receiving prohibited payments as
a union official and making a false income tax return.

In
exchange, Coli agreed to cooperate with federal investigators and that
cooperation helped build an extortion case that landed former state Sen. Thomas Cullerton
in prison this year. Cullerton pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges
for improperly taking more than $248,000 from the Teamsters.