Former Oakbrook Terrace mayor charged with taking secret payments in red light cam bribery scandal

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. - Former Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci accepted thousands of dollars in secret payments in exchange for renewing a red-light camera company’s deal with the western suburb, according to new federal criminal charges filed against him.

The scheme continued until September 2019, according to a seven-page charging document. That’s the same month federal agents conducted raids in several southwestern suburbs. Agents also seized $60,000 in cash from Ragucci’s home in 2019, records have shown.

Ragucci has previously insisted to the Sun-Times that Oakbrook Terrace’s contract with red-light camera company SafeSpeed LLC "was all done legit. …We did everything legit and clean here."

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Ragucci could not be reached for comment Monday.

Prosecutors charged Ragucci using a document known as an information, which is typically a sign a defendant intends to plead guilty. Ragucci’s arraignment is set for Thursday. No defense attorney had been listed on the court docket for Ragucci as of Monday morning.

Other politicians snared by the feds in connection with SafeSpeed include former Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta and the late state Sen. Martin Sandoval. The company has not been charged with wrongdoing and has claimed a former partner behaved as a rogue actor.

Onetime SafeSpeed partner Omar Maani was charged in 2020 with a bribery conspiracy but agreed to cooperate with the feds in what’s known as a deferred-prosecution agreement.