Corrupt businessman's partner pleads guilty to prostitution conspiracy
An associate of a clout-heavy businessman serving time for bribery pleaded guilty Tuesday to a sex-crime charge leveled amid federal probes of organized crime, gambling and corruption.
Iman Bambooyani, 43, faces more than a year in prison under federal guidelines now that he's admitted to a prostitution conspiracy. A grand jury originally indicted Bambooyani and Hojat "Grandpa” Askari in May 2023.
However, Bambooyani also formally agreed Tuesday to cooperate with federal prosecutors — a move that could help him catch a sentencing break. U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold agreed to put his sentencing on hold until that cooperation is complete.
The charges against the two men have been linked to the case against Joseph Weiss, who pleaded guilty in May to lying to federal investigators. He’s the brother of James Weiss, who is already serving a 5½-year prison sentence for bribing two Illinois lawmakers in a separate matter.
Bambooyani and James Weiss are business partners, records show. Askari is identified in court records as an Arizona-based doctor specializing in internal medicine. He is set for trial in April 2025.
The charges against the Weiss brothers revolved around their involvement in the “sweepstakes” gambling machine business. The machines look like traditional video gaming devices but operate in a way that puts them beyond the reach of Illinois’ video gaming laws.
The FBI and IRS wound up investigating potential mob ties to the machines, including an alleged association between James Weiss and the late mobster Frank “The German” Schweihs. Their investigation also led to a tax-evasion conviction and one-year prison sentence for Nikko D’Ambrosio of Des Plaines, who was also involved with sweepstakes machines.
Though the case against Bambooyani and Askari has been linked to the same investigation, the two men are instead accused of jet-setting across the country with four women and paying them thousands of dollars for sex.
An FBI affidavit obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times details four such trips by Bambooyani, Askari and two of the unnamed women. They traveled to Walt Disney World, Las Vegas and Arizona in 2018, it said. Investigators later interviewed the two women.
They learned one of the women referred to Askari as “grandpa” because he was about 25 years older than her.
One of the two women told authorities they received “several thousand dollars” in cash to split during the Disney World trip, and that it was her understanding they were paid because they had sex with the men. One woman deposited $4,500 in cash in her bank account, and the other deposited $1,595, according to the affidavit.
Similarly, following the trip to Las Vegas, one woman deposited $1,750 in cash and the other deposited $3,106. Again, one of the women said she understood the money came from Askari to pay for sex acts.
Following two trips to Arizona, one of the women deposited another $4,082 and then $3,300 into her checking account, according to the affidavit.
One woman recalled consuming alcohol, lorazepam, cocaine and codeine while traveling with Bambooyani and Askari, records show. Later, in 2019 and 2020, the women sent text messages to each other about their travels with the men.
“Is it weird that seems like it never happened?” one of the women asked the other.
“No not at all I’ve completely blocked it out too,” the other replied. “Plus we were on Xanax codeine and god knows what else lol.”
“The codeine oh my god,” the first woman responded.
The affidavit also documents an apparent suicide attempt by one of the women in 2020.