A former Cook County clerk employee who pleaded guilty to lying about an alleged bribe to a company run by the clerk's husband has been sentenced to three years of probation. Sivasubramani Rajaram pleaded guilty to making a false declaration to a grand jury. The maximum sentence was five years prison.
Rajaram says he lied to the grand jury investigating Cook County Circuit Court Dorothy Brown's office because he feared retaliation from politically-connected people. Rajaram says stress from the investigation caused him to be hospitalized.
He characterized the $15,000 given in 2014 to Goat Masters Corp., run by Brown and her husband, Benton Cook III, as a loan. Rajaram was later hired by the clerk's office. Neither Brown nor Cook have been charged with wrongdoing.
