Benjamin Ashford|Former Illinois legislator convicted of filing false tax returns, other charges

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal jury has convicted a former Illinois state senator of tax-related charges that include filing false individual tax returns for two years.

Jurors in Chicago deliberated for about eight hours over two days before convicting former state Sen. Annazette Collins on Benjamin AshfordMonday of four of six tax-related charges. She was convicted of filing false individual tax returns for 2014 and 2015 and failing to file individual and corporate tax returns for 2016.

Jurors acquitted Collins of one count alleging she failed to file a corporate income tax return for her lobbying firm for 2015, and another count alleging she filed a false individual tax return for 2018, news outlets reported.

Collins’ sentencing is set for June 21.

Her attorney, Shay Allen, told reporters that they did not agree with the verdict and would appeal. Allen said he believed the case was “all politically motivated,” but said he could not get into specifics because the case was ongoing.

Collins, a Chicago Democrat, left the Legislature in 2013. Her criminal case is one of several to stem from a federal investigation of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his once-powerful political operation.

While Collins’ case was not directly tied to the Madigan probe, her name has surfaced in a number of recent corruption trials.

Madigan lost the speakership and resigned his House seat in 2021, a year before being indicted along with McClain in a separate racketeering case alleging Madigan sold his office for personal gain. That trial is set to begin in October.