Bridgeport Mayor Sentenced on Charges of Mail Fraud and Obstruction of Justice

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today that on October 17, 2013, Max R. Schauf, 56, of Bridgeport, Illinois, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a $5,000 fine, and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice in United States District Court in Benton, Illinois. The court also ordered Schauf to pay $54,288.74 in restitution to the city of Bridgeport.

On November 6, 2012, Schauf, the then-mayor of the city of Bridgeport in Lawrence County, Illinois, was indicted along with Paul R. Kramer, of Vincennes, Indiana. At his plea, Schauf admitted that from July 2008 until March of 2011, he had engaged in a scheme to defraud the city of Bridgeport, as well as its residents by submitting false and fraudulent invoices, contracts, and bills for services and equipment. Schauf also admitted that on November 10, 2011, he had obstructed justice by telling another person to give false and misleading information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the investigation into his (Schauf’s) fraudulent activities.

Schauf’s co-defendant, Paul R. Kramer, pled guilty on March 20, 2013, to two counts of making false statements to the FBI and is scheduled to be sentenced in United States District Court on October 31, 2013. He faces up to five years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and up to years of supervised release on each count.

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ranley R. Killian and William E. Coonan.