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Chima Enyia responds to Vallas lawsuit: “I fulfilled completely my obligations to the campaign”

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* Background is here if you need it. Click here for the lawsuit. From the lawyer…

Please be advised that this law firm and I have been retained by Mr. Chima Enyia to represent him in connection with the Complaint filed by Paul Vallas and the Vallas Campaign. Please find attached a Press Release from Chima.

As indicated at the conclusion of the Press Release, Chima intends to defend the Vallas claims in court and not in the press, unless Mr. Vallas is prepared to personally and publicly repeat the accusation which he has made in his lawsuit.

Best,

J. Dahl

James E. Dahl
Dahl & Bonadies, LLC

* From Chima Enyia…

The lawsuit filed by Paul Vallas and his campaign is shameful and unfounded. I intend to vigorously defend his lawsuit, my character and my integrity. In the end, I will be vindicated and Vallas’ claims will be seen for what they are — unfounded.

I have known Paul Vallas for years. I regarded him as a trusted friend. He trusted me.

Paul Vallas desperately requested my assistance in the Black Community as a consultant regarding policy development, professional networks, personal relationships, and field support.

Vallas asked me for my help, I provided my help, I billed for my help, the bills for my help were approved, and I have been paid for my help. Each of the bills for my help was approved by both the Campaign Manager, Brian Towne, and by the Campaign Financial Chairman, Peter Jeon. I fulfilled completely my obligations to the campaign. Now after I have provided my help, Vallas wants to claw back my compensation. That is absolutely unfair.

I can assure you that Vallas will not repeat any of the accusations which he has alleged in his lawsuit outside of the courthouse, because he knows that if he makes those statements in public, then I can and will sue him for defamation.

In the end, the voters were right; Paul Vallas did not deserve to be the Mayor of the City of Chicago.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 2:27 pm

Comments

“In the end, the voters were right; Paul Vallas did not deserve to be the Mayor of the City of Chicago”

Oof.

This is the initial blowback of Vallas against the people he was throwing money at. I wonder if the next wave will be the blowback against Vallas from the groups/businesses throwing millions his way for him to set on fire.

Comment by NIU Grad Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 2:32 pm
do you really want this to go to discovery Paul?

Comment by Amalia Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 2:35 pm
==He trusted me.==

“And that’s entirely his fault.”

Comment by Roadrager Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 2:38 pm
What a mess. This should give the city confidence that it dodged a bullet with Vallas.

Comment by Arsenal Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 2:44 pm
Truth?

It’s like Vallas was “cool” with $700K of “walking around” money with no written contract, which is astounding and not how an administrator would run a railroad.

Then there’s the grift… that the ask itself… was never really all that possible, so the mark decides he was duped.

Comedy ensues

Couple points;

* All marks are angry when they realize they were marks.

* You lose an election and you pay vendor(s) or (an) operative(s) a ridiculous amount of money, an embarrassingly amount of money…

… that’s on y’all

Also, I wouldn’t call that candidate fiscally smart, but that’s just me

* Suing for being a mark is ridiculous

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 2:48 pm
I checked my spam email.

I offered the same results for “300 Large” in walking around money.

Sure, you should never be a cut rate grifter, but then again, when $300K is cut rate, that’s one heck of an initial grift.

Makes one wanna put up a shingle.

Email all inquiries…

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 2:59 pm
Dude gave me a hinky vibe when he ran for governor.

Always trust your gut.

Comment by Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:00 pm
Let me guess what happened here…
Vallas raises an enormous amount of money and manages to spend more than he raised. So he is in debt.
He then tries to reclaim money that’s been paid out, and screams bloody murder when people who feel they provided service and that the Vallas team paid, say no.
Vallas then makes a show, and seeks to destroy the reputation of someone who was on his team, that Vallas projected as a key staff member if he won, who introduced and vouched for him within the black community even after his racist tweets were discovered. He does this because he owes money, and as a loser had no prospect to get more money from the wealth that funded his failed campaign.
I’m guessing this could be pretty close to what happened…
You should have managed the money, managed the spending… that’s part of being the candidate. If you don’t, at least hire people to do that and tell you what’s happening. Sounds like multiple people were approving invoices.
Go away Mr. Vallas, please. You are humiliating yourself.

Comment by Lincoln Lad Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:06 pm
“Suing for being a mark is ridiculous.”

Put this sentence in the Louvre.

Comment by Skokie Man Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:08 pm
Great now he has $700k he can afford the good lawyers.

Comment by P. Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:13 pm
Clown show…

Comment by NotRich Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:18 pm
== seeks to destroy the reputation of someone who was on his team, that Vallas projected as a key staff member if he won, who introduced and vouched for him within the black community even after his racist tweets were discovered==

It’s possible that Vallas never had any real intention of giving Enyia a job, he just said it to appeal to the African American community.

Does that make it any better? /s

Comment by Arsenal Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:22 pm
I assume a healthy chunk of that cash was to be doled out as “street money.” I further assume Vallas has reason to believe not all of it was spent as intended.

I remember a time on a campaign when the campaign manager left the office with a brief case filled with cash. When he returned, he had receipts, IDs, and tax info to match recipients with payments.

Details matter. You can’t just give someone a bag of cash and hope they handle it properly. Live and learn I guess.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:23 pm
If he won he wouldn’t be suing so this is just sour grapes from a petty man.

Comment by Big Dipper Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:27 pm
Did Vallas consider a Go Fund Me account before deciding to attack his friend?
I get it, nobody takes your call when you are a loser… not Uihlein, not Griffin, not Proft… Bill collectors are calling, and nearly $20M in campaign cash wasn’t managed… I’d love to know how much Vallas owes…

Comment by Lincoln Lad Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 3:39 pm
Who would’ve thought the Dominic and Ronnie relationship now seems trivial compared to this grift.

That’s saying something.

I’m over this. I’m only fascinated by a candidate that seemingly saw the use of so much cash in this matter as “walking around” kind of expense.

===Paul Vallas did not deserve to be the Mayor of the City of Chicago.===

That is accurate

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 4:11 pm
Oh Chima please. Please stop lying & twisting the TRUTH to soften your bold, sickening grift. Chima & sister Amara devised a plan to con a very incompetent & overwhelmed campaign manager into paying for work never done & field teams never hired or deployed. Chima used all the woke ploys & tactics he learned from his, ahem, CRESCO gig as DEI chief. There’s a reason he was fired from CRESCO - 2 days before the VFM lawsuit was filed. Chima promised collaboration & engagement w Black Men United - yet hired no one & produced nothing. Now he wants to keep his ill gotten gains? While the lack of accountability & oversight was terrible & egregious, sure takes gall & greed to proclaim oneself a proponent of “social justice” & “restorative justice,” etc - only to devise a financial scheme to walk away with an outrageous amount of money - while minorities were never hired or put to work. Social injustice I’d say.

Comment by ZeeKnows Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 4:20 pm
Really appreciate Vallas relieving the post-election cognitive dissonance.

Comment by Springfieldish Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 4:32 pm
Paul Vallas will never be Mayor of Chicago.

Comment by Dotnonymous Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 4:46 pm
On the surface, some really sour grapes dirty laundry being aired.

===Really appreciate Vallas relieving the post-election cognitive dissonance.===

This is one of the positive side effects. Perhaps some those who voted/backed Vallas will move over to Johnson a little sooner rather than later.

Comment by From DaZoo Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 4:58 pm
- ZeeKnows -

There was nothing in writing.

So there’s that.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 5:01 pm
How is Chima going to get away with not paying back the money if there’s no contract or proof of payment to those he allegedly paid to coonduct the work?

But yeah, doesn’t look good for Vallas from a managerial standpoint that his campaign paid out these huge sums without a written contract. And I’m guessing Chima learned from his sister on how to keep this campaign money.

Comment by Vallas for Awake IL president Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 5:23 pm
===Oh Chima please. Please stop lying & twisting the TRUTH to soften your bold, sickening grift. Chima & sister Amara devised a plan to con a very incompetent & overwhelmed campaign manager into paying for work never done & field teams never hired or deployed. Chima used all the woke ploys & tactics he learned from his, ahem, CRESCO gig as DEI chief. ‘

Incompetent and overwhelmed campaign manager you say? With $18.6 million whose fault is that? The guy who proclaimed his ability to manage budgets so well doesn’t seem to have the most basic ability to do so.

Comment by ArchPundit Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 5:25 pm
=== Chima & sister Amara devised a plan to con a very incompetent & overwhelmed campaign manager into paying for work never done & field teams never hired or deployed.===

Proof? See you in court.

Comment by Betty Draper’s cigarette Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 5:31 pm
So I read the complaint. There’s so many things in there that are professionally entertaining to me. My main take away was that the Vallas campaign was quite the cookie jar. Everyone had their hand in for absurd amounts.

===Vallas advised Towne that Chima’s demand of $40,000 a month was excessive given other campaign
consultants and strategists were working for $10,000 to $20,000 per month.===

Another humorous takeaway is that there does not seem to be any denial of the fact that Vallas hired Towne to manage his campaign, and Towne accepted the invoices from Ikoro for very specific services. At the time they didn’t seem to demand any additional support, or even a copy of a contract. What on earth is a judge supposed to decide when there’s nothing that specifically spells out the services provided? It is not uncommon for a campaign consultant to take 30% of a campaign’s ad buy just to decide what stations and time frames to run a commercial on. I have personally never found that value to be reasonable because of how incredibly easy it is to do and how many more ads one can buy with that extra 30%. It is also consistently cheaper to hire someone whose job duties those are.

I don’t know what Chima did with the funds, I don’t know if he has other “subcontractors” he paid on the record, or if there is a small host of people who are going to be surprised to learn that they’re about to receive a 1099 form from Ikoro, but since 30% of an ad buy can be an industry standard — as long as more than half of the funds left Chima’s control, I don’t know how one can argue unjust enrichment — especially when the campaign manager was involved all along and never saw fit to be a little more responsible with the six figure sums he was paying out.

At least in losing his race for Mayor we know exactly what kind of simp Vallas is.

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 5:55 pm
I would also like to thank every one of my former employers who didn’t file a lawsuit that makes me look completely and totally incompetent.

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 5:57 pm
Poor poor Paul Vallas… can’t control his Twitter account, can’t hire anyone to oversee his campaign and finances, can’t research AWAKE, doesn’t know anything about extreme ties with Proft and Ives… If only the City chose this grifter to be Mayor. He would have gotten it all right then… if only…

Comment by Lincoln Lad Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 5:59 pm
My favorite part of the lawsuit is on page one, detailing the timeline when invoices were submitted. In that timeline we see a new holiday to celebrate….Mary 20….the date for messed up campaigns.

Comment by Amalia Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 7:06 pm
Technically, cognitive dissonance is the qualms Johnson voters may have felt after casting their votes. But seeing all the Vallas poor, boarding on incompetent, campaign moves like nearly a half a million bucks to try to recall a sailed ship, those voters are more comfortable that they cast their vote the way they did.

Comment by Springfieldish Monday, Apr 24, 23 @ 10:20 pm
==Dude gave me a hinky vibe when he ran for governor.==

Who would have imagined that 20 years ago our state would have been better off with Roland Burris as Governor. Compared to Vallas and that hairdo guy.

Comment by Stuck in Celliniland Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 5:00 am
And just imagine what this genius would have done with a city budget if he won…

Comment by DHS Drone Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 6:23 am