EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) - The owner of an East St. Louis business has been ordered to spend two and a half years in federal prison for a kickback scheme involving an official of the southwestern Illinois city.

Fifty-year-old Stephen Carraway of Cahokia also was fined $2,000 during Friday’s sentencing in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis.

He pleaded guilty in December to money laundering and conspiracy to defraud, admitting he was told in 2010 to make a cash payment in the form of a kickback to an unspecified East St. Louis official. Prosecutors say, in exchange, Carraway was told how much to bid in order to be awarded a demolition contract.

Carraway also admitted he gave East St. Louis a falsified certificate of insurance when he didn’t have an existing liability insurance policy.

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