Mark Polchan: Outlaws MC, Racketeering, and Resentencing

Mark Polchan is a former high-ranking Outlaws Motorcycle Club member who was convicted in 2010 of federal racketeering for leading a violent Chicago-area crew that operated in partnership with the Chicago Outfit. He was originally sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for a string of armed jewelry store robberies, an illegal video poker operation, and the 2003 pipe bombing of a rival business in Berwyn, Illinois. In 2021, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidated his pipe-bomb conviction, a federal judge resentenced him to 30 years, moving his projected release from 2059 to around 2034.¹

The Crew He Ran

Between 2001 and 2003, Polchan’s crew carried out more than a dozen armed jewelry store robberies across Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Prosecutors said Polchan identified targets and directed operations while others carried out the heists and brought the merchandise back to his shop for resale.²

The hauls were substantial. Lenna Jewelers in Hinsdale lost $239,752 in May 2002. LD Jewelers in Hickory Hills lost $236,902 in July 2003. The August 2003 robbery of Marry Me Jewelry Store in LaGrange Park netted $645,517, and a salesman was shot during the holdup. Other jobs hit stores in West Bend, Wisconsin, and Valparaiso, Indiana. A residential burglary on Rockwell Street in Chicago produced roughly $540,000, with at least $150,000 of it moved to Florida. In 2005, the crew also stole at least 170 cartons of cigarettes from an interstate shipment.²

Alongside the robberies, the enterprise ran an illegal video poker business. Machines were distributed to bars and clubhouses, including Outlaws locations, and the proceeds were a core revenue stream for the operation.³

The Berwyn Pipe Bombing

On the night of February 25, 2003, a pipe bomb exploded outside C&S Coin Operated Amusements at 6508 West 16th Street in Berwyn. C&S leased coin-operated vending and video machines and was competing with the Outfit’s gambling business. The blast shattered windows and damaged the interior. No one was hurt because the bomb went off at night.³

Prosecutors said Michael “The Large Guy” Sarno, a reputed Cicero mob boss, directed Polchan and co-defendant Samuel Volpendesto to bomb the business to eliminate the competition.⁴ A bombmaker from Merrillville, Indiana named Kyle Knight later admitted manufacturing several pounds of flash powder and delivering it to Volpendesto, and testified against the defendants at trial.⁵ The bombing count carried a mandatory 30-year minimum, and it would drive the length of Polchan’s original sentence.

The Outfit Partnership and the Pawn Shop

Federal prosecutors described the enterprise as a “secretive partnership” between the Outlaws Motorcycle Club and the Chicago Outfit, an arrangement investigators sometimes called the “Double-O.” Government witnesses identified Polchan as both a ranking Outlaw and an Outfit associate operating under Sarno’s direction.⁶

The base of operations was M. Goldberg Jewelers, a jewelry and pawn shop Polchan ran at 1203 South Cicero Avenue in Cicero. The indictment described it as a meeting place for Polchan, Sarno, and their associates; a storage site for stolen goods and video gambling machines; and a distribution point for illegal poker devices sent out to bars and Outlaws clubhouses. Sarno visited the shop regularly to exchange merchandise or cash and to coordinate criminal activity.⁷

Corrupt Cops on the Inside

Two police officers helped the enterprise function. Dino Vitalo, a Cicero officer with 18 years on the force, used law enforcement databases to run license plates for Polchan, check for federal surveillance equipment near Goldberg Jewelers, and provide information on possible robbery targets and active investigations. In March 2007, Vitalo met with Polchan and other officers at the shop to discuss suspected federal surveillance. FBI agents had already planted a hidden microphone inside the store and captured the conversation.²

James Formato, a former Berwyn officer, conducted surveillance on robbery targets, moved stolen money across state lines, and filed a false police report to give crew members alibis. He later flipped, wearing a wire for the FBI and recording conversations with Polchan and other members of the enterprise.⁸

Indictment, Trial, and the 60-Year Sentence

In May 2009, a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging seven defendants with racketeering conspiracy and related offenses. The named defendants included Polchan, Sarno, Samuel Volpendesto, Anthony Volpendesto, Casey Szaflarski, Formato, and Vitalo. Additional counts covered use of an explosive device, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling, and tax offenses. Prosecutors sought forfeiture of at least $1,878,172.³

A federal jury convicted Polchan, Sarno, both Volpendestos, and Szaflarski in December 2010. Cooperators including Knight and Formato testified for the government, with Knight on the stand for more than two days connecting the defendants to the C&S bombing and the robberies.⁵

On October 28, 2011, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced Polchan to 60 years: 30 years for the pipe bomb conviction and 30 years for the remaining offenses. The defense had asked for the 35-year statutory minimum. Guzman rejected that, calling the violence “terrorizing to the rest of us” and citing the need to deter others.⁹ Polchan was 44 at the time. The sentence would have kept him imprisoned until 2059.¹⁰

Why the Sentence Was Cut in Half

Polchan appealed. The Seventh Circuit rejected his direct challenges to the RICO conspiracy conviction and related evidentiary rulings.⁷ What eventually helped him came from a separate track. A U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down one definition of “crime of violence” as unconstitutionally vague. That ruling reached the statute under which Polchan had been convicted for the Berwyn bombing, which accounted for half his sentence. In April 2020, the Seventh Circuit gave Polchan permission to challenge that count, and Judge Guzman vacated it with the government’s agreement that it could no longer stand.¹⁰

At resentencing on October 6, 2021, defense attorney William Hardwicke asked for a sentence as low as 20 years, pointing to Polchan’s decade of good conduct in prison, his participation in educational programs, his work as a unit orderly, and his mentoring of other inmates. Polchan apologized to his victims and their families and told the court his years inside had let him see “things how they really are.”¹

Judge Guzman cut the sentence to 30 years. He said Polchan’s prison record “stands in his favor” but that good behavior did not diminish the gravity of the original crimes, which he called “the stuff of dark movies.” He invoked the “law of diminishing returns” on very long sentences and said he wanted to give Polchan a chance to “start over again while he is still young enough to do so.” At 54, Polchan could be eligible for release around 2034.¹

Where the Co-Defendants Ended Up

Sarno, the alleged boss, was sentenced to 25 years in 2012. He is held at a federal medical prison in Springfield, Missouri, and has sought compassionate release, describing himself as a “pathetic shadow” of his former self. In August 2025, Judge Sara Ellis denied his request, finding he still posed a risk to the community. His scheduled release is May 2031.¹¹

Casey Szaflarski, described by prosecutors as the “mob’s video poker king,” got three and a half years in 2012 and was released in 2015. In May 2025, he was indicted on new felony charges, including residential burglary, in an unrelated case in West Dundee, Illinois.¹² Formato pleaded guilty to racketeering and obstruction of justice and received a 47-month sentence in April 2012 after his extensive cooperation.¹³ Vitalo pleaded guilty and drew two years in September 2011.¹⁴ Knight, whose real name was Brian Schwei, pleaded guilty in 2008 and cooperated under an agreement that reduced his exposure from a potential 27 years to 15.¹⁵

A Long Record Before the Federal Case

Polchan’s criminal activity did not begin with the Outfit partnership. Prosecutors said he had been arrested at least 14 times over 22 years, on charges ranging from burglary to assault, battery, and firearms possession. Only two of those arrests produced convictions before the federal prosecution.⁶

1
Chicago Tribune. Former Outlaws Motorcycle Gang Member Gets a Break on Sentence
2
U.S. Department of Justice. Superseding Indictment, Case No. 08 CR 115
3
FBI. FBI Press Release on Racketeering Indictment
4
Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Mob Figure Gets 60 Years in Berwyn Store Bombing
5
Chicago Tribune. Bombmaker Testifies Against the Large Guy
6
ABC7 Chicago. Secretive Partnership Between Chicago Outfit and Outlaws Motorcycle Club
7
FindLaw. United States v. Sarno, Seventh Circuit
8
ABC7 Chicago. Former Berwyn Cop Sentenced for Role in Mob-Connected Burglary Ring
9
Chicago Tribune. Biker Overwhelmed by 60-Year Sentence
10
Chicago Sun-Times. Outlaws Motorcycle Club Member Mark Polchan to Get New Sentencing Hearing
11
Chicago Tribune. Judge Denies Early Release for Convicted Outfit Boss Mike Sarno
12
Chicago Sun-Times. Casey Szaflarski Indicted on Burglary Charges
13
Chicago Tribune. Ex-Berwyn Cop Who Was Part of Mob Burglary Ring Gets 4 Years in Prison
14
ABC7 Chicago. Former Cicero Police Officer Sentenced
15
Chicago Tribune. Man Pleads Guilty to Role in Berwyn Bombing