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A onetime top aide to former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was arrested Thursday on charges he pocketed nearly $35,000 in payoffs in return for steering county contracts to several acquaintances willing to make the kickbacks.

The federal charges against Eugene Mullins, Stroger's childhood friend, come nearly two years after another high-ranking Stroger adviser was charged in Cook County in a similar scheme.

Mullins' attorney, Brunell Donald-Kyei, said that federal agents sought her client's cooperation when they confronted him Thursday morning. They brought up Stroger specifically, she said.

"Did you give any of that money to Todd?" Donald-Kyei said the agents asked Mullins in an apparent reference to the $34,700 in kickbacks he is accused of taking.

Donald-Kyei said Mullins was arrested after he declined to cooperate with authorities. He later pleaded not guilty in court to the charges.

When reached Thursday by telephone, Stroger brushed off the alleged question by the federal agents, instead expressing concern for his friend.

"I don't care about that part," said Stroger, who lost re-election in 2010 after a volatile term in office. "I don't believe that it's in Gene's character to take any money, but he'll get his day in court."

Stroger also said he was aware of an investigation but has not been contacted by the FBI.

"You're always worried when someone gets indicted," he said when asked about his concerns. "That doesn't mean you are guilty."

The four individuals who allegedly kicked back money to Mullins — including one executive producer to WVON radio's Cliff Kelley — were also charged in the 12-count indictment unsealed Thursday in federal court. Mullins allegedly steered contracts to two others as well, but both returned the checks after Mullins solicited kickbacks from them, authorities said. Neither was charged and could be key witnesses for the government.

According to the charges, Mullins intentionally steered contracts worth a little less than $25,000 to the six, knowing that they wouldn't need the approval of the Cook County Board at that level.

The contracts, worth a nearly combined $100,000, were intended to promote awareness for the2010 U.S. census, assist residents affected by floods in 2008 and increase energy efficiency. Yet little or no work was done after the contracts were awarded, prosecutors charged.

"These contracts were not fraudulent," Donald-Kyei told reporters at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. "He (Mullins) didn't get a dime."

Mullins, 48, who was Stroger's spokesman from March 2008 to November 2010, was arrested at the Richton Park Police Department, where he works part time, officials said.

A former veteran Chicago police officer, he was released on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty to four counts each of wire fraud and soliciting kickbacks.

The four individuals who were accused of kicking back money to Mullins in return for obtaining the contracts were charged with one count each of misprision of a felony for allegedly concealing the kickback scheme. They were identified as Michael L. Peery, 51, the WVON producer; Gary Render, 43; and Clifford Borner, 45, all of Chicago; and Kenneth Demos, 50, of Oak Park.

The indictment alleged that Mullins tried to conceal the scheme from investigators by advising the four in late 2010 and early 2011 to lie about how they got the contracts if questioned by authorities. He told Peery not to say anything about the cash payments and told Borner to claim ownership of an invoice submitted in support in his contract, prosecutors charged.

In October 2010, another former top Stroger aide, Carla Oglesby, was charged by Cook County prosecutors with stealing more than $300,000 in taxpayer funds by steering more than a dozen contracts to herself and others who did no work for the money.

In those charges, county prosecutors accused "Public Official C" — identified by the Tribune at the time as Mullins based on county and law-enforcement sources — of helping her to rig the contracts. Oglesby, who was Stroger's deputy chief of staff, was charged with felony theft, money laundering and official misconduct. She has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

In unsealing the indictment against Mullins on Thursday, federal prosecutors made clear that the charges against both former Stroger aides stem from the same joint federal and county investigation.