* Is Sen. Rickey Hendon under a grand jury investigation? Today’s AP scoop could also indicate that a much broader federal probe is underway of state legislative grants. It’s certainly fertile territory…
A federal grand jury has demanded records describing how hundreds of thousands of dollars in state money was handed out to dozens of groups, at least some of which are linked to a top Illinois lawmaker who is running for Chicago mayor, records show.
Subpoenas from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office arrived in August at five state agencies seeking copies of contracts and other financial records related to nearly 50 not-for-profit agencies and more than a dozen individuals.
An accompanying letter says the subpoenas are part of “an official criminal investigation,” although it does not say who or what may have been the subject of the investigation.
A number of the agencies said they received grants with the assistance of Chicago mayoral candidate and Democratic state Sen. Rickey Hendon, who is also assistant Senate majority leader. Several of the individuals have ties to Hendon, including his sister and her daughter, whose film and stage production organization received more than $1 million from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in 2007-08, some of which went to make a movie. […]
Two people whose candidacies for public office Hendon backed financially are listed, including his office assistant, who ran for state representative. A Cook County official who said she is a member of Hendon’s political organization is named, but she told AP she has received no state grants.
The name of prominent Chicago magazine publisher Hermene Hartman appears. She wrote forewords to two Hendon books, but has received no state grants and told the AP she was unaware of the subpoenas.
* Blackmail? Really? Gov. Pat Quinn chose the Northstar Lottery Group in mid September as the new private manager of the state Lottery. The two losing firms then filed protests, including a company named Intralot. But then Intralot execs were reportedly whistled into a private meeting with Department of Revenue and the Lottery and told to zip their lips or else bad things would happen. Lewis Lazare had the scoop back on October 14th…
To the apparent amazement of the folks at Intralot, sources say, the state executives suggested it might be in the best interests of Intralot to drop its protest by Friday, Oct. 15, or the Lottery would move forward with a plan to release more detailed information about the so-called probity checks that doomed the Intralot bid.
A company named Kroll handled the probity checks for the Lottery management privatization…
What Kroll determined to be a problem during the Intralot probity check, sources say, is the background of the Greece-based head of Intralot, a gentleman named Sokratis Kokkalis. A brief review of Kokkalis’ background does suggest the man has had some questionable associations, including a stint as an agent with the East German secret police. He has also been indicted in several foreign countries, but cleared of all charges in every instance, sources tell us. What’s more, Kokkalis never became a huge sticking point in 12 other United States lottery-related bids and 40 foreign bids in which Intralot has participated in recent years.
The alleged blackmail threat apparently didn’t deter Inerlot, and the company hand-delivered a letter to the governor’s office on October 19th, according to Lazare, which explained their side of what happened.
* The other losing bidder, Camelot, also sent a letter to the governor. Doug Finke picks up the story today…
Two companies who lost out on a contract to privately manage the Illinois Lottery have sent letters to Gov. Pat Quinn and others questioning how their protests to the contract are being handled.
Camelot Illinois is asking that the contract be rebid, but through an “unbiased intermediary” rather than by the Illinois Department of Revenue.
Intralot USA, meanwhile, in its letter cited an instance in which a Revenue official allegedly threatened to make public “certain negative information” about an executive with Intralot’s parent company if Intralot persisted with its protest.
Everybody on the state side is denying there were any improprieties and they’re planning to file a formal response soon.
This is some weird stuff, man.
* Meanwhile, in actual reform and renewal news, the Better Government Association now has several blogs for your perusal. We’ll be keeping an eye on them from now on.
* Related…
* A Blagojevich-inspired constitutional amendment
* Recall amendment would apply only to governor
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:07 am:
Neither story has ANYTHING to do with Pat Quinn…
- unspun - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:07 am:
The Department of Revenue will blame it on Sokratis, then he’ll be forced to drink a hemlock cocktail.
- Living in Oklahoma - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:14 am:
No surprise that Hendon would be involved in something scandalous.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:14 am:
You figured the federales would eventually get around to Hendon back when those “school grant” stories came out. On top of that, $1 million in grants to a sister and niece? That kind of proximity is just asking for trouble.
Geez, and Blago still couldn’t get a vote to acquit from him.
- fisher - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:16 am:
If Kokkalis was East German Secret Police, I can’t imagine him being too worried about threats from Illinois politicos.
- Wally - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:18 am:
Rickey has experienced a tough week. Maybe the pressure has been building and he just lost it this past weekend!
- Honest Abe - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:19 am:
I am not surprised at a possible investigation of Hollywood Hendon.
As for the proposed amendment, how can it withstand a legal challenge if it is not equally applicable to other elected state officials? Illinois has had other statewide officials involved in corruption (treasurer and auditor of public accounts — now, retitled comptroller) I think that the legislators knew that the law was not going to hold up and it was designed solely as an election year puff piece.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:23 am:
I think Ricky is innocent of all allegations, even hypothetical ones. I cannot think of a more ethical legislator.
- cassandra - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:25 am:
It is way past time for someone to thoroughly review state grants and contracts, which spend many billions of Illinois taxpayers dollars annually. And Fitzgerald likely only has time and staff to investigate the potentially most egregious violations. It’s still pay to play Illinois, and these are probably only a small fraction of the universe of state contracts and grants which merit a closer look. Who will do the looking, though?
The Quinn admin said they were going to audit certain higher-priced contracts but we haven’t heard much about what they found. And would they do anything if they found problems. Quinn has a poor history of standing up to special interests (witness his complete capitulation to public employee union AFSCME, a big campaign contributor), but can we expect much better from Brady, also a longtime Illinois state pol, if he wins. I guess we’ll find out soon because the window for change will be very very short in this most corrupt of states. With Quinn, that window appears to have already been shut.
- Concerned! - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:29 am:
What is the status of the investigation into Former DCEO Deputy Director Jaime Viteri and the questionable DCEO grants associated with latino community organizations? Has anyone questioned the appearance conflicts of interest of the newly appointed Inspector General related to this investigation?
- Vote Quimby! - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:48 am:
==If Kokkalis was East German Secret Police, I can’t imagine him being too worried about threats from Illinois politicos.==
My thoughts exactly. I can picture this man laughing when he was told, if his underlings even bothered to tell him about it.
- Vote Quimby! - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:49 am:
==Neither story has ANYTHING to do with Pat Quinn…==
A little defensive during crunch time?
- lawyerlady - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:51 am:
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:07 am:
Neither story has ANYTHING to do with Pat Quinn…
****************************************
Cinci, don’t you know Pat Quinn is as honest as Honest Abe himself? Don’t you know he’s spent the last two years cleaning house and judo chopping corruption in the face??!!
I’m sure there wasn’t any wrongdoing here, and if there was, Pat Quinn didn’t do nuffing, know nuffing, hear nuffing, or see nuffing. And anyway…think of the puppies.
- Richard Afflis - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 12:05 pm:
Thank you lawyerlady for saying what I was thinking. I usually agree with Cincinnatus on most of his posts. Today’s is one of the few I am not convinced he is right about.
- Secret Square - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 12:10 pm:
“I usually agree wtih Cincinnatus on most of his posts. Today is one of the few I am not convinced he is right about”
Then I suspect your sarcasm detector is on the fritz today…
- OneMan - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 12:19 pm:
Considering how the video poker machine bidding went is anyone surprised there are possible issues with the lottery outsourcing.
- Elliot Ness - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 12:27 pm:
The investigation of Hendon is long overdue. This is nothing new with Ricky. His grants to pals and supporters that were admistered by DCCA years ago should have been prosecutedinvestigated ten years ago.
His misuse of allocated money to legegislators is the number one reason to eliminate legislative earmarks.
- Tom Joad - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 12:38 pm:
One of the arguments for passing Video Poker was that it would elimanate organized crime from being involved. The Gaming Board has done a great job of keeping crime figures out of the business.
Now Lottery tries to do the same thing as the Gaming Board and they are being critized for doing so? I hope the Lottery folks realease all the information the have on all three companies that submitted bids. The argument that other state have hired Intralot may just mean they didn’t look into this as much as Illinois did.
In it entire existence, Lottery has never had a scandal, and their credibility should not be smeared by Intralot.
- OneMan - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 12:58 pm:
TJ — The issue isn’t so much we DQ’d you due to this guy but the “keep your mouth shut” part
- luey g - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 12:59 pm:
My guess is that the protesting lottery vendor did not include job offers to Jodie Winnett and Sara Cummings it its bid.
No job offers for Rod holdovers = disqualified bid!
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 1:54 pm:
It’s about time the feds got around to Rickey’s grant scam. The Tribune expose, if I remember right, had examples of entities receiving grants that hadn’t yet been created. All of a sudden, a grant comes in, and the recipients scramble to set up a non-profit. There are lots and lots of $25,000 grants that Rickey gave out like Halloween candy. And while he’s probably not the only legislator doing this stuff, he is easily the most egregious.
- Tom Joad - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 4:21 pm:
One Man: Could you put what you said in English?
- minuteman - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 4:31 pm:
One Man, you are dead on correct. Threatening to release/create adverse information if you dont drop a protest is outrageous.
TJ, when Lottery does get adverse info about someone, it is incumbent on Lottery to give the person a chance to respond and rebut the allegation/information before they make a conclusion, much less threaten to release it publicly. Thats how the gaming board and every other gaming/lottery board does it.
ps its never a good idea to put the selection in the hand of an elected official — see NY state casino scandal ongoing now.
The bottom line is Lottery created enough issues here this will be tied up for some time before the State sees any revenue.
- DuPage Dave - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 4:48 pm:
The AP article says: “The subpoenas went to DCEO and the Departments of Children and Family Services, Human Services, Public Health, and the State Board of Education.”
What’s the connection to DHS? Anyone know who the contractors might be? This is very interesting.
- fed up - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 5:54 pm:
Wow Quinns attack dog “hendon” involved in something questionable. What a shock
- walter sobchak - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 6:13 pm:
The Department of Revenue and the lottery were able to manipulate the legislature’s wishes into retaining their existing, ineffective, vendors. How they perverted the process will make for sad stories like this. What were they thinking? Why did they do it? Camelot is right: it should be stopped, rethought, and rebid. There is no reason to allow Blagojevich holdovers to determine the next ten years of lottery operation.
- anonymous extortionist - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 9:08 pm:
The East German secret police was identified–Kokkalis. What was the name of the alleged extortionist secret police at the Illinois Department of Revenue? In an era of transparency, we should know the name of the alleged Illinois Department of Revenue extortionist before the election. Did Quinn hold over another corrupt Blagojevich appointee?
- wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 10:32 pm:
Anon Extortionist, you’re on to something. I have here in my hand a list, a list I tell you, of known East German Secret police spies, associates, sympathizers and fellow travelers known to and comforted by the Quinn administration….
Leon Trotsky
Judy Barr Topinka
Levorotny Beria
Paul Lis
Andrei Sakharov
Leroy Lemke
Wilhelm Zasser
Major Wolfgang Hochstetter
Everett Dirksen
Colonel Wilhelm Klink
Beyonce
Boris Becker
Vipers, vipers, everywhere!
- NRA associate - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 10:58 pm:
Gtech played a big big part and has for years! Several employee vacated the Lottery in the last 3 years because they did not want to lie in press releases and to reporters. It is pay to play in my opinion, and always will be.
- NRA associate - Thursday, Oct 28, 10 @ 11:00 pm:
Dupage Dan~ I wish I could tell, but I have no documents….just speculation.