* Stay with me to the end, but you might wonder when reading this Tribune story if the federal charges against Bill Cellini will actually stick…
In the filing, the government alleges that Cellini, who was a presence in Illinois politics for four decades, discussed his longevity in a February 2004 meeting on an upcoming allocation of $4.8 billion in pension board money.
Cellini recounted to the group — which included Stuart Levine, who was also charged with public corruption — about a meeting he had just had with Rezko and Kelly.
“Upon arriving, [Cellini] said he had just come from a meeting with Rezko and Kelly, and he was upset with them,” the document reads. “He told Rezko and Kelly that they were moving too fast and were going to get themselves in trouble. Defendant said he told Rezko and Kelly that they should take [Cellini] as an example: He had been doing this for 30 years and had always stayed above the fray.”
Is that really proof of wrongdoing? Cellini was obviously worried about the Blagojevich guys’ over the top ways…
“He (Cellini) said: ‘I know that their (modus) operandi is different than what ours was. … I know that uh, we would not call somebody after they got something or before they were gonna get something. … As the general rule they do. That will set up a pattern that could be used and then all they (investigators) gotta do is ask some of these people and these guys will cave in like a herd of turtles.’”
* Here’s the heart of the case…
The government has charged Cellini with conspiring to commit extortion with Rezko, Kelly and ex-TRS board member and Cellini ally Stuart Levine. Prosecutors said the four men conspired in the spring of 2004 to withhold $220 million in Teachers’ Retirement System investment funds from a firm named Capri Capital unless Thomas Rosenberg, a principal in the firm, made a $1.5 million campaign contribution to Blagojevich or paid a $2 million fee to Rezko, Kelly and Levine.
Cellini has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney, Dan Webb, said in July that Cellini received no financial benefits, paid no money and didn’t receive any money.
“He didn’t do anything,” Webb said.
You may not remember it, but Tony Rezko was acquitted of the charges related to the alleged Rosenberg shakedown. Levine was the star witness in that particular count. Levine failed miserably because the defense successfully argued that he had concocted the whole thing in his head. Levine’s drug-addled ways and the fact that he was under threat of going to prison for many, many years were both offered as reasons for his lies.
* OK, now let’s switch from the news coverage to the actual federal proffer, which was filed this week and which you can read by clicking here.
This all started when Levine told Cellini he wanted to kill Capri’s Teachers Retirement System deal because he and Rosenberg were enemies. Levine put a brick on Rosenberg’s TRS deal by using his influence at the board. Cellini was allegedly at a private meeting when this was discussed. Rosenberg called Cellini for help, and he agreed, even though he knew what was going on from the beginning. Up until that point, this all was just petty business politics, albeit more than a little tawdry.
* But then Allison Davis, an associate of Rosenberg’s - “Individual E” in Fedspeak - allegedly approached Tony Rezko about Rosenberg raising campaign money for Rod Blagojevich…
[According to Levine] Rezko said that he had been approached by an African-American man whose skin was white, Individual E, who told Rezko that Rosenberg was interested in raising money for the governor, and had a matter pending before TRS. Rezko said that when Individual E mentioned Rosenberg and Capri, Rezko remembered what Levine had mentioned about Capri at their private meeting a few weeks earlier. Kelly asked Levine about the extent of Capri’s state business, and Levine explained that Capri was due to receive a $220 million allocation at TRS and, overall, was managing hundreds of millions of dollars of TRS’s assets. Kelly responded that with that much state business, Capri and Rosenberg should be contributing a great deal of money to Blagojevich.
Levine suggested that Rosenberg be given a choice: make a $1.5 million campaign contribution to Blagojevich, or pay a $2 million fee.
Levine also told Rezko and Kelly that [Cellini] had already had one conversation with Rosenberg, in which Rosenberg sought [Cellini’s] help to get the allocation. Rezko suggested that Levine call [Cellini] and make him aware that Rosenberg had approached Rezko about raising money for the governor. Further, Rezko suggested [Cellini] should contact Rosenberg to make him aware that by approaching Rezko about fundraising, [Cellini] was no longer in a position to help Capri get its allocation; this was now a fundraising issue that Rosenberg would have to address with Rezko and Kelly.
However, Rezko’s defense successfully claimed during Rezko’s trial that Levine had made up this story as well.
And, more importantly, Allison Davis told the feds that the alleged fundraising conversation with Rezko never happened. Levine, according to Rezko’s defense, made it all up, start to finish.
* Anyway, Rosenberg told Cellini he didn’t send anybody to talk to Rezko and Kelly, and said heads would roll if that had actually happened. After checking around, Rosenberg talked to Cellini again…
Rosenberg told defendant that he would walk away from business at TRS before giving Rezko and Kelly any money for a campaign contribution. Rosenberg told defendant that he would take Rezko and Kelly down, telling the public and the governor himself about the attempted shakedown.
Not long after that, Rezko and Blagojevich allegedly decided that it was best not to mess with Rosenberg any more. The matter was dropped and Rosenberg’s company got its full TRS investment allocation. The Rezko legal team said there was nothing to be dropped because there was no shakedown attempt. Rezko’s jury agreed.
In between the first contact with Levine and the alleged finale, however, Cellini made several phone calls to, as the prosecutors put it, further the the alleged shakedown conspiracy and then covered his tracks.
For instance, Rezko allegedly assigned Levine the responsibility of telling Rosenberg about the details of what they wanted, either the $1.5 million in campaign contributions or the $2 million “fee.” Rezko, of course, denied that this conversation ever took place, and he was acquitted. Cellini did attempt to get Rosenberg to call Levine, but Rosenberg testified at Rezko’s trial that Cellini himself did not try to solicit campaign money from him. Still, according to the feds, what Cellini did was illegal.
* Back to the proffer…
Throughout the conspiracy, defendant and his co-conspirators, including Stuart Levine, Tony Rezko, Chris Kelly, Steve Loren, and Individual A (TRS’s executive director), sought to conceal their agreement and acts. Defendant told multiple lies to Rosenberg in an effort to hide his own role, and Levine’s, and Rezko and Kelly’s, in the shakedown attempt. Defendant also took measures to placate people he thought might expose his role in the conspiracy. In addition, defendant and others discussed the possibility of removing the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in an effort to stop any investigation into the co-conspirators and others.
As a result of his actions, defendant was charged in an indictment with participating in a conspiracy. First, the indictment charges defendant with conspiring to defraud TRS beneficiaries and the people of the State of Illinois of their intangible right to Levine’s honest services, all in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371. Second, the indictment charges defendant with conspiring to commit extortion by attempting to obtain political contributions for Blagojevich from Rosenberg and Capri in exchange for releasing the $220 million allocation of funds from TRS, all in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951.2/ Defendant is also charged with attempted extortion under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951, and solicitation of funds under Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a)(1)(B).
* So, what about all those worries that Cellini expressed about the Blagojevich crew? Let’s turn now to the government’s motion in limine…
Defendant’s expressed concerns that Rezko and Kelly were “moving too fast” to place firms at TRS reflect defendant’s consciousness that scrutiny drawn to Rezko and Kelly would harm him as well, and tend to show that defendant had knowingly joined a conspiracy that was at risk of being exposed by the imprudent conduct of defendant’s co-conspirators. Further, defendant’s statement that he had been “doing this for 30 years and had always stayed above the fray” places defendant’s criticisms in context, making it clear that defendant’s beef with Rezko and Kelly was not that they were engaged in exchanging state action for campaign contributions, but, rather, that their methods were too obvious. Defendant’s expressed concern therefore demonstrates the criminal nature of the conspiracy and defendant’s knowing participation in it.
The same holds true for defendant’s recorded statements regarding Rezko and Kelly. Defendant’s criticism of Rezko and Kelly’s methods, and his comparison of those methods to those he had previously employed successfully – i.e., without detection – evince defendant’s consciousness of guilt which, in turn, shows defendant’s participation in the conspiracy (otherwise, the tactics of Rezko and Kelly would not be a cause of concern for defendant). The statements are thus relevant to show the criminal nature of the conspiracy and defendant’s knowing participation therein.
The defense will surely argue that Cellini’s statements made clear that he knew the Blagojevich people were crooks and was doing his best to stay within the law. Whoever wins that argument could win the case.
* In related news…
Rod Blagojevich may have to wait for his day of reckoning.
As it now stands, the former governor’s scheduled sentencing date next month directly conflicts with a trial in a related case.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel set Blagojevich’s sentencing for Oct. 6. However, on Oct. 3, the trial of Springfield power broker William Cellini — which entails allegations involving Blagojevich fund-raisers — is scheduled to start before the same judge and some of the same prosecutors.
While Cellini attorney Dan Webb said Wednesday he believes his client’s trial date isn’t going to move, Blagojevich lawyer Sheldon Sorosky said he wouldn’t be surprised if his client’s sentencing does. […]
In court on Wednesday, a federal judge held firm an Oct. 21 Rezko sentencing date even though prosecutors asked for the date to be moved until after the Cellini trial. They didn’t say why, but the same prosecution team is working on both trials.
Rezko lawyer William Ziegelmueller said he opposed the date being moved again.
