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Feds indict former IDPH chief of staff

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Illinois

* I really don’t like the idea of federal prosecutors leaking indictment details ahead of time. Yesterday at 5:15 pm, I received this e-mail from the US Attorney’s office in Springfield…

James A. Lewis, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois, will be joined by representatives of the federal investigative agencies that comprise the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Public Corruption Task Force: the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Chicago Division; Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, Chicago Field Office; and Illinois Secretary of State Office of Inspector General to announce the indictment of the 13th defendant, to date, related to the task force’s ongoing investigation of state grant/contract fraud.

* By late last night, the Tribune and Sun-Times both had detailed stories posted about the indictment of Quinshaunta Golden, the former chief of staff to Dr. Eric Whitaker when he ran the Illinois Department of Public Health.

* But, whatever. It’s out there now, and man it’s a whole lot of alleged criminality. From the Tribune story…

Golden, the niece of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, is the 13th person to be charged in a federal task force’s ongoing investigation of state grant and contract fraud. The probe already has claimed the political career of former state Rep. Connie Howard, who pleaded guilty last month to diverting as much as $28,000 from a scholarship fund she created to benefit needy students.

According to the new indictment, starting in 2006, Golden directed grants to an unidentified security firm to do background checks on potential residents of nursing homes, which are overseen by the Illinois Department of Public Health. Under Golden, the state agency also issued grants to nonprofits run by Leon Dingle Jr.

Golden is alleged to have had Dingle hire a person, identified in the indictment only as “Individual A,” as a paid consultant. Individual A also was a paid consultant of the security firm.

The consultant collected more than $1 million in grant and contract money originally given to Dingle’s groups and the security firm, the indictment states. The consultant was supposed to kick back half of the money to Golden, who collected $433,000 in the scam, according to the indictment.

* Sun-Times…

Part of Golden’s alleged scheme involved getting kickbacks from a security company that employed Roxanne B. Jackson, who worked under both Whitaker and Golden as human resources director for the health department in 2003 and 2004. Jackson then left that job and became “director of legal services” for V.I.P. Security & Detective Services, which got about $2 million in health department money starting in 2006 to do criminal-background checks on nursing home residents under a new state law.

The indictment identifies the company only as “Security Firm A,” but details within it make clear that the company is V.I.P. Security. The document also cites an unnamed “Individual A” who was “an associate of defendant Golden” and “an associate and paid consultant” to the security firm.

V.I.P. was paid $300 per background check, but “Golden required Individual A to pay Defendant Golden kickback payments of approximately $35 to $40 for each” check. All told, Golden got about $109,500 through that arrangement.

* From today’s press release…

In addition to the charges of bribery and taking kickbacks and mail fraud (five counts), the indictment charges Golden with one count of obstruction of justice. Golden allegedly met with Individual A on multiple occasions and falsely denied receiving improper kickback payments from A. Further, the indictment alleges that Golden encouraged and instructed Individual A not to tell the truth concerning the kickback scheme and to conceal the truth from Individual A’s attorney, and to create a false story by saying that Individual A used the grant and contract funds for gambling and other personal expenses.

The indictment includes one count of criminal forfeiture seeking forfeiture of property Golden derived from any proceeds obtained as a result of the alleged offenses, as well as a money judgment in an undetermined amount representing the net proceeds obtained as a result of the alleged offenses.

If convicted, for the offense of bribery and theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, the statutory penalty is up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. For each count of mail fraud (five counts) and for the single count of obstruction of justice, the statutory penalty is up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 as to each count. The defendant may also be ordered to pay restitution to victims of the alleged offenses.

The U.S. Clerk of the Court will issue a summons to Golden for her initial appearance date, scheduled for Aug. 23, 2013, at 11:00 a.m., before U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron G. Cudmore in federal court in Springfield.

Whitaker is not charged, and there’s no indication yet that he knew anything, but he’s a very close friend of President Obama, and Obama wanted Whitaker appointed to the state job, so the story will probably go national.

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 12:22 pm

Comments

Well, she certainly wasn’t a piker-almost half a million

Comment by steve schnorf Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 12:28 pm
How do you know the U.S. Attorney’s office did it? Could have been the lawyers for any one of the other defendants or for the witnesses.

Comment by Marty Funkhouser Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 12:34 pm
Why does this sort of stuff happen so often here? What is it about Chicago and Illinois that makes this so common? Or is it like this everywhere?

With nonsense like this how is it possible that true public servants, people who really want to make our community a better place to live, ever get a chance to make their own contribution to society (because being a full time volunteer doesn’t pay your tuition loans for your advanced degree that you’re supposed to have)?

Comment by Just Me Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 12:35 pm
Too bad ethics training didn’t have the necessary impact. Maybe if it were once a month…

Quinn went out of her way to make enemies at DPH, if she had been a less disruptive manager, I wonder if we would be hearing about this.

Comment by AC Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 12:40 pm
Fingerprint driven background checks cost $20 if done through ISP. How did anyone think $300 was a bargain? http://www.isp.state.il.us/crimhistory/chri.cfm

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 12:41 pm
sorry, me above…

Comment by LoboYOlla Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 12:42 pm
George Ryan - 6 years.
Rod Blagojevich 14 years

Forget the ethics training - if those prison terms aren’t a deterrent then nothing is,

Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 12:48 pm
“there’s no indication yet that he knew anything,”

What’s worse willfully not knowing anything or being such an incompetent manager that you really don’t know anything?

Comment by Leave a Light on George Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 1:01 pm
@Just Me - Illinois has a long history of having its capital far isolated from its main population center; it’d happen less often if the capital was closer to Chicago. See: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8830780/RWP12-016_Campante.pdf?sequence=1

Comment by Science! Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 1:02 pm
@Science! — If you think our state capitol is located in Springfield, then you don’t read this blog very often.

Comment by Just Me Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 1:23 pm
Is the indictment posted anywhere?

Comment by Former State Employee 2 Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 1:24 pm
==What’s worse willfully not knowing anything or being such an incompetent manager that you really don’t know anything? ==

Give me a break. I sincerely hope that was said tongue in cheek.

Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 1:35 pm
The new law requiring criminal background checks should be amended to include criminal background checks of the State employees administering the criminal background checks.

Comment by Sir Reel Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 1:45 pm
It’s the Lake Michigan water. The folks getting caught have been drinking that water.

C’mon Man, that isolated capital city article is so ridiculous I couldn’t help but laugh as I was scanning through it. It even states there is no quantitative data to substantiate it hypotheses. It seems to be saying that there is not as much media scrutiny in an isolated capitol. While we all know the Chicago media generally doesn’t understand government, Chicago reporters were on top of these grant stories early on.

The folks involved in most of the recent corruption cases have come from up north. Are we going to say they felt like they needed the money to help pay for the long trips to Springfield.

The hubris of power fosters corruption. It will take leadership to minimize - not eliminate - this corruption. You can’t totally eliminate corruption because there are always some greedy person who thinks he/she can get away with it.

Comment by Norseman Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 1:51 pm
Please tell me what the auditors do, since they don’t notice a whopping half a million disappearing?

Comment by Soccermom Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 1:52 pm
@ Demoralized. My tongue is right where it belongs.

Comment by Leave a Light on George Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 2:09 pm
Soccermom, the kickback money was money diverted from the vendor, in this case VIP Detective Agency, back to Golden. Auditors wouldn’t have seen the kickbacks…just the payments to VIP which were appropriate as specified by their contract.

Of course, the VIP contract was competitively procured thru a Request for Proposals or RFP process, but one guess who drafted the RFP? Starts with “G” and ends with “olden”.

Comment by Budget Watcher Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 2:12 pm
WHY must the feds always monitor IL politics? This is the critical weakness and real reason Lisa Madigan didn’t run for Governor.

Comment by Reformed Public Servant Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 2:22 pm
@Science! - I believe these people were from Chicago and probably spent a lot of time there.

From my sources, I would say she did a lot more damage to IDPH than steal a little money.

Comment by RetiredStateEmployee Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 2:23 pm
Kind of gives new meaning to Blago’s “______ Golden” statement…

Comment by LINK Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 2:24 pm
How much would Whitaker be expected to know. Agency heads have a lot of latitude in their management style and I assume closely examining various contracts wouldn’t be a popular activity, at least for the more hands-off ones. So Whitaker delegated everything to a trusted aide. It’s not the first time. I bet a lot of state agency heads are doing that right now.

However, I would think there would be some way auditors could check for this kind of kickback scheme, since I imagine it is quite common. Otherwise seems like state contracts would awfully easy pickings. As maybe they are.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 2:49 pm
SOS IG’s office? How are they involved?

Comment by Casual observer Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 3:02 pm
–This is the critical weakness and real reason Lisa Madigan didn’t run for Governor.–

The Illinois Attorney General has very little authority in criminal prosecutions, other than appeals to the Illinois Supreme Court.

Comment by Bigtwich Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 3:03 pm
Let’s see, didn’t Whitaker’s tenure at IDPH (appointed by Blago) include the obscene corruption at the Health Facilities Planning Board? The HFPB is a department of the IDPH, run by senior IDPH management.

I’ll give Whitaker the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t personally aware of these corrupt practices in high levels of his department. But it is clear that he’s an abysmal manager and has escaped any responsibility for the abject corruption that took place on his watch.

Could this further explain why this ambitious and publicity-hungry pal of Obama’s never got a plum post in DC but was planted in a cushy, high-paying make-work gig in Michelle’s old department at U of C?

Comment by Adam Smith Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 3:07 pm
===include the obscene corruption at the Health Facilities Planning Board? ====

Yeah, as long as you ignore the previous decades of corruption at the planning board.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 3:09 pm
“….obscene corruption at the Health Facilities Planning Board?…”
Unless he was in charge for about 30 year Whitaker was not responsible for the corruption at the HFPB.

Comment by captaingeorge Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 3:31 pm
==It even states there is no quantitative data to substantiate it hypotheses==

You must have missed the data appendix.

Comment by Precinct Captain Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 3:54 pm
I need a shower…

Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 3:54 pm
==I’ll give Whitaker the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t personally aware of these corrupt practices in high levels of his department. But it is clear that he’s an abysmal manager and has escaped any responsibility for the abject corruption that took place on his watch.

Could this further explain why this ambitious and publicity-hungry pal of Obama’s never got a plum post in DC but was planted in a cushy, high-paying make-work gig in Michelle’s old department at U of C?==

Ugh. I remember that game that guy from Office Space created called “Jump to Conclusions.” Seems to be a lot of that going on here.

Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 4:07 pm
“SOS IG’s office? How are they involved?”

They were the only state inspector general’s office invited to join the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Public Corruption Task Force.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 4:35 pm
Why do the residents need background checks? Lots of felon grannies?

Comment by thechampaignlife Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 4:59 pm
The GA passed a law maybe 8 years ago mandating background checks. That was in response to an investigation report ran by one of the Chicago papers regarding persons with mental illnesses & criminal histories living in nursing homes with grandma and grandpa. Some bad stuff was happening in some of these homes and they wanted to stop the mixing of dangerous folks with the elderly.

Comment by Budget Watcher Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 6:03 pm
I was at IDPH when QG was there - very briefly - and left due to QG and another person - Rory - anyone remember him? “Disruptive management” is a very nice description of both QG & Rory. I hope he is next and I hope they both get 20 years. I am a true believer in public health & quickly realized there were better ways to help the people of Illinois and got out - best move I ever made!

Comment by Way South of I-80 Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 6:24 pm
- Precinct Captain - Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 3:54 pm:

Ty said I misspoke, but I’d say I’m guilty of sloppy scanning.

Comment by Norseman Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 6:31 pm
@Way South of I80. That would be Rory Slater who’s title was “Special Confidential Aid to the Director”. I am not kidding, that was his actual title. His previous job was a baggage handler at an airport, but he was a college room-mate with Whitaker. That qualified him for a $77,000+ salary. As you probably can tell I worked there also. What an incompetent management team. Whitaker and Golden left IDPH for cushy, high paying jobs at UIC. I have no proof, but have a hard time believing Whitaker didn’t know what was gioing on. Quinshuanta and Whitaker were married at the hip. There are many current and former IDPH employees who can’t wipe the smile off their faces after hearing this news. When she makes her court appearence, there will be a big crowd of “interested” spectators.

Comment by Holdingontomywallet Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 7:00 pm
Inquiring minds might want to ask the good Dr Schultz, ah, Whitaker, why he left that cushy gig at the U of C earlier this year to pursue other opportunities.

As Rich often posted, “Reform and Renewal, Vol.10,564″

Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 8:12 pm
The director of DPH is required to be an MD and they don’t always get the best docs for the job. However, the focus of the job is on the public health issues. I don’t know anything about Whitaker but I would be surprised if any DPH director knew much about contracts. I’m with Cassandra on that much- I doubt the director had any knowledge of anything that detailed.

As I recall there was a big newspaper-driven stink about people with mental illness who happened to have criminal records living in nursing homes along side just plain old nursing home residents. I believe some older residents were roughed up and there was a hue and cry to do something about this.

So somebody did up some contracts and the problem faded from consciousness. Which is the best time for the crooks since the money is still there but no one is paying attention.

Also - Holdingon… DHS Sec. Adams had a “Confidential Special Assistant” as well. He was her driver, as some of you may recall.

Comment by DuPage Dave Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 8:26 pm
I got fired by these people, appealed and won my job back with the assistance of a great attorney. I’m now collecting my pension, thank you very much. I wonder how well DC and TS (you know who you are) are sleeping at night? My son always told me that my problem was that I was an honest guy in a corrupt system. How true, how true.

Comment by Schadenfreude Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 8:36 pm
So was Rory. $77,000 (starting salary) for a driver and picking up dry cleaning is a pretty good gig. Quinshaunta ran that Department. Whitaker never seemed all that interested or engaged in the job. Quin ran most of the meetings and nothing got done without going through her - and what a treat that was - delightful. If Whitaker didn’t know what was going on (which I highly doubt) then it was his own fault.

Comment by Holdingontomywallet Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 8:44 pm
Lots of former DPH employees here. We should start a club. I left for the same reasons as you all.

Comment by Former state employee 2 Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 9:25 pm
I also worked at IDPH during the “Golden” years. I knew it was a matter of time before she was exposed. She did control everything in the agency, but I agree with @ Holdingontomywallet that she and Whitaker were connected at the hip. I can’t imagine that he wasn’t fully aware of the kick-backs she received. IDPH was run into the ground by this group of individuals. BTW, she hates her formal name: Quinshaunta

Comment by Wowza Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 9:32 pm
DR.W might not no all the details.But that is how it is done. .George Ryans second in command new all the details and made them happen.Done that way to keep up the image of plausible deniability.George still went to jail.

Comment by fake county chairman Thursday, Aug 8, 13 @ 9:32 pm
DuPage: if remember correctly, MD requirement implemented due to it being mismanaged by political appt (dir in Hawaii or someplace during outbreak or crisis of some sort). Recently changed back to not requiring MD largely thanks to directors like Whitaker. Common thread is smooth talking political appointees rather than dedicated public health professionals.

Comment by logic not emotion Friday, Aug 9, 13 @ 6:47 am
Let’s just call this operation “reversefumigation”. From the insider posts it looks like real damage was done to IDPH. Good folks leaving - bad folks fleecing. I’m sure that’s not happening anywhere else, right?

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Aug 9, 13 @ 8:49 am
I became aware of a lot of bad “management” taking place at multiple state agencies shortly after Blago’s first term started. Seemed like agency heads at multiple state agencies became figure heads and decisions became centralized and even more politicized with Governor’s office. High level staff at some of those agencies became very disenfranchised and started biding their time. Now that we’re into Blago’s third term… well… that isn’t fair. Quinn isn’t Blago; but under Quinn… the centralized decision making, figure heads, disenfranchisement, etc. seems to remain…

Comment by Logic not emotion Friday, Aug 9, 13 @ 9:01 am
LINK: That comment was as inappropriate as the SF crash pilot names… and just as funny in a bad sort of way… Made me LOL.

Comment by Logic not emotion Friday, Aug 9, 13 @ 9:10 am
To Logic not emotion, it was the Dean Milk scandal of 1985 and IDPH Director Thomas Kirkpatrick (non MD) was vacationing in Cancun and refused to return to address the issue. That brings up another issue, this is being a MD isn’t enough, they need to be board certifified, too.

Comment by Schadenfreude Friday, Aug 9, 13 @ 11:54 am
Thanks Logic. I have a dark sense of humor and wasn’t sure how it would be taken…

Comment by LINK Friday, Aug 9, 13 @ 11:57 am