Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan Heading to Prison
Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan Heading to Prison
by David Schaper
NPR.org, November 6, 2007 ? U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on Tuesday rejected an appeal by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan to remain free on bail while he appeals his corruption conviction. The 73-year-old Republican is due to report to a federal correctional center in Oxford, Wis., no later than Wednesday.
A federal jury convicted Ryan in April 2006 on fraud and racketeering charges. Federal prosecutors had alleged that under Ryan, the state of Illinois was basically for sale. They accused Ryan of presiding over state government offices that were thoroughly corrupt for at least a decade.
Ryan steered lucrative state government contracts and leases to friends and government insiders who gave him and his family vacations, gifts and cash.
"It was cronyism, where contracts were awarded to people. People were given inside information, they were acting upon it. And at times, George Ryan stepped into the process to make sure that those interests were taken care of," said Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at the time of Ryan's indictment. Fitzgerald later called Ryan's conviction "a low-water mark for public service, to have a governor, a secretary of state, to abuse his office in that fashion."
Probe Sparked by Tragedy
The investigation into corruption in Ryan's office began with a horrendous tragedy, while Ryan was still Illinois' secretary of state. On Election Day 1994, a piece of a tail-light assembly fell off a semi-trailer on a Milwaukee expressway and bounced beneath a minivan, rupturing its gas tank and exploding the van into flames. Six children from the Willis family of Chicago, en route to a little getaway, were killed; their parents were severely burned.
Other motorists told police they tried to warn the driver of the truck that the piece was dangling dangerously, but he didn't understand English. Federal law requires truckers to know and read English to get a license, and investigators were alarmed that this driver - who was from Chicago - didn't. Wisconsin authorities notified the Illinois secretary of state's office, which licenses drivers and was then headed by the freshly re-elected Ryan.
An internal investigation found the driver may have paid a bribe to get his license. Ryan's response was to squash the probe and fire the investigators. Four years later, with Ryan campaigning for governor, federal prosecutors picked up the case. They began indicting employees in Ryan's office for selling licenses for bribes and then funneling the cash into Ryan's campaign fund. Ryan repeatedly denied he knew anything about the corruption. The U.S. attorney at the time, Scott Lassar, said in October 1998 that Ryan was not a target of the investigation at the time. So Illinois voters elected Ryan governor by a narrow margin over a squeaky-clean Democrat, then-Rep. Glenn Poshard.
The win capped a political career that began in the early 1970s, when Ryan, a pharmacist from Kankakee, Ill., won a seat on the Kankakee County Board. He went onto serve in the Illinois General Assembly, including one term as House speaker, and as the state's lieutenant governor, before being elected secretary of state in 1990.
LINK
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16051850
by David Schaper
NPR.org, November 6, 2007 ? U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on Tuesday rejected an appeal by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan to remain free on bail while he appeals his corruption conviction. The 73-year-old Republican is due to report to a federal correctional center in Oxford, Wis., no later than Wednesday.
A federal jury convicted Ryan in April 2006 on fraud and racketeering charges. Federal prosecutors had alleged that under Ryan, the state of Illinois was basically for sale. They accused Ryan of presiding over state government offices that were thoroughly corrupt for at least a decade.
Ryan steered lucrative state government contracts and leases to friends and government insiders who gave him and his family vacations, gifts and cash.
"It was cronyism, where contracts were awarded to people. People were given inside information, they were acting upon it. And at times, George Ryan stepped into the process to make sure that those interests were taken care of," said Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at the time of Ryan's indictment. Fitzgerald later called Ryan's conviction "a low-water mark for public service, to have a governor, a secretary of state, to abuse his office in that fashion."
Probe Sparked by Tragedy
The investigation into corruption in Ryan's office began with a horrendous tragedy, while Ryan was still Illinois' secretary of state. On Election Day 1994, a piece of a tail-light assembly fell off a semi-trailer on a Milwaukee expressway and bounced beneath a minivan, rupturing its gas tank and exploding the van into flames. Six children from the Willis family of Chicago, en route to a little getaway, were killed; their parents were severely burned.
Other motorists told police they tried to warn the driver of the truck that the piece was dangling dangerously, but he didn't understand English. Federal law requires truckers to know and read English to get a license, and investigators were alarmed that this driver - who was from Chicago - didn't. Wisconsin authorities notified the Illinois secretary of state's office, which licenses drivers and was then headed by the freshly re-elected Ryan.
An internal investigation found the driver may have paid a bribe to get his license. Ryan's response was to squash the probe and fire the investigators. Four years later, with Ryan campaigning for governor, federal prosecutors picked up the case. They began indicting employees in Ryan's office for selling licenses for bribes and then funneling the cash into Ryan's campaign fund. Ryan repeatedly denied he knew anything about the corruption. The U.S. attorney at the time, Scott Lassar, said in October 1998 that Ryan was not a target of the investigation at the time. So Illinois voters elected Ryan governor by a narrow margin over a squeaky-clean Democrat, then-Rep. Glenn Poshard.
The win capped a political career that began in the early 1970s, when Ryan, a pharmacist from Kankakee, Ill., won a seat on the Kankakee County Board. He went onto serve in the Illinois General Assembly, including one term as House speaker, and as the state's lieutenant governor, before being elected secretary of state in 1990.
LINK
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16051850
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How long is he going to spend at the country club?? 0 -
Maybe they could do a two for one deal and send Blago too. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Classic095
How long is he going to spend at the country club??
I think he got like 6 years, but I'm not sure.
So he will do 2-3 living better than I do.[:(!]0 -
He got 6 1/2 years.
Each year, he can get 52 days off for good behavior.
So if he is a good boy, the sentence will be reduced by 338 days.0 -
IL sux.
It's always made, even the most corrupt New Yorkers exclaim "Damn, youse guys are dirty ovah deah."
D.0 -
yeah, the corruption is running rampant still.
Blago is a theif too.
Ben0 -
it will just be a visit under the heading of "continuing education" 0 -
All experienced politicians are thieves.
This is just one that got caught.
Doug0 -
quote:Originally posted by Doug Wilson
All experienced politicians are thieves.
This is just one that got caught.
Doug
And experienced thieves.
Just saw on the noon news the POS came in through the back entrance of the country club for safety reasons.
What made me really sick is the TV announcers and reporters sounded all sympathetic they way they told the story.
Then they showed Ryan still proclaiming his innocence.[xx(]0 -
he was crooked when he was secratary of state, so the azz hole illinois voters voted him in so he could do some real damage
i hope blagosonofabitch is next0 -
The POS never got my vote even when he was running for secretary of state. 0 -
blago. blago. blago.
the feds are investigating him.
actually he feds need to move in and take over chicago government and sprinfield, like they cam in and oversaw the teamsters.
politics in illinois is organized crime.0 -
George Ryan is a disgrace to this country; Illinois deserved him. He needs to die in jail for what he was convicted of and rot there for all the crap they have yet to find out. 0 -
He should consider himself lucky! If it were you or me, we would have been filing appeals from behind bars, because when we were found guilty, we would have gone to prison, do not pass go, do not collect $200! We wouldn't have postponed our prison sentence so that we could be home with our families for the holidays!
I hope Bubba finds him and takes real good care of him!0 -
Why is everyone surprised? Sounds like a typical Republican to me.
Pro-illegal alien, acts like he's above the law...
Did I leave anything out?0 -
He got caught, he goes to prison.
Same as "most" politicians SHOULD.0 -
EMM, you're so partisan it's pretty sad sometimes.
To be GOP in IL, you have to be to the left of everyone EXCEPT the kommie/lib Democrap.
Kinda like Aaaahnold.
D.0 -
quote:Originally posted by bpost1958
George Ryan is a disgrace to this country; Illinois deserved him. He needs to die in jail for what he was convicted of and rot there for all the crap they have yet to find out.
Illinois may deserve him but most of the Illinois people don't, with the exception of the corrupt cronie gun grabbing democraps of chicago(cook county).0 -
Sounds like a Dem that ran as a Repub... [:D] 0 -
Petty Mafia's.
Guam's mafia could teach them a thing or two about how to keep the Fed's off your tail.0
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