Feds turn up heat on Chicago
If you're a government employee or contractor and you thought last year was a bad time to be corrupt in Chicago, you better look out in 2006.
While the Chicago FBI just added a third public corruption squad in September to make the unit the largest in the country -- it still isn't enough.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Grant said he and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald have asked Washington, D.C., for more resources to help root out public fraud.
"We asked headquarters to give us more bodies," Grant told the Chicago Sun-Times. "If [they're] going to give out bodies, we would like to have them and we would like them for public corruption."
Though new corruption cases continue to hit the Dirksen federal courthouse at a brisk pace, "there are areas we want to explore that we haven't even gotten to yet," Grant said.
Grant reorganized the Chicago FBI office in September to add the third public corruption squad, giving Chicago one more squad than even Los Angeles and New York. Each squad typically has eight to 12 agents.
"Money's not really the issue with us, it's personal resources. The agents make these cases," Grant said. "They're the ones that interview people and develop the cases [with] prosecutors, working side by side."
The U.S. attorney's office would not comment.
Flurry of subpoenas
Since early 2004, prosecutors have brought charges against 37 people tied to the city's scandal-plagued Hired Truck program, and 26 have pleaded guilty.
That investigation mushroomed into a probe of hiring practices under Mayor Daley. In 2005, Daley's patronage chief in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and three other city employees were indicted for allegedly falsifying test scores so those with clout could snap up city posts.
As the office came under fire, federal investigators paid Daley a visit at City Hall for a two-hour interview.
Grant told the Sun-Times at the time that the mayor was not a target in the probe, but he was a "logical interview."
"We had to ask: What do you know, when did you know it? How involved are these organizations in city business?" Grant said at the time.
Separately, a flurry of subpoenas continues to hit state agencies -- including the Department of Children and Family Services and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority -- requesting information about political allies of Gov. Blagojevich.
Grant wouldn't say how many additional agents he's seeking. But he said he thinks Chicago has a good chance of getting the boost in manpower because public corruption has become a bureau priority nationally and "they know we're doing such a good job here."
