From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Feds spell out case against Fawell

June 28, 2002

BY TIM NOVAK AND STEVE WARMBIR STAFF REPORTERS

Gov. Ryan's campaign manager, Scott Fawell, used a screwdriver to pry off state identification tags from office equipment such as a refrigerator and a TV/VCR before they were taken to Ryan's campaign offices four years ago, federal prosecutors alleged in a document filed Thursday.

The document also gives new insight on how Ryan's campaign staff unsuccessfully tried to destroy computer disks containing memos written by Fawell, including one urging the dismantling of the inspector general's office to thwart "free-lance'' investigations of state employees doing political work for Ryan on state time.

The document shows how Ryan's campaign fund ripped off taxpayers by at least $1 million, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins. He's trying to persuade U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to freeze $1 million in Ryan's dwindling campaign fund, Citizens for Ryan, to ensure there is money to repay the state if the fund is found guilty of racketeering charges. Pallmeyer will hold a hearing July 16.

Ryan's campaign fund has hired attorney Thomas Breen to fight the government's efforts to freeze its funds. Pallmeyer booted the fund's original attorneys, Altheimer & Gray, because they once represented Fawell and potential witnesses. Altheimer & Gray told Pallmeyer it will appeal her ruling.

Fawell, who is charged in the racketeering scheme, is the focus of the new details. He was Ryan's chief of staff in the secretary of state's office and Ryan's campaign manager.

An unidentified co-worker warned Fawell he could be charged with ghost-payrolling for assigning state workers to work on Ryan's campaign on state time, the document says. Fawell allegedly responded that Ryan's campaign fund couldn't afford to pay the salaries of those workers.

Fawell also rewarded some campaign workers with state jobs and raises, the document says. After Ryan was elected governor, several unidentified campaign workers were rewarded with "hastily created'' jobs under Ryan in his final days as secretary of state. Most of those jobs were eliminated when Jesse White became secretary of state.

Fawell's attorney Edward Genson said, "He denies what they're saying.''

A memo Fawell wrote to Ryan in 1994 or 1995 suggested the inspector general's office needed "someone in there who won't screw our friends, won't ask about FR [fund-raising] tickets, and will run a no-nonsense shop.'' Another memo urged abolishing the office, which happened a few months later.

"It's unclear if this memo was ever sent,'' Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton said. "The governor doesn't recollect seeing such a memo.''

Fawell, according to the document, rejected efforts to crack down on political activity because he feared secretary of state workers would have "another weapon to say no to [fund-raising] tickets.''

The document details the pressure that was applied to state workers to raise money for Ryan's campaign by selling fund-raising tickets, a system that led some employees to give unqualified driver's licenses to people who bought fund-raising tickets.

"In several years, after a successful employee-driven fund-raiser ... the largest ticket sellers were feted at a reception sponsored by Citizens for Ryan, with the ticket sellers taking home an autographed photo of then Secretary of State Ryan,'' the document says.

In another case, a low-level employee, John Spahn, who ran an election phone bank for Ryan in 1994, was later rewarded with a promotion and a 10 percent raise after his friend Larry Hall appealed to Fawell. Hall and Fawell were childhood friends. While he was working for the secretary of state, Spahn helped put drunken drivers back on the road. He was sentenced to prison for 10 months in March after he pleaded guilty to taking bribes from chronic drunken drivers.

Also Wednesday, federal officials dropped efforts to jail former state legislator Roger "The Hog'' Stanley until his trial on charges he paid kickbacks to get Metra contracts. Prosecutors feared that Stanley, a friend of Fawell, would flee to Costa Rica, but he agreed to surrender his title to a Bridgeview office building.