From the Chicago Suntimes

Stanley guilty in kickback, payroll scam
By Mike Robinson
Associated Press Writer

A political consultant with close ties to former Gov. George Ryan's campaign
was sentenced Thursday to more than two years in federal prison for trading
bribes for $4 million in commuter rail contracts.
Roger Stanley, 60, was also fined $7,500 and ordered to forfeit $67,000 for
his part in what prosecutors described as an array of corrupt practices when
Ryan was secretary of state and later governor.
"There is a degree of evilness about it -- deals cut behind closed doors,''
U.S. District Judge Charles P. Kocoras said.
"It is a sad day for the people of Illinois,'' Kocoras said in imposing the
sentence of 27 months. But he added that "Mr. Stanley is not purely evil. He
has done a lot of good things in his life.''
Prosecutors had asked the judge for the relatively light sentence as a
reward for the help that Stanley provided as a cooperating witness in their
five-year Operation Safe Road investigation.
Ryan's campaign manager and longtime aide, Scott Fawell, was convicted of
racketeering in part due to information supplied by Stanley, prosecutors
said.
The husky, silvery-haired Stanley, widely known among Illinois Republicans
as "The Hog'' because of his zeal for landing state contracts, left the
courthouse saying little.
"I'm glad it's over,'' he said before climbing into a waiting car.
Stanley admitted that he paid $130,000 over 15 years to Donald Udstuen, a
longtime board member of Chicago's Metra commuter rail service. In return,
he received $4 million in contracts.
He pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering in connection with the
payoffs to Udstuen.
Udstuen, long one of the state's most influential lobbyists, has not been
charged with accepting the payoffs but has pleaded guilty to tax charges. He
has resigned as a Metra board member and also is cooperating with federal
prosecutors in the Safe Road investigation.
Sixty-five former state employees and others have been charged in the
investigation thus far and 58 convicted. Ryan has been accused of no
criminal wrongdoing to date in the ongoing investigation.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick M. Collins, the chief Safe Road prosecutor,
told Kocoras that Stanley was instrumental in "providing the framework for
corruption that is being dismantled.''
But Collins also praised Stanley's cooperation.
"He put the government into new areas of the investigation, both with cases
that have been charged and cases that will be charged,'' he said.
The Fawell trial put a spotlight on what prosecutors described as Stanley's
role as a key middleman in Ryan's political orbit.
Among other things, he paid commissions to Fawell for receiving the contract
to mail campaign brochures. He also received a lucrative contract to
publicize the organ donor program run by the secretary of state's office
while serving as Fawell's host on fishing trips in Costa Rica.
A onetime state representative from suburban Streamwood, Stanley got a deal
under which he went on Ryan's secretary of state's payroll for eight weeks
in 1996. It gave him just enough time in service to double his state
pension.
While telling Kocoras that Stanley had furnished evidence that will be used
in cases to be charged in the future, Collins declined to tell reporters
exactly what cases those might be.
Stanley's signed plea agreement with prosecutors, however, includes the
admission that he put a legislative candidate in a no-work job on his
company's payroll in return for a state grant that benefited one of his real
estate projects.
It also includes references to a plan to swap payoffs for a contract at the
Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, where Fawell was named the
$199,000-a-year boss after Ryan was elected governor. The deal never was
consummated, attorneys say.
His position as the state's top Republican direct mail consultant once
brought riches to Stanley. He had homes in Costa Rica and rural Wisconsin
and entertained not only Fawell but other government officials lavishly.
But defense attorney Michael Ettinger said his client's wealth is now almost
wholly depleted and "he's on the verge of bankruptcy.''
Among other things, Stanley placed $350,000 in two corruption-plagued Costa
Rican investment houses that have since gone under. Ettinger said Stanley
has been advised there is little chance of getting the money back.
Meanwhile, he is in the middle of a contested divorce filed by his wife
following disclosure that he had a girlfriend and son in Costa Rica.
"He has been devastated,'' Ettinger said.