From the AP/Bloomington Pantagraph

'The state was for sale'
Ex-Gov. George Ryan indicted on 22 countsAssociated Press
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, at podium, and Assistant U.S. Attorney
Patrick Collins, right, explain a 91-page indictment against former Gov.
George Ryan on Wednesday in Chicago.
By Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan was charged Wednesday with
running state government for the profit of his friends, family and himself,
and with trying to cover up a bribes-for-licenses scandal that ultimately
led to his indictment.
The 22-count indictment alleges that for more than a decade, as secretary of
state and then governor, Ryan took payoffs, gifts and vacations in return
for letting associates profit from steering government contracts and leases,
including $3.1 million in payoffs that went to a lobbyist friend.
"What we're alleging in the indictment is basically the state of Illinois
was for sale," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said.
Ryan, 69, a Republican known worldwide as a leading critic of the death
penalty, gradually became the focus of the corruption investigation. The
growing scandal was a factor in Ryan's 2001 decision not to seek a second
term.
A lobbyist friend, Larry Warner, had what Fitzgerald described as "free
reign" over the secretary of state's office while Ryan steered contracts to
his clients, the indictment said.
Ryan and members of his family shared in $167,000 in graft that included
payoffs, free vacations and cash siphoned out of his campaign fund and
camouflaged as expenses, Fitzgerald said.
Ryan became the 66th person indicted in the 5 1/2-year Operation Safe Road
investigation, which began as an inquiry into bribes paid for driver's
licenses. Fifty-nine state employees have been convicted so far; Fitzgerald
told a news conference that Ryan's indictment does not end the
investigation.
At the heart of the 91-page indictment is an alleged racketeering conspiracy
involving Ryan, Warner and Donald Udstuen, a prominent lobbyist and longtime
adviser to Republican political leaders.
The indictment charged that as early as 1991 Warner and Udstuen agreed to
get payoffs from state vendors and those leasing property to the state. It
said Warner agreed to funnel a third of the money to Udstuen and that it was
laundered through an old friend, Alan Drazek.
Udstuen has pleaded guilty to tax fraud conspiracy in connection with the
payments and is cooperating with the federal investigation, as is Drazek.
According to the indictment, Warner told Udstuen that he would be "taking
care" of Ryan.
It says that Ryan steered big money contracts to IBM, American Decal
Manufacturing and other companies that furnished payments to Warner -- more
than $3.1 million in all. Fitzgerald said there was no allegation that the
companies did anything wrong.
Warner was already charged in the case and has pleaded innocent.
The litany of corruption alleged goes beyond the contracts to relations with
another lobbyist, Arthur "Ron" Swanson, a former GOP state senator and old
Ryan friend, who is identified in the indictment only as "Associate 1."
The indictment says Ryan tipped off Swanson that he would be locating a new
state prison in the southern Illinois community of Grayville. Swanson then
offered his services to Grayville as a lobbyist and collected $50,000 to
press for location of the prison there.
Ryan is charged with lying on his state and federal income-tax returns about
money he got for supporting Texas Sen. Phil Gramm in his 1996 campaign for
the GOP presidential nomination. Prosecutors said the Gramm campaign did not
know the money, intended for campaign use, went to Ryan personally.
As the investigation moved beyond driver's licenses, federal agents
interviewed Ryan. He is charged with lying to them three times.
In one instance, he is accused of lying when he denied that he knew that
campaign fund-raising records were seized in a raid on a driver's license
testing station in Libertyville.
Actually, his inspector general, Dean Bauer, told him about it, the
indictment says. Bauer was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison
after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice and admitting that he
covered up seven years of scandals to spare Ryan embarrassment.
The Ryan scandal haunted Republicans throughout the 2002 election and
contributed to the election of a Democratic governor for the first time
since 1972.
The indictment guarantees that the scandal will remain in the spotlight as
Republicans head into an election year when they are hoping to hang onto a
U.S. Senate seat in Illinois.
"Hopefully, this indictment will close a sordid chapter in our politics and
open the possibility for a fresh start and new opportunities," GOP Senate
candidate Andy McKenna said.
The driver's license investigation was launched in reaction to a fiery
November 1994 expressway accident in Wisconsin in which six children in the
family of the Rev. Scott Willis died.
A truck driver involved was believed to have received his license through
bribery at the secretary of state's corruption-plagued McCook licensing
center.
Willis family attorney Joseph Power, who later settled a lawsuit in the case
for $100 million, became a persistent Ryan critic, and his demands were
crucial in launching the investigation.
"I think they just thought they could do whatever they wanted," he said
Wednesday. "Despite the fact that they were under a microscope, the
corruption continued when he was governor."
Ryan did not immediately return a telephone call for comment and no one
answered the door at his home in Kankakee.
Chief defense counsel Dan K. Webb issued a statement following the
indictment, saying he was confident Ryan "will be exonerated and a jury will
find him not guilty of all charges."
"He has achieved worldwide renown as the only governor in the history of our
nation to have the courage to reform a state's broken-down death penalty
system that was putting innocent people on death row," Webb said.
While his popularity plummeted in his home state, Ryan was winning
widespread praise nationally and internationally as a leading critic of
capital punishment.
Ryan declared a moratorium on capital punishment in Illinois after it was
discovered that 13 wrongfully convicted men had been sent to death row.
In January, just before leaving office, he pardoned four condemned prisoners
and commuted the death sentences of 167 others to life in prison.
Critics accused Ryan of using the death penalty issue to deflect the scandal
arising from the disclosures of corruption. Supporters nominated him for the
Nobel Peace Prize.
Ryan becomes the fourth Illinois governor indicted in the past 40 years.
Otto Kerner, who served from 1961-1968, was convicted of bribery. Dan
Walker, who served from 1973-1977, was convicted on charges related to
financial dealings after he left office. William G. Stratton, who served
from 1953-1961, was indicted four years after leaving office on charges of
income tax evasion. He was acquitted.
Ryan was charged with racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, making false
statements to investigators, tax fraud and filing false tax returns.
Fitzgerald declined to give the range of a potential prison sentence if Ryan
is convicted, noting it would be up to the judge to determine based on
federal guidelines. Racketeering is punishable by up to 20 years in prison;
mail fraud and making false statements to authorities are punishable by up
to five years in prison; tax fraud and filing a false tax return are
punishable by up to three years in prison.
On the Net
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/