Witness: Pal gave $50K to brother's firm
December 23, 2005
BY NATASHA KORECKI

Federal Courts Reporter A George Ryan pal who won state leases and contracts under Ryan paid $50,000 to help out a struggling company partially owned by Ryan's brother, a witness testified Thursday.

Jeffrey Wadley, an accountant for Comguard, a company partially owned by Tom Ryan, said Ryan co-defendant Lawrence Warner, as well as several other businessmen, gave the company a financial boost when it struggled in the mid-1990s. While Warner called the money a loan, Comguard only paid back about $8,000, Wadley said.

Alleged corrupt financial deal
Prosecutors charge that Warner handed over the money without expecting to be repaid. It was allegedly part of a corrupt financial relationship between Warner and Ryan in which Ryan allegedly steered contracts to Warner and others and Warner allegedly provided benefits to Ryan and his family.

At one point, Wadley said, Tom Ryan told him he was friends with Warner and had personally asked him for the loan. Wadley said the company was unable to repay many investors and that he, too, lost tens of thousands of dollars.

Comguard, a company that provided electronic monitoring bracelets to prisoners on home detention, won a state contract while Ryan served as secretary of state. Prosecutors have alleged that as the company continually struggled with its finances, Warner provided Tom Ryan a total of about $145,000 in loans. Much of that evidence has not yet gone before the jury.

Also Thursday, Downstate businessman Kevin Williams testified he invested $20,000 toward a $50,000 lobbying fee to land a state prison in the economically depressed town of Grayville. The money was for lobbyist Ron Swanson, a friend of Ryan's.

But Williams didn't know the community didn't need a lobbyist.

The town had already been chosen for the future site, and Ryan allegedly passed the private information to Swanson in February 2001, according to testimony.

Prosecutors say that once Swanson knew where the prison would be located, he contacted Grayville community leader Clyde Wilson and promised if he were hired he could get the prison for Grayville. Wilson then contacted Williams, who owns a hotel in town.

Williams said that when he asked Swanson how his lobbying efforts were going, Swanson was evasive and patronizing. "You guys did a good job doing your work," Williams said Swanson told him after getting his $50,000 up-front fee. "Now let me do mine."

Judge warns jurors
The prison has never been built. Construction was stopped about two years ago because of budget constraints.

Asked if he felt he was ripped off, Williams, walking out of the courthouse, turned around and smiled and said: "No comment."

A juror Thursday caused a small controversy after bringing in a 2004 Chicago magazine article about Winston & Strawn, the law firm representing Ryan. Jurors are banned from reading anything about the Ryan case. The article was about an award the firm had won and has three members of Ryan's trial team pictured.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer and attorneys privately interviewed several jurors to ask whether they had discussed evidence in the case. She then reminded them all again that they were banned from talking about the case with one another or anyone else.

HIGHLIGHTS
PROSECUTION: George Ryan co-defendant Lawrence Warner paid $50,000 to help fund a struggling company partially owned by Ryan's brother. The company repaid just $8,000.

DEFENSE: Warner lent the company, Comguard, the money. Comguard had many investors who put up and lost money.

UP NEXT: Trial takes a break until Jan. 3.