Sweeps for bugs linked to Fawell
Records indicate payments to firm

By Ray Gibson
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 10, 2003

At the height of the federal probe of Scott Fawell, the former top aide to
Gov. George Ryan had his Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority office
twice swept for listening devices, officials said.
Records of the payments to a private security firm that performed the work
are being scrutinized by a federal grand jury in its investigation of the
authority, the agency that operates McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
The authority, also known as McPier, paid $16,500 for the sweeps for
electronic listening devices, McPier spokesman Billy Weinberg said. Sources
said no listening devices were found.
Weinberg said the searches were conducted in March and November of 2001.
Fawell said the sweeps were necessary "to protect trade secrets and other
information" that would have been valuable to competitors trying to lure
conventions to their towns, Weinberg said.
At the time, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago was gearing up its
investigation of Fawell and obtaining cooperation from other Ryan aides who
had helped the former governor win election in 1998.
Fawell is to begin serving a 6 1/2-year prison term in November following
his conviction in March on racketeering and fraud charges for misusing state
resources for Ryan's campaign. Ryan's political committee, Citizens for
Ryan, also was convicted and was fined $750,000, the first time any
political committee was convicted of racketeering.
Last month federal prosecutors also focused on McPier in the indictment of
Arthur "Ron" Swanson, a longtime friend of Ryan's, on charges that included
lying about an alleged ghost-payrolling job he held at McPier.
According to the charges and sources, a high-ranking McPier official
instructed the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw to hire Swanson
for lobbying work.
At the time, the law firm was helping McPier obtain legislative approval of
a bond issue for the expansion of McCormick Place.
Swanson was paid $60,000 a year during a two-year period. The indictment
accuses Swanson of lying to the grand jury about the extent of his work, and
it accuses him of doing little or no work for McPier in the first year.
The federal grand jury also is investigating the McPier handling of an
engineering contract related to the expansion of McCormick Place.
During Fawell's trial, a witness for the government, Larry Hall, said Fawell
ordered frequent sweeps for listening devices for Fawell's and Ryan's
offices when Ryan was Illinois secretary of state. Fawell was then Ryan's
chief of staff.
Weinberg identified the company that performed the work as IDS IntelTech
Data Systems, but no company by that name could be located in Illinois.