From the Chicago Tribune

Ex-state senator indicted E-mail this story

By Nicole Ziegler Dizon
Associated Press Writer
Published August 27, 2003

Former state Sen. Arthur R. Swanson, a lobbyist and friend of former Gov. George Ryan, was charged Wednesday with lying to a federal grand jury about lobbying activities, including for a maximum-security prison in Grayville.
Federal prosecutors allege that Swanson already knew from one or more officials in the governor's office that Ryan had decided to select Grayville as a prison site before he was hired for $50,000 to lobby for the town's selection.
Swanson, 77, of southwest suburban Homer Glen, is charged with seven counts of perjury. No date had been set for his arraignment in U.S. District Court.
The indictment alleges Swanson lied while testifying before a federal grand jury on thee different dates between May 2002 and July 2003.
The grand jury indictment was part of the government's continuing Operation Safe Road investigation of political corruption during Ryan's two terms as secretary of state and his four-year tenure as governor.
Swanson's lobbying business, A.R. Swanson and Associates, landed a lucrative contract to lobby for the Grayville site on March 2, 2001, prosecutors allege. Ten days later he was paid $50,000 under the contract, according to prosecutors.
Yet Swanson learned on Feb. 23, 2001, from one or more workers in the governor's office that Grayville had been selected for the lockup, prosecutors claim.
Ryan's office announced publicly on April 12, 2001, that Grayville had been selected -- one full month after Swanson accepted the $50,000, prosecutors claimed.
Prosecutors also alleged that Swanson's firm landed several lucrative lobbying contracts between 1999 and 2001. Those clients included an unnamed out-of-state company that wanted to expand in Illinois and the entity that oversees Chicago's Navy Pier and McCormick Place Convention Center.
The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority was run at that time by Scott Fawell, Ryan's former chief of staff and gubernatorial campaign chairman.
Fawell was sentenced in June to 6 1/2 years in prison for racketeering, tax fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from Ryan's tenure as secretary of state. He is the highest-profile state official so far to have been indicted in the Operation Safe Road investigation.
Swanson was paid $60,000 a year for three years under the Metropolitan Pier contract, yet did little to no work, Fitzgerald said. The defendant allegedly lied to the grand jury about how he got the contract.
"We didn't indict someone for being put on the payroll for doing nothing. We indicted someone for lying," U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said at a news conference this afternoon in downtown Chicago to announce the indictment.
"When we go into the grand jury, when people are given immunity, they should tell us what happened," Fitzgerald said. "Whatever the facts are, whether they're legal or illegal, whether they're embarrassing or not, you tell the truth."