Friday, March 26, 2010

Illinois Pols Nervous After Learning Top Gaming Lobbyist Worked For Feds

When a politician learns the feds have been lurking behind a state's top gaming lobbyist for the past two years, he is understandably worrying about all of the conversations he had with that lobbyist. Sun-Times' columnist Rich Miller says that was the reaction in Springfield, Illinois recently when lobbyist Bob Swaim e-mailed a group of friends to alert them to the fact that he had been pressured to cooperate with the feds in their investigation of public corruption in Springfield and Illinois after the federal government indicted him on tax evasion charges. "I did everything the feds asked him to do during those two years," Swaim said. "Now I find myself in a strange and unfair place," Swaim told his friends. He claimed he stopped cooperating recently and that's why the feds indicted him on the tax charges.

It's too bad the feds haven't wired up someone to track the activities of gaming lobbyists over at our State House. The shady deals they've pulled off over the past two decades have made millions for the insiders and landed several lawmakers and their family members with top-paying jobs.

1 comment:

I know said...

Amen, amen, amen on the Indiana State House and the public officials and corruption in gaming in Indiana.

The Feds have enough to open pandoras box and when they do the mess will stink to high heaven!