It Just Goes From Bad To Worse For This Guy

A bombshell revelation of the Governor's involvement in public corruption came out late the other day in the trial of an administration insider. Here is an article explaining the situation. What makes this ever more astonishing is the fact that this governor championed "ethics reform" during his first term in office. Remember the governor's re-election tag line about Judy Topinka..."what's she thinking"? Reading this account one has to ask the same question of the Governor and his people..."what were they thinking?".

Governor tied to job scheme
4/23/2008

Natasha Korecki, Chicago Sun-Times

A former top official in Gov. Blagojevich's administration said Tuesday the governor gave him a $127,000-a-year state job in exchange for pouring cash into Blagojevich's campaign fund, including tens of thousands of dollars out of his own pocket.

That bombshell from Ali Ata came as the onetime director of the Illinois Finance Authority pleaded guilty in a deal in which prosecutors plan to have him testify in the ongoing corruption trial of former Blagojevich fund-raiser Tony Rezko.

Ata placed the governor at a meeting where money was exchanged and a reward -- his future state job -- was promised. Ata said that, in 2002, he met with Blagojevich at Rezko's Chicago offices and gave the governor a $25,000 check for a campaign contribution. Rezko placed the check on a conference table, according to Ata's plea deal. Then, according to Ata, Blagojevich "expressed his pleasure and acknowledged that the defendant had been a good supporter and good friend." The governor, "in the defendant's presence, asked Rezko if he [Rezko] had talked to the defendant about positions in the administration, and Rezko responded that he had."

Later, at a July 2003 fund-raiser for the governor at Navy Pier, Ata -- who had contributed another $25,000 -- said Blagojevich spoke of having him join the administration and said, "It had better be a job where [Ata] could make some money."

Ata started working as director of the state agency in 2003 and was formally appointed to the job in 2004, the year Blagojevich created the authority.

Responding to Ata's allegations, a Blagojevich spokeswoman said: "We don't endorse or allow the decisions of state government to be based on campaign contributions."

Blagojevich hasn't been accused of any crime. His administration is the target of a federal investigation involving "pay to play" allegations that state positions and contracts were traded for campaign contributions.

Ata's plea deal refers to the governor only as "Public Official A" -- the same reference prosecutors have used. But sources -- and the judge in Rezko's corruption case -- previously identified Blagojevich as "Public Official A." And Ata made the same dollar-amount contributions on the same dates detailed in the plea deal to the governor's campaign, state records show.

Besides saying he had to give money to the governor's campaign to get his state job, Ata said he also had to keep Rezko happy to keep the job. To do so, he said he agreed to Rezko's repeated pleas for cash and ended up giving him a total of $125,000 in cash.

Ata, 56, of Lemont, was a co-defendant in a business-fraud case against Rezko -- involving Rezko's fast-food franchises -- that has yet to go to trial.

Rezko is on trial on unrelated charges that he used his influence in the Blagojevich administration to orchestrate a kickback scheme involving state business deals.

Ata pleaded guilty to lying to an FBI agent when he said he didn't get anything in return for making contributions to Blagojevich and admitted he lied about Rezko's influence.

He also pleaded guilty to failing to report $1.2 million in income related to a development at Addison and Kimball.

Ata, facing 12 to 18 months in prison, could get less time based on his cooperation. Prosecutors dropped a charge that Ata helped Rezko fraudulently secure $10 million in loans related to his Papa John's pizza restaurants in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Ata gave a total of $65,000 to Blagojevich's gubernatorial campaign fund. He also contributed $5,000 to Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama, who gave that money to charity after Ata's indictment last year.

Though Ata left his state post after about a year, following a critical audit, he soon got a three-year, $55,200-a-year consulting deal with the agency -- which he declined after the Chicago Sun-Times reported a foreclosure he didn't disclose. Ata said then: "For someone to imply that I paid $60,000 to get a job of $127,000 is erroneous and wrong."