Grand jury directs FBI raids into county office -- A county with a troubled past

Agents had been scoping out the situation for months. Employee lists seized. Ref

Mind you this comes three weeks after the US attorney issued a subpoena for 5300 records, implying the "documents provided" did not match what the US Attorney had been expecting.

Employees assigned to the office going back months being targeted. Local officials in charge of the office have no idea what is going on--a clear sign they're poorly supervising the employees.

Local government targeted Who is going to get hit with contempt of court? Ref How many job openings are there in the planning area?ref Which personnel on the planning commission are subject of the investigation? Ref Who in the DA's office was in charge of ensuring the subpoena was adequately responded to? Which personnel on the staff were threatened to be quiet about the conduct; what evidence is there of any staff resignations in the last two years; what were the conditions of their replacement? How adequate were the document-retention and archiving policies? What other ethical standards have not been adequately enforced: ABA, local government? What was the financial benefit for the violation of policies? Did the District Attorney or other members of the council staff have a financial relationship with the construction firms? How could so much be happening while the "senior leadership" was out to lunch? Did someone with close proximity to the "document screening" procedures have a financial inducement not to provide all the records? What was going on with the internal audits--were they just white washes? How many other people assigned to the office had their complaints rebuffed when they brought information to elected officials, state auditors, and local investigators? What other information did the public see that was dismissed by local officials? How did senior management ensure that concerns raised were adequately investigated? Were complaints and concerns adequately documented, investigated, filed, recorded, and forwarded to supervisory officials per statutory requirements? How many prior complaints to the senior leadership had not been adequately investigated, documented? What efforts were made by senior officials to dissuade the public from making complaints? How many requests for meetings with senior officials were rebuffed? Why was the media able to get easy access to the senior leadership, but the county required the catalyst of a costly federal grand jury to take notice? What efforts did local officials use [ie citing a "war on terror" and "heightened security alert"] to "justify" directing security personnel to intimdiate those who raised concerns with local officials? What methods did local officials use to dissuade other entities from getting correct information on the actual practices and conduct? Where were the internal auditors? Why were complaints filed with the state attorney general and state auditor not timely reviewed; why did it take two years for this practice to be put to a halt? How many other complaints on other issues were rebuffed? What indicators did the local media get that there was a problem, but editors and publishers chose to do not investigative work on the public complaints? Where was the county commission; how did this activity occur under their watch; how long have they known about the problem; why wasn't something done at the local level to aggressively discipline those subject to the Federal Grand Jury subpoena?

Allegations of a troubled Past in Will County Ref: Public access channel More FBI raid done in secret because last time they burned down the building since Valukas and Webb are close with Tezak and Bush and all that, they issued a subpoena for the records, which were kept in the Moose Building there, purportedly by a group that has the name "Private Industry Council", but they kept records that were federal subsidy records -- SBA, HUD, and so on. And what happened is, Valukas "tipped off" Tezak. And the subpoena was returnable on a Monday, December 7th, 1987. On the Friday night preceding it, Tezak burned the building down. Can we have Tezak's picture here again? Money being washed in Joliet, allegedly connected to Senator Clinton: There's a similarity between the operation in Arkansas and the operation in Joliet that we're gonna talk about -- they used local development companies: in Arkansas they had the Arkansas Development Finance Authority; here they had the Will County local development authority. And they did a number of things that, to "wash" the money in both places. In Arkansas they had bond brokers, the Stephens -- which many people don't know, are the largest bond brokers outside of Wall Street. And they operate a lot of places besides Little Rock. They operate in Atlanta. And the "washing" of the money and the Bank Lavoro thing in Atlanta was arranged -- other reporters really feel; they have investigated it -- involved Hillary Rodham Clinton as an attorney at the Rose Law Firm, and her law partner, Vincent Foster, jr., who was "suicided"; they say, you know, "He committed suicide." But some of us think he was murdered. Intiial reports rebuffed And I detailed this for 35 minutes. And after 35 minutes -- I mean, I'm still detailing a summary, like I'm doing on this program! And suddenly, he picks himself up and, in so many words, says, "I'm not interested." Bush-41 White House Connection They says, "Oh! Mark Prosperi is one of Bush's...one of the aides in the Bush White House. And he's close with Bush." I says, "Oh... *That* explains why he told me he's not interested." He told me to mind my own business. . . But here's the problem: one of the records to be released -- and if it were not for the obstruction of the federal grand jury, in December of '87 [i.e., when Tezak burned the building down and destroyed the records that would have been covered by the imminent subpoena], (thanks to Valukas and his corruption) [i.e., Valukas allegedly warned Tezak about the subpoena ahead of time], here's what would have happened: two congressmen, one former congressman, would have gone to jail. Illinois state senator... KELLEY: Could we have an idea who they are? SKOLNICK: Former congressman Jack Davis from Illinois. Illinois state senator Aldo DeAngelis(sp?) (and I can go into a long discussion of his involvement). Will County Chief Judge Edward F. Masters, who was the attorney for the Private Industry Council and later the States Attorney of Cook County, now the Chief Judge. Former U.S. Attorneys Dan K. Webb and Anton R. Valukas -- who I think you and others have never accused of being honest, right? Former U.S. Attorney and later Illinois governor, Thompson himself, would have to be... And by the way, Thompson is the senior managing partner of Winston & Stromm(?); and some claim that they "fix" state and federal cases through bribery. But these three bankruptcy judges are involved. We checked the records on all these fake cases. Robert E. Ginsburg and his wife. The SBA. Chief Judge Schwartz that sent Ginsburg to Joliet to cover up these cases. A long... And of course, two officials of the DEA. So it's a tremendous thing. And the "China White" is getting to be the great scourge of the United States. KELLEY: That's correct. SKOLNICK: And it's coming in, it's coming in right south of Chicago, through Joliet. By various means. And the highest officials in this country know about it, from here to the White House: from here to the Bush White House; from here to the Clinton White House... International company Because Tezak was a very interesting fellow. He ran a worldwide company called International Games, Incorporated, headquartered in Joliet, Cayman Islands, and in Hong Kong. And he had his own plane, and occasionally went to Hong Kong -- supposedly to check out the shipments coming in of his supplies. Treasury investigation starting in 1983 (just to back up a little bit) a very highly secretive unit of the Treasury Department began investigating the Joliet-Chicago area, that is, between Chicago and Joliet: the banks, the fake real estate development companies, these local development companies that were "washing" not only dope money, but bribery money for state and federal officials. Subsidies siphoned off: Now, for example, they had a whole group of agencies, federal and state agencies, that give subsidies to the inner city and others -- the Small Business Administration is one; the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs is another. The U.S. Department of Labor, with their CETA [Comprehensive Employment Training Act] grants, and so on. And so... Yeah, let's see the picture again of Tezak, up on the screen. Tezak was the, was the thing that was makin' the thing actually run. But now, the different agencies that were involved -- the Will County Local Development Council, and others, they had all this federal money, subsidies, the records of which would show the "washing" of the "China White" money, were kept in one building, called the "Moose Building". Can you guess who owned it? The guy that owned Moose Island, John Bays, the partner of Robert Tezak. Court compromised? Now what happened was, now one of those that were involved in the China thing was Edward F. Masters, who later became the States Attorney of Will County -- he should have looked into this, right? And then he became the chief judge of the 12th district, Will County. Bond to finance a pet project? Judge Masters oversaw a case involving a bond issue, a $50 million bond issue which was passed secretly by the Will County board. And part of the reason why they wanted $50 million in bonds was to expand the forest preserve district *around* *Moose* *Island*. Money approved in secret? KELLEY: How do you pass a bond issue for $50 million secretly? SATO: They held the board meeting in secret. Of course, the voters were up in arms over it. But they got it passed. ... SATO: And that was under the guidance of Mr. Tezak's friend, John Anarino, who was the Will County board chairman .