Top aide to former Illinois governor guilty of corruption

CHICAGO -- A top aide to former Gov. George Ryan was found guilty on all counts by a federal court jury Wednesday of corruption charges stemming from the eight-year period when Ryan was Illinois secretary of state.

Scott Fawell, 45, is the top official charged thus far in the five-year federal investigation of events that took place while Ryan was secretary of state before his election as governor in 1998.

Fawell was chief of staff to Ryan in the secretary of state's office and his 1998 campaign manager.

The jury also found Ryan's campaign committee guilty on all counts.

The jury deliberated for six days and part of a seventh before reaching its verdicts.

The eight-week trial threw into sharp focus the underside of Illinois politics, creating a fresh chapter in the state's long history of patronage, payoffs and corruption in government.

Fawell and the Citizens for Ryan campaign committee were charged in a nine-count indictment with a racketeering conspiracy that included using state employees working on state time to run Ryan campaigns for almost a decade.

In addition to racketeering, Fawell was charged with mail fraud, stealing state property, conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury before a grand jury investigating the Ryan scandal.

Ryan himself has not been charged but he decided not to seek a second term and left office in January. So far, 59 former state employees and others have been charged and 53 convicted.

The investigation began as a probe into the trading of driver's licenses for bribes.

Fawell could face as much as eight years in federal prison.

The jury must now return to deliberate over how much money Citizens for Ryan and Fawell must forfeit.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer has frozen $1 million belong to Citizens for Ryan that can be used for the forfeiture. The government also has a lien of Fawell's home in suburban Wheaton.