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Example research essay topic: Secretary Of State George Ryan - 1,526 words

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Governor George Ryan of Illinois is in trouble. He has been linked to a massive drivers license selling scandal that might eventually cause him to be impeached. In 1991, George Ryan became the Secretary of State, which puts all Illinois drivers license facilities under his control. Ryan has had a career crowded with achievements and a public service marked by openness and fairness, (Hanania). This scandal is the first real problem Ryan has had to face. This is the first blemish on his character that has gone public, and there is no question that this is hurting his public image.

But what exactly happened? On March 9, 1993, the police raided a Libertyville driver s license center. There they found evidence of an illegal license selling operation. Reportedly during the raid, the then-Inspector General Dean Bauer was on the phone asking to speak to George. This began an investigation to see just how far the corruption goes.

Now, George Ryan is the Governor of Illinois. The Associated Press unsuccessfully sought for six weeks to obtain records under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act of any calls made at the time of the raid from Bauer s cell phones or the Libertyville manager s office. State officials on July 27, 2000, cited the ongoing investigation in denying the request. In federal court, a former secretary of state employee convicted in the scandal testified this year that although she had no firsthand knowledge of Ryan s involvement, she believed he would have had to have known what was going on in his office. Prosecutors have not accused Ryan of any crime and the governor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He was reportedly using the bribe money for his campaign.

In one instance, two of his former employees contributed $ 6, 500 to Ryan s campaign over a period of eight years. Ryan aide Jeremy Margolis said at a hastily convened news conference that the secretary of state had given that money to charity to make sure that he got no benefit if it turned out to be the proceeds of a license-selling scheme, (Bribes). This year s federal indictment of Bauer said that the ledger found in Libertyville zone manager James Quinn s office indicated that twenty fund-raising tickets had been sold to Mike, and that those same twenty tickets were seized the day of the raid from Michaelangelo Prato, a driving school owner who was arrested for illegally purchasing licenses for unqualified applicants. Prato was later convicted. Nothing surfaced publicly about the raid s discovery of the fund-raising evidence in a briefcase until a Chicago Tribune report on October 31, 1999, that cited records and interviews with law enforcement officials.

Ryan said in an interview that that was the first time he had heard about it all. Bauer acknowledged in a Chicago Tribune newspaper interview before his indictment that he did take a briefcase full of cash and fund-raising tickets from Quinn s office, but did not recall a ledger. He said there was no cover-up, even though he did not investigate whether political fund-raising had played a role in the bribery at Libertyville. He said he had held the money for safekeeping and turned it over years later to the state s general fund, which prosecutors say is a lie. Marion Seibel, a former supervisor at the secretary of state s McCook licensing facility, was charged with selling trucking licenses to unqualified drivers. In a newspaper article she came close to implicating Ryan.

She had received phone calls from Ryan s secretary telling her, we have a person and we want this person run through today. Ryan denied the charges, saying he found it hard to believe that anyone who worked as a secretary for him would do something illegal, (Another). It seems a very weak attempt by Ryan to help his secretary. The 2 -year-old investigation into the bribes-for-licenses scandal has resulted in the indictment of 37 people and the conviction of 28, along with limited testimony at its first and only trial that pointed the finger at Ryan. Mary Ann Mastrodomenico, a former driver s license facility employee who had already spent time in prison for taking bribes in the scandal, testified that Ryan must have known about the widespread corruption in the driver license facilities, but admitted that she can t prove that he did. So far, that is the closest anyone has come to connecting Ryan with the scandal.

Although reporters seem to know more than they are telling us. A mole recently contacted many reporters in the Chicago area. Telling them that he was a reporter as well, he asked them several questions about what is going on. Almost every reporter knew exactly what had happened, and almost every reporter said they had evidence of Ryan s involvement. Unfortunately, Ryan is a powerful man. These reporters were all told by their editors to drop the story.

That would constitute a cover-up. Unfortunately for Ryan, this is not the only trouble he is being investigated for. He reportedly paid off some on the Illinois State Board of Elections to kick a third party off the ballot that was expected to pull about eight percent of the vote for Governor. That would have meant that Ryan could not have been elected.

Some one million dollars was reportedly split between some elections board officials and state and federal revenue bosses. An elite IRS team made a referral to the Justice Department that they proceed with federal criminal prosecution of Ryan for reputed bribery for the reported Elections Board corruption instigated by Ryan and for him benefiting from a lot of money for his election campaign that reportedly was obtained by bribes. The bribes were to then employees of Ryan to issue drivers licenses to those not eligible. These reported bribes were in Ryan s previous position as Illinois Secretary of State in charge of statewide drivers license facilities. Many of those then working for Ryan have already pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges of bribery but said that they did not keep the bribe money but turned it over to Ryan, who does not remember them or getting it. Governor George Ryan is being investigated for another serious accusation.

In the fall of 1999, Ryan went to Cuba in a goodwill tour to bring two million dollars of items donated by pharmaceutical firms who got a tax write-off. The items were given to Cuba-based drug store-types to be quietly resold for some 30 million dollars to Cubans made anxious for such items because of the U. S. embargo. With reported kickbacks to Ryan, from one of his top men in State government, Ryan supposedly got part of 30 percent of the 30 millions dollars of charity items. In the IRS team s referral, they asked the Justice Department to begin the federal criminal prosecution of Ryan for reported kickbacks from riverboat gambling casinos supervised by Ryan s appointees to the Illinois Gaming Commission, which has been racked with scandals.

Ryan is implicated with corrupt top State revenue officials and present and former IRS officials from Chicago who operate a gambling casino boat in the Caribbean as a floating money laundry for dope and other illicit proceeds. Ryan reportedly gave bribes or gifts to various State Democrat officials to get or buy their assistance in several projects. First, he bribed to persuade top Illinois Democrats to pressure the Clinton Justice Department not to prosecute him for various bribes. So Ryan was trying to get the Clinton Justice Department to reject the IRS team s referrals. He also bribed to get top Illinois Democrats to forget about supporting Al Gore, Jr. , for President and instead, somehow, throw their political weight in support of George W. Bush for the Presidency.

Every time the amount of the bribes is brought up to Ryan, he always says that he will donate that much to charity. Ryan said he now plans to give $ 130, 000 to $ 135, 000 to charity from his campaign fund because that s the number the federal government s come up with in bribes for licenses that went to the fund, (Schoenburg). Through this he is trying to show the public that he is a good guy. He is trying to say that some people underneath him have abused their powers, but he was not a part of it. He has yet to donate that money yet, and it will be a long time to see if that move helps his image any. Governor Ryan may be impeached for this offense, but some evidence that positively implicates him to these crimes must be found first.

It seems like every politician goes through some kind of scandal at some point in their lives, it appears to be Ryan s turn. It seems evident that he would know what was going on under him, but there has been no proof that he did, made available to the public at least. Governor George Ryan has fallen into what some might call the typical politician category. The only thing that is missing now is positive evidence. 326


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Research essay sample on Secretary Of State George Ryan

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