The Criminal Background Of “Senate Candidate 3” From The Blago Tapes

Director Blue has an important post up this morning with a ton of interesting information on who Senate Candidate 3 is on the Blago tapes.

Who is it?  One of the most corrupt, most liberal members of the House.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky.

Her family background is fascinating, and troubling:

The Schakowsky family’s troubling history with non-profits

• In 2006 Anne Leary reported that Schakowsky’s husband — Robert Creamer — was sentenced to five months in prison and eleven months of house arrest for bank fraud and tax violations involving a non-profit called the “Illinois Public Action Council” (IPAC). The indictment charged Creamer with floating “check and wire transfer deposits between bank accounts to… hide their deficiencies… [and used] the inflated balances to pay expenses of his organization, as well as his own salary and discretionary expenses.” Creamer resigned his longtime leadership positions after “the FBI questioned him about a $1 million overdraft… [he was also charged] with failing to pay more than $300,000 in federal income taxes for employees of the group and for himself between 1996 and 2000. Four other counts allege he filed false income tax returns between 1996 and 1999… Each count of bank fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and $1 million fine. Each count of failing to collect and pay withholding taxes carries a penalty of five years, and each count of filing a false tax return carries a penalty of 3 years.”

Hubby’s ties to other sleazy pols

• After IPAC folded, Creamer advised a wide variety of Democratic luminaries including staunch members of the community like Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Congressman Lane Evans, Chicago Alderman Joe Moore and others.

Schakowsky’s background

• By any measure, Schakowsky is one of the most liberal (if not the most liberal) members of Congress. She belonged to, for instance, the “Progressive Caucus,” where she joined the likes of Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters, Dennis Kucinich, Jim (“Baghdad Jim”) McDermott, Bernie Sanders and Lynn Woolsey.

• Schakowsky served on the board of IPAC while her husband was committing various felonies. But we’re betting she was completely unaware of her hubby’s scams. Hubby was “swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million while he ran a public interest group in the 1990s.” And Schakowsky “co-signed the fraudulent tax returns“.

Yup, completely unaware that her husband was involved in all these Chicago style politics…..sure thing.

Meanwhile she blamed the whole thing on Bush, as only a good BDS sufferer would.

But the big story, other then the fact that this winner was one of the candidates being floated for Obama’s seat, is a earmark reported on by Red County.

Her husband was involved in fraud and tax schemes using a non-profit organization, so why shouldn’t Rep. Schakowsky write a 2009 earmark for another Chicago-area nonprofit called The Save A Life Foundation.

As Director Blue and Red County wrote, a ABC investigation revealed that Save a Life received millions of dollars in taxpayer funds and corporate donations all the while it made a series of

“misleading claims [including] deceptive credentials that raise doubts about [its] integrity, funding and training.”

According to the ABC report the founder of the group, Carol Spizzirri, represented herself as a RN who specialized in kidney transplants. Problem is, and as ABC reported, she was never a RN nor did she ever receive a degree of any kind.

In light of the two ABC investigations, most public funding sources for Save-a-Life appeared to dry up.

That is, until Jan Schakowsky got involved.

Schakowsky’s committee roles include service as a “Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection and as a member of the Subcommittee on Health and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.”

Now isn’t that swell? The person Obama considered to take his seat is not only one of the most liberal, not only is her husband is a criminal, not only did she serve on the same board of a non-profit in which he swindled millions of dollars, and to top it all off she co-signed the tax returns that sent her husband to jail. Not only was she all that, but to top it all off she herself wrote a earmark for a fraudulent non-profit.

Once a Chicago politician, always a Chicago politician.

One reason why we should all be worried about another Chicago politician about to sit in the Oval Office.

Curt

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