Better Government Association

Governor got gifts from indicted woman

By Eric Krol
Daily Herald Political Writer
Posted Thursday, May 03, 2007

Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich received gifts last year from a woman now under felony indictment on charges of billing the state for more than $2 million in phony drug tests.

The disclosure came as part of the governor’s newly filed ethics statement, which also revealed first lady Patti Blagojevich got a new job last year with a firm that’s given campaign cash to her husband and gotten state business from his administration.

The legally required annual statement of economic interests, which Blagojevich filed on Monday, the last day to do so, lists all gifts valued at more than $500 the governor and his family received in 2006.

New this year on Blagjoevich’s disclosure were Amrish and the indicted Anita Mahajan. The Mahajans also helped Patti Blagojevich obtain real estate business worth more than $100,000 last year.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said the Mahajan gifts were food, but she didn’t know the value of them.

“I know they try to be extra cautious in estimating the value,” Ottenhoff said.

The ethics form states the Blagojeviches donated the “economic equivalent” of the Mahajan gifts to charity. But Ottenhoff said she was unable to reach the attorneys to ask why the Blagojeviches did so or which charity got the money.

Anita Mahajan owned K.K. Bio-Science, a Chicago firm that had a longtime, no-bid state contract to do drug testing for the state’s child welfare agency. Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine charged her in March with overbilling the state for more than $2 million in drug tests he says were never performed.

Amrish Mahajan is a major fundraiser for Blagojevich among Chicago’s Indian community. And the Mahajans steered four real estate deals to Patti Blagojevich that brought her $113,700 in commissions, her only commissions last year through October, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The filing also shows Patti Blagojevich, who owns a realty firm, picked up a new job as an “employee” of Appraisal Research Counselors. The Chicago-based firm is owned by Eugene Stunard, who’s given $3,538 to Blagojevich’s campaign fund since 2002. Employees of the firm gave another $3,000 to Blagojevich’s fund. The firm has gotten $17,700 in state work since 2003 from the Departments of Natural Resources and Revenue.

Stunard and other company executives did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday on what Patti Blagojevich does for the firm or whether the firm’s ties to the governor had anything to do with her hiring.

Ottenhoff said she was unable to reach anyone Wednesday to discuss the first lady’s new job.

A government watchdog group said Patti Blagojevich’s new job raises eyebrows after three years of similar stories.

“What’s amazing to me is the fact that at least how it’s been reported, all of her commissions have come from businesses and individuals who are campaign donors or have state business,” said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association. “You can call it a coincidence if you like, but when you see it year in and year out, it seems to become more than a coincidence.”

Blagojevich’s ethics disclosures drew scrutiny last summer when the Daily Herald reported Blagojevich amended his previously filed economic interests statements to reflect new gift-givers just weeks after being interviewed by federal agents as part of a corruption investigation.

One of the couples Blagojevich added to his disclosure was Michael and Beverly Ascaridis. Their gift turned out to be a $1,500 check Blagojevich described as either a birthday or baptism present for his daughter. The gift came around the same time the Blagojevich administration hired Beverly Ascaridis to a job at the Department of Natural Resources.

It became a major campaign issue in last fall’s governor’s race after Ascaridis told the Tribune she brought the $1,500 check to the FBI’s attention because it was odd. The family wasn’t on the Blagojevich gift list this year.

Also dropping off was Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a Wilmette businessman and top Blagojevich fundraiser who is under federal indictment on charges he used his influence with Blagojevich to shake down companies who wanted state business. Lon Monk, Blagojevich’s former chief of staff and campaign manager who recently became a lobbyist, also dropped off the list.

Remaining on the list of gift-givers are: Betty Bukraba, a Blagojevich baby-sitter whom he appointed to a paid post on the state Civil Service Commission; Christopher Kelly, a top Blagojevich fundraiser whose sister got a lucrative state job; and John Wyma, Blagojevich’s former congressional chief of staff whose lobbying practice has thrived with his access to the governor.

Blagojevich declined to disclose what gifts were given.