A professional friend of Governor Rod Blagojevich helped investigators get covert recordings as part of their corruption investigation of his administration. That's according to a report in Friday's edition of the Chicago Tribune.

The paper reports that John Wyma, a lobbyist and the governor's chief of staff when he was in Congress, cooperated with investigators to help get the recordings.

A spokesman for the Chicago-based watchdog group The Better Government association says that could spell out trouble for Blagojevich.

"It shows the federal investigation is full speed ahead," says executive director Jay Stewart.

The investigation code-named "Operation Board Games" has led to the indictments of some big players in Illinois politics. The cooperation of the governor's former aid is further evidence that they're going after the biggest player there is.

According to the Tribune, Wyma's name has surfaced repeatedly during the course of the investigation. Now the paper says they've confirmed he helped get recordings of the governor.

There has been speculation about whether or not Tony Rezko is helping the feds make their case against the governor. He was convicted earlier this year for accepting kickbacks. Stewart says that since public corruption investigations tend to go up, the conventional wisdom is that Wyma is helping to make a case against Blagojevich.

"You can't really go a whole lot higher than John Wyma and Tony Rezko other than the governor himself," he said.

But that's all speculation. The Tribune article only reports that Wyma cooperated with investigators. The content of any recorded coversations is unknown Still, the latest development indicates that the investigation into the governor isn't going away.

"Clearly when the story is your friend was wired by the feds in order to tape you it's hard to see that that's not a good thing," Stewart said.

The Tribune's report does not specifically say Wyma wore a wire or that he was the one that made the recordings.

The governor continues to deny any wrongdoing. A spokesman released a statement Friday that reads in part, "[Blagojevich] woke up this morning and saw the article just like everyone else did. The Governor has not done anything wrong, improper, or illegal."