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| -Lurid Crime Tales- | |
| Cellini accused of campaign fund extortion | |
| 2008-10-31 | |
| A major Illinois power broker was indicted Thursday on charges of conspiring with convicted influence peddler Antoin "Tony" Rezko to shake down an investment firm for campaign contributions to embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich. William Cellini Sr., 73, for decades one of the biggest behind-the-scenes Republican players in Illinois politics, was charged as part of Operation Board Games - an ongoing federal investigation of corruption in the Blagojevich administration. Blagojevich hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing and was not even mentioned by name in the indictment, which referred to him only as Public Official A. "The governor was not involved in the improper activities alleged in the indictment," Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said Thursday.
Cellini's indictment comes weeks after Rezko began talking with federal prosecutors in hopes of getting a lighter sentence for his June conviction on charges of scheming to squeeze payoffs from a contractor and money management firms seeking state business. But there was nothing to indicate how much, if any, of what he said led to Thursday's charges. The indictment said admitted fixer Stuart Levine, the government's star witness at Rezko's trial, also was part of the alleged conspiracy. | |
| Posted by:Fred |