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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Prosecutors: Beavers used campaign funds at casino |
| 2013-03-15 |
| [Chicago Tribune] In one afternoon in April 2007, Cook County Commissioner William Beavers cashed three checks from one of three campaign funds -- for a total of $6,000 -- and went to the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond to gamble, prosecutors alleged today as his trial on tax-evasion charges got underway. While gambling at a casino boat is not illegal, what Beavers did next was, Assistant U.S. Atty. Samuel Cole told the jury. Beavers, a "seasoned politician" well-versed in campaign-finance rules, failed to report any of that cash as income and then never paid taxes on it, he charged. "The defendant knew these rules from his many, many years of raising and spending campaign money," Cole told the jury as a stern-faced Beavers swiveled slowly in his chair. " ... There is nothing wrong with gambling at the Horseshoe Casino ... (But) he didn't want to declare those checks." In his opening statement, Cole told the jury that the April afternoon was only one of numerous examples in which the longtime Chicago Democrat spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on personal expenses and then didn't pay taxes on the money. Beavers' gambling losses at the river boats was the only personal expense cited by Cole in a 30-minute opening that laid out a straightforward prosecution case. Beavers, Cole said, had been burned with a $27,000 tax bill after reporting $43,000 in campaign funds he converted in 2005. Over the next three years, he failed to report the converted campaign cash, the prosecutor alleged. Beavers attorney, Sam Adam Jr., however, struck hard at the prosecution case with his characteristic dramatic style, claiming it was missing one essential ingredient: a crime. "William Beavers didn't commit a crime at all," said Adam, his voice rising. "This is a unique case where there is no crime!" Adam repeatedly told the jury that any money Beavers took from campaign funds were loans and that he eventually paid $196,000 of the $226,000 that the government says he didn't report to the Internal Revenue Service. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 for example: Mikulski, Schakowsky, De Lauro, .... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-03-15 22:03 |
| #5 Careful what you wish for, wanting to see democrat beavers. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2013-03-15 11:03 |
| #4 He's Democrat and He's Black. Campaign funds are Graft, and not subject to Government scrutiny. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-03-15 10:44 |
| #3 Democrat Equals thief, nothing new here. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-03-15 10:34 |
| #2 So was I when I came across it. No Animal Antix graphic. Sorry. |
| Posted by: Fred 2013-03-15 09:13 |
| #1 Um, misleading headline! I was expecting pictures... |
| Posted by: Raj 2013-03-15 01:46 |