Chicago City Wire

A recent anti-corruption report from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Political Science notes that 2019 was a huge year pertaining to corruption exposure in Chicago, and Illinois as a whole.

“The statistics do not completely reflect it, but 2019 was a highly explosive year, during which some of the most important political corruption in the history of Chicago and Illinois was exposed,” the report states. “Bombshell corruption news reports that year dethroned the city's most powerful alderman, upset Chicago's mayoral election campaign, torpedoed the most powerful and well-known candidate, and threatened the political existence of Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and Chairman of the State Democratic Party, Michael Madigan.”

The report notes that while the year’s corruption isn’t captured with annual statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section, that’s only because the DOJ only reports federal public corruption convictions for the year those convictions occur and most of the scandals from 2019 were just reports, investigations, raids, indictments and other beginning steps in criminal prosecutions.

“Many of the cases that were initiated in 2019 were not completed, not only because these normally take a few years, but also because the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 slowed prosecutions,” the report states. “The courts were closed for much of the year, jury trials were halted, and other matters were handled virtually. For this reason, the authors of this report suspect that the number of convictions in the DOJ’s 2020 report will likely show a major drop compared to 2019, along with an increase in convictions in 2021 when the courts fully reopen.”

There were a multitude of corruption scandals in 2019, including Ald. Ed Burke’s resignation after he was alleged to have used his office to extort business for his law firm, critical conduct in schools and colleges, some alleged coverups within the Chicago Police Department and high-ranking officials in Harvey, Ill., who extorted a local strip club owner.

The report notes 36 instances of corruption in Illinois in 2019.