Illinois is becoming known for producing corrupt politicians. However, is evading the federal government’s eye when withdrawing your money really that corrupt, or is it just a shady practice that happens to involve a semi-sophisticated and illegal plan?
If I had to withdraw large sums of money for legal or illegal purposes, and I had to do it quickly, I might very well have withdrawn under $10,000 at a time, in order to avoid drawing attention to myself. Although Dennis Hastert, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is allegedly paying someone off for past misconduct, government agencies such as the IRS have targeted people such as him for political reasons. However, we should let the speaker speak for himself, since he has already spoken for so many. Any one of the speaker’s political enemies could claim to have been paid off.
Instead of the intense negative speculation currently surrounding Hastert about why he withdrew nearly $1 million, perhaps some positive speculation is needed to counter it.
Hastert could have just been planning on spending a lot of money at the club this weekend to relieve stress from the impending Patriot Act renewal deadline. Before I go too far, federal agencies have already alluded to Hastert paying someone off for past misconduct, so I will cross club money off the list of possibilities.
Maybe that someone was an organization, such as a library, where he never returned a book and incurred a massive fine that has been building over 50+ years.
Although these examples may seem silly, the prospect of Hastert being blackmailed is not. Agreeing to pay $3.5 million to someone and then hiding the payments doesn’t seem malicious, it seems desperate. Those speculating should be patient until more details are revealed. He was known for a record “as clean as a whistle,” says Sean Theariault, a professor in the department of government at the University of Texas (NBC).
With the money Hastert withdrew, perhaps he was planning on paying off this individual with a whole row of really good Blackhawks tickets for this weekend’s big game.
