Blagojevich trial witnesses, Alonzo Monk, June 9, 2010, Blagojevich chief of staff, Rezko trial revelations

Alonzo Monk, former Blagojevich chief of staff and law school roommate, will likely be one of the first witnesses called by the prosecution. Monk has plead guilty to scheming with Rod Blagojevich to shake down a racetrack businessman for a $100,000 campaign contribution. Here is some background on Alonzo Monk and his involvement in Chicago and Illinois corruption.
From the Tony Rezko trial in 2008.
March 10, 2008

“”He called me and he said we need to move on Stuart Levine,” Hayden testified. Hayden said Rezko told her he had already spoken to her boss, Blagojevich chief of staff Lon Monk, about the Levine reappointment and been assured the appointment would go through.

Hayden said Rezko laughed when she said she would have to check with Monk herself. “I took that to mean that I could go ahead and ask him, but it was already a done deal,” she recalled.”
March 19, 2008

“Levine also said that Rezko told him that he and fellow Blagojevich fundraiser Christopher Kelly “exercised the most influence” in Blagojevich’s kitchen cabinet. And Levine said Rezko told him that “all the major decisions in the governor’s office were cleared through [chief of staff] Lon Monk and through Mr. Rezko.”

“Mr. Rezko told me that he was able to have individuals appointed to state boards and was able to have individuals hired into state agencies and that he spoke very often — and in fact went over decisions — that Lon Monk would put into place,” Levine said.”
April 15, 2008

“Cari said he met with Stuart Levine at Rezko’s office in January that year. Rezko said he had the power to award contracts and get consultants hired through the governor’s then-chief of staff, Lon Monk, Cari said.

“Mr. Monk took direction from [Rezko],” Cari told the jury.

Rezko illustrated his clout by picking up the phone and apparently calling Monk in front of him, Cari said.”
Alonzo Monk pleads guilty in 2009.

From CBS Chicago Oct 20, 2009
“Blagojevich Pal Alonzo Monk Pleads Guilty
Former Chief Of Staff Cooperating With Feds In Exchange For Reduced Sentence”
“Former Rod Blagojevich Chief of Staff Alonzo Monk pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in an alleged scheme by Blagojevich and his top aides to profit off state business deals.
 

A longtime friend and ex-chief of staff to Rod Blagojevich said he was an eyewitness to a litany of corruption — including a scheme by the former governor and his top aides to profit off state business deals, according to a guilty plea entered Tuesday.

Lon Monk, 51, of Decatur, said in a plea agreement with the federal government that during the ex-governor’s first term in office, there was an ongoing agreement among Blagojevich and his closest advisers that involved making hundreds of thousands of dollars off state business deals.

A personal friend of Blagojevich who was also the ex-governor’s law school roommate, Monk said Blagojevich sat in on meetings where there were discussions about splitting money from state business four ways, according to the plea. The alleged recipients: Blagojevich, the now-deceased Christopher Kelly, convicted businessman Tony Rezko and Monk.

The plea indicates that Rezko was responsible for setting up money-making arrangements from the state deals. Monk said that Blagojevich and Monk agreed to use “their power and authority in state government” to help Rezko and Kelly make money. Monk said as part of the agreement, he and Blagojevich would “share in the money that was made” but they wouldn’t get their cut until after they were no longer in government, according to the deal.

Monk’s plea pledges his cooperation with federal prosecutors in exchange for a two-year prison sentence instead of the nearly four years he faced.”

“One of the state deals involved the refinancing of $10 billion in Pension Obligation Bonds by the state of Illinois in 2003, according to the plea.

Monk says that two of Blagojevich’s advisers picked the underwriter that Blagojevich subsequently chose to take the lead role on the bond sale. Monk said he learned there was a deal in which the four would split a $500,000 kickback from an investment firm acting as a consultant on the deal. The plea agreement doesn’t give further details about the money.

Discussions about making money off of state deals stopped when the FBI visited Stuart Levine, a member of two state boards and a longtime political donor, according to the plea.

Still, Monk claims he received cash payments from Rezko from 2004 to 2005. Rezko delivered to Monk $10,000 in cash payments seven to nine times, his plea says.

“Rezko never suggested that [Monk] would have to pay Rezko back and [Monk] understood that the money that Rezko provided was a gift, not a loan,” the plea indicates.”
“Monk also claims in his plea deal that Blagojevich and others met about making money off of a lucrative piece of property at Roosevelt and Clark in Chicago.

“Rezko talked about different ways that [Monk], Blagojevich, and Kelly could benefit from the Roosevelt and Clark Project, such as by having Blagojevich’s wife work on marketing the project or by allowing [Monk] to work on the project after [Monk] left state government,” the plea indicates.

While Monk admitted to knowing about a variety of alleged schemes including one involving a tollway project and another involving state money for Children’s Memorial Hospital.”

Read more:

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/alonzo.monk.plea.2.1258765.html

From Citizen Wells April 3, 2010.
“This issue may be sorted out soon enough because Fitzgerald’s charts matching up Obama’s contributions, visits and calls are bound to be every bit as thorough as the ones produced to prove Rezko is guilty as charged in the first trial. They simply were not produced because they were not needed to prove the defendant guilty in the first case.

As an example of what records might be squirreled away, consider that an FBI agent presented a chart to the jury on April 28, 2008, showing 257 calls from Rezko’s phones to Blagojevich’s chief of staff, Lon Monk, between March 2004 and May 2004 alone.”

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To learn more about Chicago and Illinois corruption and Alonzo Monk’s involvement:

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