During a brief sentencing hearing, the 76-year-old Terry Link made a public apology. Speaking slowly and with a tremor borne of a neurological condition that has worsened since he left office in 2020, Link said he’d made a mistake and “did not intend to cheat the government.”
Luis Arroyo
April Perry, who currently serves as senior counsel overseeing Global Investigations and Fraud and Abuse Prevention at GE HealthCare, has been nominated to become the next U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois after John Lausch stepped down earlier this year.
Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat, has spent years denying news media reports that he was the legislator-turned-cooperating witness described in charging documents made public after the arrest of ex-state Rep. Luis Arroyo in October of 2019.
U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger laid in to Arroyo during the hearing, calling the former representative a “dirty politician who was on the take” and a “corruption super-spreader,” who “injected” corruption into both the Illinois House and Senate.
Former state Rep. Luis Arroyo’s conduct was a “blatant cash grab,” Assistant U.S. Attorney James Durkin told U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger, asking that Arroyo spend between 46 to 57 months behind bars.
Sending former state Rep. Luis Arroyo pleaded guilty to one charge of wire fraud in November, and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 18. Arroyo has acknowledged that he offered a member of the Illinois Senate monthly payments of $2,500 to support a bill supported by a sweepstakes firm that hired Arroyo as a lobbyist.
The former member of the Illinois House told a federal judge Wednesday that he offered a member of the Illinois Senate monthly payments of $2,500 to support a bill supported by a sweepstakes firm that he worked for as a lobbyist.
There are more reports of alleged bad behavior involving former state lawmakers. Our politics team digs into that and more in our weekly roundtable.
A federal bribery charge against an Illinois state legislator has led to questions about whether lawmakers should be allowed to lobby other units of government.
The wheels are in motion to remove state Rep. Luis Arroyo from office, a day after the Chicago Democrat was indicated on a federal bribery charge.
Illinois lawmakers returned to Springfield on Monday for the start of the fall veto session, but any new legislation could be overshadowed by a bribery charge filed against Democratic state Rep. Luis Arroyo.
Rep. Luis Arroyo, 65, bribed a legislative colleague with an offer of $2,500 a month in exchange for the state senator’s support of his sweepstakes-related legislation, according to a federal complaint unsealed on Monday.
