Former Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Dennis Hastert, 73, was charged Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago with evading cash withdrawal report requirements and lying to the FBI in connection with his intent to pay $3.5 million as hush money to an individual to cover up previous misconduct.
It said Hastert, from Plano, Illinois, was indicted by a federal grand jury with structuring the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash in order to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over $10,000, and lying to FBI about his withdrawals.
In 2010, according to the indictment, Hastert agreed to give an individual $3.5 million to compensate and conceal his prior misconduct against the person.
From 2010 to 2014, Hastert withdrew $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts and gave it to the individual.
Starting in July 2012, he started structuring his cash withdrawals to less than $10,000 to evade the filing of the Currency Transaction Reports required from banks for withdrawals in excess of $10,000.
Hastert was questioned by the FBI last December regarding the structuring of cash withdrawals and he said he was keeping the cash.
Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, the court will impose a reasonable sentence.
Hastert served as House speaker from 1999 to 2007.
With the indictment, Hastert resigned from the Dickstein Shapiro law firm in Washington, where he served as senior adviser, and from the board of CME Group Inc., according to Reuters.
The indictment said he made 15 withdrawals of P50,000 each from June 2010 until April 2012 when the banks asked him about the withdrawals.
He made at least 106 cash withdrawals of under $10,000 each in July 2012.
When asked by the FBI why he was withdrawing cash, he said, "Yeah ... I kept the cash. That's what I'm doing."
Hastert served as congressman from Chicago for more than 20 years until he resigned from the House in 2007.
