Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was searching for ways to further boost his income while he was making secret payments to cover up allegations he was involved in child sexual abuse when he was a high school wrestling coach, J. David John, a former friend and business associate alleges.
John asked financial advisers on Hastert’s behalf in 2010 for advice on how to create an annuity that would provide a large cash payout each year. John did not tell the advisers that he was working for Hastert.
“I did not think much about it at the time, but looking back at it, it does seem strange,” John told the New York Times. “He just said he needed to generate some cash.”
Hastert became a lobbyist after he retired from politics in 2007 and had a net worth of several million dollars, but very little of it was liquid. Around the same time as John’s inquiries, the former lawmaker stepped up his lobbying work, putting in long hours on behalf of several clients.
The former speaker is alleged by the FBI to have attempted to hide $1.7 million in withdrawals from his bank accounts over the last five years by making withdrawals in amounts just under the reporting requirements. The money was allegedly used to pay off an extortionist who threatened to reveal details of Hastert’s sexual abuse of students.
Hastert, 73, is scheduled for arraignment Tuesday on charges of illegally structuring bank withdrawals and lying to investigators. He has not publicly spoken since the charges became public. He has not been charged with any crimes directly related to abuse of minors.
The extortionist has been described by anonymous federal authorities as a Yorkville High School student that Hastert had molested decades earlier.
After the indictments became public, Jolene Budge, sister of former Hastert student Steven Reinboldt, said her brother confided to her in 1986 that he had been molested by Hastert before he graduated high school in 1971. Reinboldt died of AIDS-related complications in 1995.
