Joe Nobody

8:42 pm, 10/17/07

Joe Nobody

How corrupt is the City of Chicago?

So corrupt that the president of the Chicago Crime Commission and the executive director of the Better Governmant Association say they can't be trusted with a casino license.

Meanwhile, for some strange reason, it appears that whenever people try to investigate people connected to Governor Rod Blagojevich, they face "political interference" designed to sabotage their investigation.

The [Medicaid] fraud investigation, which involved a half-dozen investigators from three state agencies, ended last year with no charges and no state sanctions.

"Everyone was really frustrated," said Abbey Romanek, the former senior assistant attorney general. "It was a case in which we felt there was something wrong, and we kept running up against roadblocks."

Illinois State Police dismissed as unfounded the allegations of improper political influence after what the agency describes as a "thorough investigation."

But the pharmacist, Harish M. Bhatt, and the pharmacy regulator, Yashwant Amin, both say they were never interviewed by state police about interference allegations. State police refused to provide the Tribune reports to buttress their findings about the interference allegations.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) insists its fraud investigation was thorough but likewise refused Tribune requests for investigative records or other documents to confirm those assertions independently.

That's because there are no such documents. In fact, nobody, including the Governor, knows nothin':

Bhatt, 57, who described himself as "Joe nobody from Joliet," denied that he exerted any political influence and said he was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing because the probe was error-ridden and without foundation.

A spokeswoman for Blagojevich did not answer detailed questions but said in a written response that the governor had no knowledge of the investigation of Bhatt's Basinger's Pharmacy stores. She acknowledged that Bhatt is among a number of the governor's Indian-American supporters.

"The governor has said on a number of occasions, to a number of communities, that he wants a diverse and inclusive administration. He believes state government should reflect the people it represents," spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said in an e-mail.

Criminals are diverse.