Federal prosecutors again have expanded their investigation into governmental ghost payrolling, this time by subpoenaing records from the Cook County Treasurer’s Office.
A spokesman for the office said Monday that the personnel records for state Rep. Miguel Santiago, a Chicago Democrat, were demanded by the federal grand jury.
County records show Santiago, who was elected to the General Assembly in 1989, is a finance director for the treasurer’s office at a salary of $54,236 annually. As a legislator, he receives $45,669 a year.
“It is under investigation, that’s all I can say,” said a treasurer’s office spokesman.
Santiago has come under grand jury scrutiny because of his relationship with his political mentor Joseph Berrios, one of the two members of the Cook County Board of (Tax) Appeals.
The FBI raided the board’s offices in March 1994, and have been conducting an investigation of allegations of ghost payrolling, the illegal practice of paying governmental workers for little or no work.
The tax appeals board probe is one of three ongoing federal grand jury investigations into allegations of ghost payrolling in City Hall, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and state government that have been under way for about two years. The investigation’s expansion to the county treasurer’s office makes it the fourth governmental agency to come under scrutiny.
In the past year, federal agents have seized records from the state that show Santiago paid Berrios $10,000 a year as a legislative aide while Berrios served in his $56,000 job on the tax appeals board.
And federal authorities have subpoenaed payroll records from the tax appeals board that show Santiago’s son in 1991 landed a $16,000 job as a clerk there.
In addition, the grand jury also has been reviewing state records regarding how Santiago and other state legislators used one of the legislature’s oldest perks: awarding free tuition at the state’s 12 universities.
“I can’t really comment on anything,” Eric Rosenberg, a spokesman for Santiago, said Monday. “There are allegations, but as far as I know he has never done anything wrong.”
A spokesman for the treasurer’s office said Santiago joined the payroll there in May 1991, but he declined to specify Santiago’s duties.
The spokesman said Santiago was not paid for the days he was attending legislative sessions in Springfield.
Santiago, who has boasted in his political campaigns that he was a full-time legislator, actually has been on the county payroll since 1987 when he worked for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, records show.
Prior to working for the treasurer, he worked for the regional superintendent of schools.
