Mark Knows It All

Last week Denny Hastert, former Speaker of the House, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago for violating Federal banking laws and lying about it to the FBI.  Hastert had been withdrawing large sums of money from his personal bank account for a period of years.   Cash transactions over $10,000.00 must be reported to the Federal government.   Hastert was withdrawing $50,000.00 per.   When questioned by bank officials, Hastert then reduced the withdrawals to under $10,000.00.   That is against the law and was reported to bank regulators.   The FBI questioned Hastert concerned that he was being extorted. Hastert denied giving the money to anybody.   Further investigation discovered it was being paid to an unnamed individual who was blackmailing Hastert related to “sexual misconduct” when he was a high school teacher and wrestling coach prior to 1981. Total payments were $1.7 million. Hastert and his problems aside, this demonstrates the omnipresence of the Federal gover