Operation Board Games is a federal

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

investigation initiated by

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

Patrick Fitzgerald Patrick J. Fitzgerald (born December 22, 1960) is an American lawyer and partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom since October 2012. For more than a decade, until June 30, 2012, Fitzgerald was the United States Attorney f ...

in December 2003, in order to investigate suspected fraud and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

activity by

Illinois Governor The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

Rod Blagojevich Rod Blagojevich ( , born December 10, 1956), often referred to by his nicknames "Blago" or "B-Rod", is an American former politician, political commentator, and convicted felon who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009, when ...

. The investigation's name is a reference to two governing bodies in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

: one board controlling the Teacher's Pension System, and the second being the Health Facilities Planning Board.

History

In summer 2006, Fitzgerald indicated that he was investigating allegations of "endemic hiring fraud" in state agencies under Blagojevich's control as part of the federal Operation Board Games probe. The effort was characterized at that time as locating "a number of credible witnesses" but Blagojevich was not accused of any unlawful activities. The May 2007 indictment of Chicago attorney Edward Vrdolyak for his "alleged involvement in a kickback scheme concerning the sale of a Chicago Gold Coast neighborhood building was another piece of the "Operation Board Games" investigation. A total of fifteen individuals have also been indicted in the course of the investigation. The thirteenth indictment, of William F. Cellini, Sr., which is seemingly the last one before Blagojevich and Harris, occurred in October 2008: The focus of the investigation was on Blagojevich, which led to the

Rod Blagojevich corruption charges In December 2008, then- Democratic Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris were charged with corruption by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. As a result, Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois General ...

. Blagojevich was convicted on 17 of 20 counts on June 27, 2011.

References

External links

Businessman and Political Fundraiser Antoin Rezko Indicted in Two Fraud Cases, Including Scheme to Extort Millions of Dollars from Firms Seeking Teachers' Pension Fund Investments
{{DEFAULTSORT:Board Games, Operation 2008 in American politics Federal Bureau of Investigation operations Political corruption investigations in the United States Political scandals in Illinois Rod Blagojevich United States Department of Justice