Operation Board Games is a federal

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

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 ...

Patrick Fitzgerald Patrick J. Fitzgerald (born December 22, 1960) is an American lawyer and former Partner (business rank), partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. For more than a decade, until June 30, 2012, Fitzgerald was the United Sta ...

in December 2003, in order to investigate suspected fraud and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

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 R. Blagojevich ( ; born December 10, 1956), often referred to by his nickname "Blago", is an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Blagojevich previously worked ...

. 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. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

: 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 Edward Robert Vrdolyak (; born December 28, 1937), also known as "Fast Eddie", is a former American politician and lawyer. He was a longtime Chicago alderman and the head of the Cook County Democratic Party until 1987 when he ran unsuccessfully ...

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 An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indi ...

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 Genera ...

. 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