In case you missed it, despite Ken Griffin claiming he’d only recently heard of Richard Irvin, new reporting exposed Irvin has “been a presence in Citadel’s world for some time.”
Irvin leveraged his role as mayor to strongarm the Aurora city council to make way for a Scientel Solutions tower that would give Griffin’s hedge fund a competitive advantage. Not long after, Irvin was awarded upwards of $135,000 in campaign cash from Scientel and a trip on a private plane to Mexico with Scientel executives.
And of course, Scientel isn’t the only company that donated to Irvin and allied-PACs. WTTW also found, “that Aurora taxpayers are on the hook for tens of millions in tax incentives to two other development companies that have donated thousands to Irvin and political funds connected to him.” One of those companies? JTE Real Estate Services, which employs Irvin’s ex-wife and is run by Irvin’s former mayoral campaign treasurer Michael Poulakidas.
It is clear that Irvin’s promise to bring honest government to Illinois is just like his campaign –– full of empty words and promises. As the picture of why Griffin chose Irvin to be his handpicked candidate becomes clearer, Irvin needs to answer what Ken Griffin promised him and when.
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