Report: President's buddy gave grants to fraud suspect
Chicago woman accused of making off with $500,000
September 24, 2011
wnd.com
The Washington-based Judicial Watch, the government watchdog that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, is noting that most media reports about an alleged fraud case in Chicago – and in fact even the government news releases about it – have neglected to mention that "a close friend, adviser and donor of President Obama" is "embroiled in the scandal."
The case, according to the U.S. attorney's office in the central district of Illinois, involves Margaret A. Davis, a Chicago woman who formerly served as program director for the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association.
She is suspected of defrauding various state grant programs of approximately $500,000, and the 59-year-old is accused in a 16-count indictment with 14 counts of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering.
"It's the taboo portion of the story that's been ignored by the mainstream media and conveniently omitted in government press releases announcing the June federal indictment a month after it was filed," Judicial Watch said.
"What the feds haven't revealed is that the state agency that gave Davis all the money, the Illinois Department of Public Health, was run by one of Obama's closest pals, Dr. Eric Whitaker, when the cash was disbursed. We know this only because Chicago's conservative-leaning newspaper has been digging around. This week it published a lengthy article connecting the dots between Whitaker and the corruption scheme," Judicial Watch said.
That report, from the Sun Times, said under Whitaker, the Illinois Department of Public Health awarded Davis a "no-bid contract and seven AIDS- and cancer-related grants that became part of her $500,000 cash-siphoning scheme, prosecutors say."
"Whitaker – who's now a top executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center – has not been accused of any wrongdoing. He says he couldn't have known about the problems the Davis indictment describes and that he and his staff acted quickly when they became aware of problems with other contractors," the report said.
It said federal authorities have demanded information from the health department about a wide range of outreach programs that Whitaker supervised.
He had been hired for the post by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2003 on Obama's recommendation.
"During Whitaker's four-year tenure, the agency spent millions of taxpayer dollars on highly questionable publicity campaigns to educate African-Americans and other minorities about common disease in the communities, mainly AIDS," Judicial Watch said.
The watchdog organization said Whitaker had referred to the indicted nurse as 'the ultimate advocate for health care and human services.'"
Judicial Watch added, "He seems to have little worries as he enjoys his lucrative, private-sector job. In 2007 Whitaker resigned to join Michelle Obama at the University of Chicago Medical Center where he makes more than $670,000 a year as executive vice president for strategic affiliations and associate dean for community-based research."
The newspaper said Whitaker and several others were named in a subpoena seeking their state-government emails earlier. But none of those was charged.
The Sun-Times said during the 2008 campaign, "Whitaker frequently traveled with Obama, and he remains part of the president's inner circle. He vacationed with the president in Martha's Vineyard late last month and attended three White House parties earlier this year."
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