I think we might have missed the trees for the forest last week. Many major media outlets just barely skimmed the charges last week when federal prosecutors indicted three of Illinois Governor George Ryan's friends.

So, we're going to take a closer look at the details today because we should all know how the governor's pals robbed us of $2.8 million. "Enough" did not exist in these kleptomaniacs' vocabulary.

According to the feds, starting in 1991, when Ryan became secretary of state, and running through 1998, when Ryan ran for governor, Larry Warner, Bob Udstuen, and Alan Drazek skimmed the $2.8 million from dirty deals. They basically used Ryan's office as their own personal piggy bank.

Ryan has known all three men for at least 30 years. None of these people actually worked for the secretary of state, but their ancient friendship with Ryan allowed them to wield enormous influence over office workings.

• Back in 1991, not long after Ryan was elected, Warner allegedly demanded $2,000 per month from a company that manufactured stickers for license plates with special metallic security marks. In exchange, Warner pledged to keep the security-mark requirement in the state specs. Warner then allegedly gave the company inside info, rigged the bids, and ordered a senior secretary of state official to do business with the company.

The sticker company was in for a lot of misery. For two years, Warner repeatedly threatened to cut the company off if it didn't pay him on time, the feds say. At one point, Warner allegedly claimed (falsely) that another company had offered to beat the two-grand payment. So they agreed to up Warner's gratuity to three grand a month.

In 1994, the sticker company was bought by another company, and Warner allegedly demanded, and received, $5,000 per month from the new owners.

The company was sold again in 1998, and this time Warner demanded $25,000 in unpaid monthly installments and $8,000 per month. The company offered $5,000 per month, but Warner "terminated his communications and relationship," the feds say, just in time for the gubernatorial elections.

Warner allegedly made $332,000 off the sticker scam. Udstuen got a third of that dough, allegedly by washing it through one of Alan Drazek's companies, American Management Resources, which was accused in the last set of indictments of secretly paying top Ryan aides out of money received from Phil Gramm's 1996 presidential campaign.

• In 1993, Warner started lobbying for IBM, which allegedly agreed to pay him a percentage of all secretary of state contracts he got for the company. Lobbying for a cut of the profits is illegal. A year later, IBM told Warner that he needed to register with the state as a lobbyist, but Warner refused. He finally complied in 1995, but only after IBM allegedly agreed to pay him a monthly fee on top of his percentage. What a pig.

From 1993 to 1999, IBM allegedly paid Warner $991,000, with a third of that going to Udstuen, washed, again, through Drazek's outfit, with Drazek getting a piece.

• Warner learned in 1996 that the secretary of state planned to switch over to a digital licensing system. So, he allegedly scoped out the list of potential vendors and chose his pigeon - for 5 percent of the gross.

This little scheme allegedly enriched Warner by $677,000 from 1998 right up to this very day.

• According to prosecutors, in 1991 Warner approached the property manager of a Chicago building and said he was a "broker" for the secretary of state. For a 6 percent commission, he said, he'd land the guy a state lease. Warner greased the deal at the secretary of state's office, then omitted his name from the commission contract. He allegedly made $233,550 off the lease.

The next year, Warner allegedly told a top secretary of state guy in the Physical Services Department that he had found a potential office building in Bellwood. He then secretly bought a share of the building and leased it to the secretary of state. Warner's alleged profit: $171,000.

Then, in 1994, Warner allegedly scammed an even bigger lease deal, this time in Joliet. An unnamed top secretary of state official ordered an underling to contact Warner about finding a building. Warner showed the guy a run-down place in Joliet.

Before the lease was signed, however, Warner secretly bought up a "substantial ownership interest" in the property, the feds claim. The four-year lease netted him about $387,500 - enough to pay off the building's original mortgage in a single year.

So now you know. Hideous, isn't it?

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter. He can be reached at (http://www.capitolfax.com).

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