After the state took aggressive -- and some say unnecessary -- steps to shut down a Joliet landfill, a hefty campaign contributor to Gov. Blagojevich looked into buying the business.The revelation comes as a grand jury investigates whether politics influenced the closing.
Indiana waste hauler Anthony Portone, who either personally or through his companies has given $93,500 to Blagojevich, acknowledged meeting Landfill Reclamation Services owner Frank Schmidt in late spring or early summer last year.
And then there's this lovely little bit:
Former investors in one of Portone's Indiana firms, Best Disposal Inc., have had run-ins with the law, but Portone has not been linked to their wrongdoing. Three of the firm's top four original stakeholders, including the former chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, recently were convicted as a result of public corruption investigations.
Portone bought out one of the investors, while the other two sold their interests in Best Disposal to relatives, he said. Portone said he had no idea when the business formed in 2000 that the three people eventually would be convicted of wrongdoing and sentenced to prison terms. "I had no idea what these guys were doing," he said.
Kind of an unsavory bunch.
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