Wisconsin Connections in Illinois Corruption Trial

Well… there are some familiar names. 

There was a little Wisconsin twist this week in the high-profile corruption trial of Illinois fund-raiser Antoin Rezko and it involved former Wisconsin political insider Nick Hurtgen.

Joseph Cari, a former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, testified that he headed a private equity firm, HealthPoint Partners, that had been given $35 million to invest on behalf of an Illinois retirement fund. Cari said Hurtgen stepped forward to say he could “help get allocations for HealthPoint from Wisconsin pension funds if Cari paid finder’s fees,” according to one account of the testimony.

On Jan. 29, 2003, Hurtgen called Patricia Lipton, then head of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, to pitch an investment in HealthPoint, said Vicki Hearing, spokeswoman for the agency that oversees the pension fund for state workers. Hearing said Marc Marotta, a political confidant and former top aide to Gov. James Doyle, also called Lipton’s successor in 2004 regarding HealthPoint. Marotta and Hurtgen are friends.