Blagojevich meeting raises questions
SPRINGFIELD -- A prominent Democratic fundraiser who pleaded guilty in a state pension scam met with Gov. Rod Blagojevich just weeks before trying to shake down a Virginia investment firm seeking state business, The Associated Press has learned.
Joseph Cari and Blagojevich met in the governor's Chicago office on March 16, 2004, according to Blagojevich's appointment calendar. The Democrat said Thursday he can't remember what was discussed.
The meeting was scheduled about the time that Cari, a former Democratic National Committee finance chairman, began his part in the scandal that has ensnared Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a close Blagojevich friend and fundraiser.
Rezko faces charges of money laundering, attempted extortion, fraud and aiding bribery. His trial is scheduled for February.
Cari pleaded guilty in September 2005 to attempted extortion. He and two others admitted roles in trying to squeeze money from firms seeking pension agency investments in part to raise campaign cash for a "high-ranking public official," according to court records.
A person familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation isn't over, has told the AP that the public official is Blagojevich. The governor has not been accused of a crime.
Blagojevich said at an appearance in Chicago that he can't remember what he and Cari discussed.
"Lord have mercy, that was a long time ago. I have no idea," Blagojevich said. "I see hundreds and hundreds of people."
The 2004 meeting at the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago's Loop is the second publicly known time that Cari and Blagojevich were face to face.
The other one previously disclosed was 4½ months earlier, in October 2003, when Cari accompanied Blagojevich to New York for campaign fundraisers, one of which was sponsored by Cari's private equity firm. The flight was provided by Stuart Levine, then a Teachers Retirement System board member who has pleaded guilty and could be a witness against Rezko.
Unlike the 2004 meeting, Blagojevich could remember details of the fundraising trip, even when it was revealed three years later. In fall 2006, Blagojevich said that he did not discuss the alleged pension scheme on the flight. "Of course not. That's ridiculous," he said.
He could remember that Levine spilled coffee on him and that Cari told stories about Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Blagojevich's calendar for March 16, 2004, reads, "3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Ungaretti & Harris, Meeting with Joe Cari at JRTC-Governor's Office."
Cari was a lawyer for Chicago-based Ungaretti & Harris. The firm is a registered lobbyist that listed more than two dozen clients in 2004, from Allstate Insurance Co. to the Field Museum, according to state records. A spokesman for the firm declined comment.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's spokesman would not say whether the meeting is part of prosecutors' inquiry into the pension scandal. Cari's lawyer, Scott Lassar, did not return a call seeking comment.
The Teachers Retirement System, which oversees pensions for working and retired teachers outside Chicago, had recommended investing $85 million with a Virginia real-estate investment firm. In early 2004, according to plea agreements, Levine recruited Cari to get the firm to turn over $850,000 to a consultant who had done no work on the deal.
Cari admitted telling the firm in a series of calls in mid-May 2004 that it would lose its TRS investment if it didn't sign the consulting deal. The firm refused and the TRS board approved the investment later that month.
Cari said he was getting heat from Levine to get the consulting deal signed. He said Levine had suggested that he could help Cari's private-equity firm, Healthpoint Partners, get more state pension business. Healthpoint received $35 million from TRS in 2003.
Cari gave Blagojevich $15,000 in campaign contributions in 2003 and 2004, according to state elections records. Ungaretti & Harris gave him nearly $30,000 from 2001 to 2004.