An\u00a0Illinois\u00a0Democratic senator under federal investigation for fraud and bribery resigned Wednesday from his office after FBI agents raided his Chicago home and Springfield office earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a letter to the Secretary of the Senate,\u00a0State Sen. Martin\u00a0Sandoval said\u00a0his resignation would be effective\u00a0Jan. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“it is with a heavy heart, I, Martin A. Sandoval, do hereby resign the office of state senator,” he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sept. 24, FBI agents raided Sandoval’s offices and home looking for information on concrete and construction businesses as well as information related to bribery or theft of federal funds. They were also looking for information on a power company, officials, lobbyists, gambling interests, a red-light camera company and information on at least three suburban mayors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the raid in his Chicago and Springfield offices, agents were also dispatched to his Cicero office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The raid was also followed by federal law enforcement actions in the towns of McCook, Lyons and Summit — all of which are part of Sandoval’s district, according to reports from\u00a0The Journal Gazzett & Times Courier\u00a0and The Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move comes after two months of pressure by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other state leaders who demanded Sandoval step down as chairman of the Transportation Committee. Pritzker expressed concern about the state’s $41.5 billion construction program, in which Sandoval had a leading role last spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local news outlets previously reported federal agents also went to Bluff City Materials, a Bartlett sand and gravel operation owned by a major Sandoval donor and that his connections to\u00a0Commonwealth Edison,\u00a0where his daughter, Angie, has worked as a senior representative for years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An\u00a0Illinois\u00a0Democratic senator under federal investigation for fraud and bribery resigned Wednesday from his office after FBI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/fightingcorruptionandworkriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}