CHICAGO ¨C Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he evaded currency-reporting requirements and lied to the FBI as part of a hush-money scheme.
Hastert, 73, withdrew $952,000 in small increments to avoid a requirement that banks report cash transactions exceeding $10,000, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday. The withdrawals were part of a plan to give an individual who wasn¡¯t named $3.5 million as a payoff to conceal ¡°prior misconduct,¡± Chicago U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said in a statement.
Hastert, a Republican from Plano, Illinois, served in the House from 1987 to 2007. He became the chamber¡¯s speaker ¡ª second in line of succession to the U.S. presidency ¡ª in 1999.
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