In the 1980s, the FBI enlisted the help of an undercover mole to ensnare crooked Chicago politicians “dumb enough to listen to him,” according to one account.
Among those charged was then-Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Morgan Finley, accused of accepting $25,000 in bribes from the operative so a company could get a leg up on a government contract to collect parking-ticket fines.
Sentencing Finley in 1989 to 10 years in prison for racketeering and attempted extortion, a federal judge told him, “What an honor it was to hold your office, but you made it a monument” to “corruption.”
The lengthy sentence also took into account allegations Finley threatened an FBI agent while the trial was going on.
Despite going to prison, Finley’s government pension checks kept coming for decades, until his death in September at 91. Altogether, he collected nearly $2 million over the years, according to pension fund records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
And the pension checks continue, though at a reduced rate, even after his death: His widow gets survivor’s benefits starting at around $5,500 a month, pension records show.
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