Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of violating bank laws in order to pay an unnamed individual to cover up a past "misconduct" and giving false statements to the FBI about his withdrawals.
The U.S. Attorneys Office said that Hastert structured his withdrawals, amounting to $952,000, from different accounts so that he could avoid bank regulations requiring the disclosure of withdrawals exceeding $10,000, according to MSN.
The indictment stated that 73-year-old Hastert paid $3.5 million to an individual in order to keep that person quiet about a certain misconduct he had done many years ago. The individual is from Yorkville, Ill., where Hastert worked for more than 15 years as a high school teacher and wrestling coach.
The indictment did not specify what the misconduct was. The U.S. Attorneys Office also refused to name the individual and to say whether that person would charged, according to the New York Times.
The former House speaker reportedly started meeting with the unnamed individual in 2010 to discuss a past wrongdoing. Every six weeks, he gave the person $50,000 in cash withdrawn from various bank accounts. He did this 15 times.
Since banks are required to report withdrawals of more than $10,000, Hastert was asked to explain his actions in April 2012. To avoid further questioning, he began withdrawing smaller amounts in July of that same year to give to the same individual. He gave the person $100,000 every three months.
In 2013, the FBI and IRS started to investigate Hastert's withdrawals to check if he was intentionally getting smaller amounts of money in order to avoid having to report his withdrawals.
When asked about his withdrawals, Hastert told the FBI, "I kept the cash," the Washington Post reports.
The two charges against Hastert carry penalties of up to 5 years in prison each and a fine of $250,000. Hastert is scheduled to appear at an arraignment soon.
