Nonprofit groups paid for Daley family’s extensive foreign airfare since 2006

March 6, 2009 by James Bregenzer
Filed under: Corruption, Mayor Daley

Nonprofit groups have paid for the Daley family's extensive foreign airfare since at least 2006, raising questions as to what motives were behind the groups' gifts

A student loan charity under IRS investigation, which has paid Mayor Daley’s wife more than $150,000 since 2006 in “consultant fees,” and other local nonprofit groups have paid for the Daley family’s frequent foreign getaways since at least 2006.

The student loan charity, Educap, is currently under investigation by the IRS and Congress for abusing its tax-exempt status by providing its employees and their friends with extravagant perks and millions of dollars in compensation by charging excessively high interest rates on “charitable” student loans.

According to CBS News Chicago, Educap’s $31 million luxury jet, that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour to operate, was also used to fly CIA Director Leon Panetta, former FBI Director William Sessions, former Democrat Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota and convicted former Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.

CBS Reports:

Investigators say for five years, [Educap CEO Catherine] Reynolds jetted friends, family and luminaries to faraway and exotic destinations that sometimes had little to do with the charity’s mission … And records show Reynolds took Chicago’s Daley and his wife on 58 flights including ones to Turkey, Asia and Sweden.

Other groups that have paid for the Daley’s foreign airfare are the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Jewish United Fund and the not-for-profit Sister Cities program.

Aligning with similar “fringe benefits” given to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner from special interest groups, this report of the Daley family’s extensive foreign airfare paid for by nonprofit groups raises significant questions about the taxable revenue the benefits represent, as well as the possibility of potential pay-for-play political favors the benefits may have been payment for.