Operation Greylord
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Operation Greylord was an investigation conducted jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division into corruption in the judiciary of Cook County, Illinois (the Chicago region).
The 3 1/2 year undercover operation took place in the 1980s. Greylord is still recoginzed to this day as one of the FBI's most successful undercover investigations. The first listening device ever placed in a judge's chambers occurred in the undercover phase, when the narcotics court chambers of Judge Wayne Olson were bugged. Ten years after the undercover case concluded, the historical investigations, prosecutions and trials concluded in 1994. The last conviction was that of Judge Thomas Maloney, who was convicted of fixing three murder cases. Maloney was released from federal prison in 2008. A total of 92 people were indicted, including 17 judges, 48 lawyers, ten deputy sheriffs, eight policemen, eight court officials, and a member of the Illinois Legislature.
The key undercover FBI agents/lawyers were David Grossman, David Reis and Terrence Hake. Hake was a Cook County prosecutor, who complained about the bribery and corruption in the Murder and Sexual Assault preliminary hearing courtroom in Chicago. The FBI and United States Attorney's Office learned of his complaint and recruited him to pose as a corrupt prosecutor and later as a bribe-paying criminal defense attorney. While playing the role of a corrupt prosecutor, Hake supplied the evidentiary probable cause to bug Judge Olson's chambers.
First Assistant United States Attorney Daniel Reidy and Assistant United State's Attorneys (AUSA) Charles Sklarsky, Scott Lassar, Scott Mendeloff and Candace J. Fabri led many of the prosecutions. Three United States Attorneys, Thomas P. Sullivan, Dan K. Webb and Anton Valukas supervised the investigations and prosecutions. Valukus and AUSA James Schweitzer indicted 22 corrupt court personnel, along with the judge, who presided over the corruption and the courtroom, in one 1985 indictment. Lamar Jordan, David Benscoter, Marie Dyson, William C. Megary, and Robert Farmer were the principal FBI case agents and supervisors during the investigation.
Operation Greylord was named after a racehorse, although the national media reported it was named after the wigs worn by judges in Britain.
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