The federal criminal complaint against the seven people arrested in Chicago last week for federal bribery conspiracy is 42 pages long. Former state Sen. Rickey Hendon is mentioned 21 times in those 42 pages, although never by name.

It’s pretty clear from the complaint that the U.S. attorney has been looking at Hendon, a Chicago Democrat, for at least the past 4 years.

In July 2008, the Chicago Tribune published a major exposé on state grants steered to local groups by Sen. Hendon. The Tribune claimed that half of the 48 grant recipients “were running dubious programs, or declined to show how they spent the money.”