Springfield – A former state official overseeing the cannabis regulation policy Had left, according to a report released on Friday from the state executive surveillance.
According to the report of the Executive Inspector General, Brett Bender was the Deputy Director of Cannabis Control for the Department of Financial and Vocational Regulation of Illinois from April 2019 to May 2022, then immediately began working for the ESnd Wellness Holdings, which is the regulatory affairs of the state Was subject to ,
The IG’s office said in the report, “(Bender’s) violation is evident: he accepted employment with the e -esand, which the Ethics Act had stopped from accepting it.” “Although there is no evidence to affect the pre-determined redemption system or its regulatory decisions of potential employment in the records, there is an implies of unfairness in the time limit of incidents.”
The State Executive Ethics Commission imposed a fine of $ 100,000 on the bender for violations. He is the second former officer of the administration of Governor JB Pritzkar who has been found in a violation of the Revolving-Dore Ethics Act. Earlier, the Commission imposed a fine of $ 150,000 for violating this remedy on Pratzkar’s Kovid-19 epidemic to Dr. Nagoi Azike, when he as Director of Illinois Department of Public Health in March 2022 Had left the job. Chairman and CEO of Sinai Chicago Hospital System.
The Tribune’s “Culture of Corruption” series gave a description of the weaknesses in the state’s moral monitoring system last year, including that most of the fines imposed by the Commission have come in a few cases related to Azic and now the bender.
The state law prevents highly placed state officials from going to work for a seller within a year of quitting government employment. If the agency he had worked was a contract with more than $ 25,000 with the seller, or if the agency The company -linked regulatory decisions were included. ,
According to the Executive Monitoring Institute, the bender working as the Deputy Director in IDFPR, “Site Inspection inspection, supervision, review and approval” for the Illinois subsidiary of the Asand, in which two in December 2021, January 2022 and two in April Bar inspections were also involved. Year.
After resigning from IDFPR on May 20, 2022, he received compensation for stock options with a grant price assessment of $ 178,746.34 in regular salary, $ 19,494.54 and $ 53,623.90 in bonus salary, Watchdog said.
The watchdog’s report also said Bender was aware of his obligations under the Illinois Ethics Act. Early in his conversation with Ascend, he sent a text message that read: “Sorry for the slow response, but ethics laws prevent me from engaging in these negotiations on state time and the endless stream of phone calls this morning has prevented me from getting in on state time until now.”
The watchdog found that Bender admitted to violating the Ethics Act and appeared to cooperate with the acting inspector general’s investigation. Bender insisted that his employment with Ascend was “specifically structured to prevent his involvement in Illinois-related matters by directing his efforts to a different geographic area.”
“Bender has an important history in government services and is especially committed to the creation and implementation of a strong public policy. He did not use his post in the state government as a step for Pay Day, “The lawyers of the bender wrote on their behalf in a filing of the report. “In fact, the bender was reluctant to leave government services, as he enjoyed playing a meaningful role in preparing laws and other policies affecting people’s lives.”
The report said that there is no evidence that any other state employee was involved in the violation of the bender, there was any physical impact on state operations or consequently regulatory decisions were made, which should have been decided in a different way.