Feds Target Beavers And His Big Hog Nuts

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 21, 2010 2:30PM

Cook County Commissioner William Beavers once famously declared himself "the Hog with the Big Nuts." Now it appears a grand jury has Beavers and his self-congratulatory manhood in its sights. Internal Revenue Service investigators have subpoenaed contingency account expense reports from Beavers for 2008 and 2009 to check for any discrepancies in how Beavers spent his contingency expenses.

Every county commissioner receives a monthly contingency allowance to spend for business purposes, long regarded by some as a personal slush fund for commissioners. Prior to this year that allowance was $1,200 a month, or an extra $14,000 a year. Beavers' subpoenaed expense reports show a wildly fluctuating spending of the allowance. One month, he reported $162 of the allowance spent, another showed $1900 over a three-month period. Beavers has stated publicly that if he didn't spend his full allowance, he'd keep it as income. Beavers, in response to the investigation, said he isn't worried. "It's just a subpoena," he told the Sun-Times. "Over the years I've received a number of subpoenas." If the IRS and a grand jury is involved, we could see Beavers' big hog nuts served up as mountain oysters.