Did Mayor Daley Travel on a Private Jet?

By Kevin Robinson in News on Mar 5, 2009 4:20PM

According to a report by CBS News on Monday, Mayor Richard Daley traveled to Singapore in 2006 on a $13 million jet owned by a non-profit student loan organization, Educap gave millions of dollars to the Academy of Achievement, which paid the mayor's wife Maggie $100,000 in 2006 and $50,000 in 2007 to be a "site consultant", scouting out locations to hold annual conferences for outstanding students. According to the CBS News report, "records show [Educap CEO Catherine] Reynolds took Chicago's Daley and his wife on 58 flights including ones to Turkey, Asia and Sweden." Educap is under investigation by the IRS and Congress for "alleged abuse of its tax-exempt status because it charges high interest on charitable student loans, and provides lavish perks with millions in compensation for Reynolds and her husband."

But mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard denied Wednesday that the Daleys had take 58 trips on the Educap jet, saying that the Singapore trip was the only one she could confirm the Daleys were aboard. “What I’m told is on the [flight] reports does not line up with what our records show,” Heard said, noting that of the 10 trips CBS News believes the Daleys took, they traveled on commercial jets, or didn't make the trip at all. “They’re claiming it was 10 trips with different legs. We’ve gone through the mayor’s official schedules and compared it to the list of trips laid out in the news report. Out of all these trips, this was the only one we were able to find when he was on their plane,” Heard said.