IRS agent says Blagojevich and wife, awash in debt, spent $400,000 on tailor, upscale clothes

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IRS agent: Blagojeviches spent $400,000 on clothes

CHICAGO — Rod and Patti Blagojevich spent more than $400,000 on clothing over about six years — half of that on custom clothes — and were awash in debt at the time of his arrest, an IRS expert testified Thursday at the ousted governor’s corruption trial.

Next to their mortgage payments — $392,000 — their second-biggest payment from 2002 to nearly the end of 2008 was $205,000 on Tom James/Oxxford custom clothes, revenue agent Shari Schindler said. A former aide had testified that Blagojevich was used to having his suits custom-tailored and sometimes bought nine at a time.

Schindler said their income had fallen over the years, mainly due to a dropoff in Patti Blagojevich’s earnings, and the two were hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt because of their eight or nine credit cards and their home equity loan. She said they sometimes they used credit cards to pay credit card bills.

The debts could explain in part Blagojevich’s alleged efforts in the last days before his December 2008 arrest to parlay his ability to fill President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat into a high-paying job.

Blagojevich looked uncomfortable, shifting in his chair and managing a weak smile at times, as Schindler read off payment after payment he made for expensive ties and suits. Jurors followed the credit card statements projected on a screen, some looking down to jot notes. Patti Blagojevich, who entered the courtroom in the morning wearing a fashionable pink outfit, left the room before testimony about the family finances began.

Schindler said several entries showed Blagojevich spent more than $10,000 a day on suits. One tie, a basketweave tie from Saks, cost $179.85. Around the same time, she said, he spent $2,590 in a single store on shirts. A charge on Patti Blagojevich’s card showed a payment for furs of $3,800.

Blagojevich, 53, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he schemed to get an important or high-paying job in return for the appointment to the Senate seat. He has also pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to launch a racketeering operation using his powers as governor. If convicted, he could face up to $6 million in fines and a sentence of 415 years in prison, though he is sure to get much less time under federal guidelines.

His brother, Robert Blagojevich, 54, a Nashville, Tenn., businessman, has pleaded not guilty to taking part in the alleged scheme to sell or trade the Senate seat and illegally pressuring a racetrack owner to make a $100,000 campaign contribution.