4. George Ryan
From 1999 until 2003, George Ryan, the next one on the list of most corrupt politicians in US history served in Illinois as the Republican Governor. The first investigations into George began back in 1994 when he was still working as Illinois Secretary of State which later became known as a license-for-bribes scandal. In the same year, 1994, a car exploded in Milwaukee and killed six people. Shortly after that, the investigators found out that the driver, who doesn’t speak English, probably used a bribe to get his license. Since this was probably the case, the investigation moved into the sale of drivers licenses for money. Ryan tried to stop the inquiry, but eight years after that it was revealed that the secretary of state’s office where he worked has been giving licenses for bribes to unqualified drivers. In December 2003, Ryan was indicted along with many other employees for money laundering, racketeering, bribery, extortion and tax fraud among other things. On July 3, 2013, he was released from the federal prison.
