| Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert with illegally structuring cash withdrawals from bank accounts to conceal payments to someone he committed "prior misconduct" against and lying to the FBI about it. The charges stem from Hastert, 73, agreeing to pay an individual, who authorities did not identify, a total of 3.5 , according to the indictment. The indictment did not specify the nature of the misconduct. A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor in Northern Illinois declined to offer further detail about the alleged wrongdoing by the former speaker. The indictment said that the individual was a resident of Yorkville, where Hastert had previously been a teacher and wrestling coach. Hastert has known the person for most of the individual's life, according to the indictment. The Republican from Illinois, is accused of circumventing federal requirement that requires banks to report withdrawals of more than 10,000. He specifically is accused of withdrawing a total of 952,000 in increments under the threshold that were paid to the individual. When queried about it by the FBI in December 2014, he allegedly lied and said he was keeping the cash, according to the indictment. When agents asked if he was withdrawing the money because he did not feel safe with the banking system, Hastert allegedly responded, "Yeah . . . I kept the cash. That's what I'm doing." Hastert did not respond to a message seeking comment about the indictment. Hastert and the individual sat down in about 2010 to discuss the misconduct that had occurred years earlier, according to the indictment. The former speaker agreed in that meeting and subsequent meetings to pay a total of 3.5 . From 2010 to 2014, Hastert withdrew a total of approximately 1.7 in cash from various bank accounts and provided it to the person who is identified in the indictment as "Individual A." Between June 2010 to April 2012, Hastert made a total of 15 withdrawals of 50,000 each from a personal bank account. The individual was paid approximately every six weeks during that period, according to the indictment. "Beginning in approximately July 2012, Hastert started structuring his cash withdrawals in increments of less than 10,000 to evade the filing of Currency Transaction Reports ("CTRs"), which banks are required to file for cash withdrawals in excess of 10,000," federal prosecutors said. While Hastert began withdrawing cash in increments of less than 10,000, he continued to make payments of 50,000 per meeting. Sometime last year, Hastert and the individual agreed to stagger the payments to total 100,000 every three months. By 2013, the FBI and IRS began investigating Hastert's withdrawals. When agents interviewed him late last year, they were trying to determine if Hastert could be using the money for a criminal purpose, was a victim of extortion, or was using the money for some other reason, the indictment said. Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a 250,000 fine. Hastert resigned on Thursday from the Washington lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro, according to multiple news reports. Hastert also gave up his place on the board of directors of CME Group in Chicago, a spokesman for the futures exchanges confirmed on Thursday. Hastert had served on the CME board since 2008. Hastert is the longest serving Republican speaker of the U.S. House, serving from January 1999 until Republicans lost the House in the 2006 elections. He was often referred to as the "accidental speaker" for his unusual rise to power following the resignation of former Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., who was poised to succeed Newt Gingrich in the post but bowed out after revelations of extramarital relations. Hastert, then a deputy to Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, was the consensus candidate for Republicans who viewed DeLay's brand of conservative too contentious for the speaker job. DeLay rallied behind Hastert, who then easily ascended to the speakership. At the time, Hastert was seen as a politician whose persona sharply contrasted with President Clinton, whose image had been tarred by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and some of his House colleagues like Livingston who was derailed by his own foible. "There is not a breath of scandal associated with Denny," Brad Goodrich, deputy executive director of the Illinois GOP, told the Washington Post, as Hastert became poised to become speaker after Livingston's flameout." Then-congressmen Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. right, and Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., meet with reporters on Capitol Hill on March 13, 1997. (Photo: Joe Marquette, AP) Fullscreen Next Slide A former teacher and wrestling coach, Hastert maintained a low national profile and was known for his quiet, plain-spoken manner. His tenure was largely distinguished by the George W. Bush era, as he was a close ally to both President Bush and Vice President Cheney in advancing a broad range of legislation that included the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind education law, and the creation of the Medicare Part D entitlement program. The end of Hastert's speakership was fueled in part by the illegal and unethical actions of a number of House Republicans that fed a "culture of corruption" narrative Democrats used to win control in the 2006 midterms. Republicans were dogged by corruption investigations into former GOP Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California and Bob Ney of Ohio, who were both convicted and imprisoned in unrelated corruption schemes. On Hastert's watch, a scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and his inappropriate communications with underage U.S. House pages tainted his final year on the job. The ethics committee in a final report harshly criticized Hastert and his office for not intervening more aggressively on the Foley matter. The scandal helped bring about the end of the page program, reached by a joint agreement in 2011 between House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. | 
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