Rep. Jerry Weller has been in the news a lot lately.  His ethical woes have been bubbling up -- and last week, Weller announced that he's retiring at the end of this session of Congress.

Last week, CREW also named Weller one of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress in our report, Beyond DeLay.  Here's how he earned that designation:

Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) is a seventh-term member of Congress, representing the 11th district of Illinois. He serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and until 2006, served on the House International Relations Committee. Rep. Weller’s ethics issues stem from his repeated failure to report assets he bought and sold in Nicaragua, the misuse of his position to sell foreign property, his acceptance of campaign contributions from Puerto Rican interests in apparent exchange for supporting legislation that benefitted Puerto Rico, and his acceptance of campaign contributions in return for assisting a telecommunications executive in a dispute with a foreign government. In addition, there is a question as to whether Rep. Weller qualifies for a waiver allowing him to exclude his wife’s assets and liabilities from his financial disclosure forms.

Nicaraguan Land Holdings

In 2002, Rep. Weller bought the first of numerous lots of ocean-view property in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. According to Rep. Weller’s 2002 financial disclosure form, the lot was worth between $50,000 and $100,000. Property records in Nicaragua, however, show that Rep. Weller paid only about $4,333 for the land. The Chicago Tribune has reported that buyers of property on Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast frequently reported artificially low purchase prices “to lessen the bite of local taxes.” Within a year of this purchase Rep. Weller was seated on the House International Relations Committee and Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, which focused on Latin America.

From 2002 through 2005, Rep. Weller purchased and sold at least eight different pieces of land in Nicaragua, although he disclosed only one purchase and one sale on his financial disclosure forms. Rep. Weller’s failure to disclose the purchase and sale of several pieces of property in Nicaragua during the past five years is a violation of the Ethics in Government Act and House rules. In addition, the discrepancies between the value Rep. Weller assigned to those Nicaraguan properties that he did report and the value of the properties listed in the bills of sale and other Nicaraguan property records suggest that Rep. Weller may not have truthfully reported the properties’ value on his financial disclosure forms in violation of federal law.

Support for Puerto Rican Interests

Despite the fact that Rep. Weller represents a rural district in Illinois, he has been a strong advocate for Puerto Rico and has used his position on the Ways and Means Committee to push for Puerto Rican interests. On May 4, 2005, Rep. Weller received $16,000 from 17 individuals with various interests in Puerto Rico. The following day, a bill backed by Puerto Rico’s business interests as well as Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuno and subsequently co-sponsored by Rep. Weller was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee.

If, Rep. Weller accepted campaign donations from individuals and entities with interests in Puerto Rico in direct exchange for providing legislative assistance to Puerto Rico, he may have violated the bribery statute.

Assistance for Telecommunications Executive

Rep. Weller used his congressional influence to assist telecommunications executive Jeffrey Prosser when the government of Belize seized Mr. Prosser’s business assets. In response, Rep. Weller hand-delivered a letter to government officials in Belize suggesting that the government’s decision to seize Mr. Prosser’s business assets might hurt future investments in that country. During that same year, Rep. Weller received campaign contributions totaling $4,200 from Mr. Prosser and his wife.

If a link is established between the campaign donations Rep. Weller received from Mr. and Mrs. Prosser and Rep. Weller’s intervention with the government of Belize, Rep. Weller may have accepted bribes or illegal gratuities. In addition, Rep. Weller’s apparent acceptance of campaign contributions in return for legislative favors does not reflect creditably on the House.

In an editorial welcoming the retirement of Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL), The Daily SouthTown focused on his growing ethical woes:

Staunch party loyalty can be accepted in the political arena. What cannot be accepted is political behavior that stretches the limits of propriety. Just last week, Weller was named one of the "most corrupt members of Congress" by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. A subjective list, true. But with the clouds of suspicion over Weller's head becoming darker and darker lately, it's no surprise the clock struck midnight on his Congressional career.

The most recent controversy centered on land deals Weller made in Nicaragua. The congressman's dealings in Central America in general have come under scrutiny since 2004, when he married a Guatemalan legislator whose father was a former dictator in that nation. Weller never could adequately square his personal life with his role as a congressman as it pertained to Central American issues.

As the CREW report also noted, Weller in 2005 co-sponsored legislation favorable to Puerto Rico business interests shortly after receiving thousands of dollars in campaign money from businessmen on the island.

As the Chicago Sun-Times notes, earlier this week, CREW named Rep. Jery Weller one of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress in our report, Beyond DeLay.  The paper also notes that Weller is planning to retire from Congress: 

Embattled Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) is expected to announce today that he will retire from Congress, placing a third GOP-held congressional seat in Illinois into political limbo.

Weller, a seven-term congressman from Morris, would join former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Plano and Rep. Ray LaHood of Peoria in not seeking re-election in 2008.

Weller, 50, is expected to make his decision public during a Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce luncheon, a source familiar with the situation told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The source said Weller is retiring because he wants to spend more time with his family. His wife is a Guatemalan congresswoman, and the two have a daughter born in 2006.

Republicans were eager to see Weller go, viewing him as a liability in their efforts to reclaim control of Congress. His planned announcement comes on the heels of a barrage of negative publicity.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a Washington watchdog group, this week labeled Weller one of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress, accusing him of improperly disclosing land deals in Nicaragua. Weller, along with 11 other members of Congress, also is fighting a subpoena to testify in a bribery trial involving a jailed former California congressman.

Rep. Jerry Weller from Illinois claimed he had no knowledge of his wife's finances when he obtained an exemption from House financial disclosure rules. However, the establishment of a non-profit organizaton by his wife has called that exemption into question. That's because her board is populated with family and friends of Weller:

Without fanfare, the wife of Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) formed a not-for-profit corporation this summer dedicated to helping children in her native Guatemala. Her board of directors includes Weller's mother, his brother and a New York man who has partnered with Weller to buy land in Nicaragua.

Analysts say the Zury Rios Fund, named after Weller's wife, raises questions about whether Weller's financial dealings overlap with his wife's -- and whether he can legally exclude her assets from his congressional financial disclosure form.

Zury Rios de Weller is a member of the Guatemalan Congress -- and the daughter of a reportedly wealthy former Guatemalan dictator -- who married Jerry Weller in 2004. In June, she registered her eponymous fund as an American non-profit with the state of Illinois.

House rules require its members to disclose their spouses' finances. Weller is one of two congressmen to claim a rare exemption from that requirement, because he says he has no knowledge of his wife's finances, has not contributed to them and does not expect to benefit from them.

Disclosure experts say the existence of the non-profit and the composition of its board make the exemption "problematic" for Weller to defend.