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Criminal Justice Lecture to Present Terrance Hake of “Operation Greylord” on Feb. 28

The Wilder School’s Criminal Justice program will present, “Putting Corruption Out of Business: An Insider’s View of Operation Greylord,” featuring Terrance Hake on Tues., Feb. 28, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the VCU Student Commons, Richmond Salons III-IV.

Operation Greylord investigated charges of public corruption in the Cook County, Ill., court system that resulted in indictments against 103 judges, attorneys and court personnel for selling the justice system to the highest bidder.

In April 1980, Hake agreed to assist the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Operation Greylord. For three years and seven months, he worked undercover posing as a corrupt prosecutor by accepting bribes from attorneys and later as an attorney in private practice making payoffs to judges and court personnel for the dismissal of cases. When the last Greylord trial concluded in 1994, Hake had testified at the trials of 23 defendants.

In his 90-minute presentation, Hake will share the investigative techniques and ethical lessons learned from the Greylord investigation and trials.

Hake is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. He started as prosecutor in Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, where he noticed and reported corruption in the court process. He served in federal law enforcement for 23 years and eventually returned to the practice of law as an assistant state’s attorney in Cook County. He retired in 2016.

Hake has lectured extensively to business professionals, attorneys, law enforcement officers and students concerning the investigative techniques and ethical lessons learned from Greylord.

For more information, contact kartello@vcu.edu.