Since the complaint against Rod Blagojevich was made public Tuesday, we’ve been wondering about the identity of the “Tribune Financial Adviser” who is said to have met with John Harris, the governor’s then chief of staff, about the possibility of firing Tribune editorial writers who had been critical of Blagojevich.
Now the Tribune itself is reporting that it’s Nils Larsen, a Tribune exec and managing director of the Equity Group, a private investment group started by Tribune CEO Sam Zell. Larsen has been interviewed by the FBI, adds the paper.
Larsen had been at the top of our list of suspects. The complaint says that the person is someone mentioned in media reports as a top financial adviser to Zell, who played a major role in Zell’s purchase of the Tribune Company.
And Larsen appears to fit the bill. Consider this paragraph from a profile in Chicago Business last year:
Mr. Larsen, 37, is a managing director at Equity Group Investments LLC, Chicago billionaire Sam Zell’s private investment firm — and the company that will lead Tribune Co. when it goes private later this year. He’s been Mr. Zell’s point man in arranging and negotiating $11.2 billion in financing for the deal, scoping the future of Tribune’s 23 television stations and running the sale of the Chicago Cubs.
We called Larsen yesterday to ask if he was the financial adviser named in the charging documents, but he didn’t respond. He didn’t respond to the Tribune either, and neither did Zell.
The paper adds that the feds have also issued a subpoena to the Tribune Company (probably wasn’t hard for them to get the scoop!), seeking memos that might shed light on the governor’s apparent efforts to get the editorial writers fired.