Deputy comptroller hired by Ahmad is resigning

The man hired by corrupt former Chicago Comptroller Amer Ahmad to be a top City Hall aide is resigning, aides to Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday.

James T. Raussen, who’s paid $127,332 a year as managing deputy comptroller, will leave City Hall next month, Emanuel spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said.

She declined to say why Raussen was quitting, and he did not return calls seeking comment.

Raussen moved to Chicago in July 2011 from Ohio to work under Ahmad, who pleaded guilty in December to being part of a large kickback and money-laundering scheme in his previous job as Ohio’s deputy state treasurer.

But before he could be sentenced to as long as 15 years in federal prison, Ahmad skipped bail, fled the country and was detained last week in Pakistan. Authorities there say Ahmad attempted to enter Pakistan with a fake passport and forged visa.

Raussen was a Republican state representative from Ohio who resigned in 2008 to work for then-Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat. He met Ahmad when both worked on a state business loan program in Ohio.

Soon after Emanuel appointed Ahmad, Raussen came to Chicago to be the mayor’s point man on insurance issues.

An insurance company got more than $2.5 million in city contracts after it hired an Ohio lobbyist who was one of Raussen’s early political backers, the Chicago Sun-Times reported last year. But outside lawyers hired by Emanuel to investigate the comptroller’s office under Ahmad say they found no wrongdoing by Raussen or Ahmad on those deals.