Gil Soffer, managing partner of Katten's Chicago office and national co-head of the White Collar, Investigations and Compliance practice, commented in an ABC7 Chicago TV news segment on allegations that former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert paid hush money to someone in exchange for silence related to sexual misconduct. Investigators allege Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to someone to keep quiet about "prior misconduct." He has allegedly withdrawn about half that amount from his bank accounts in transactions of less than $10,000 at a time, which is just below the amount that has to be reported to bank officials. "It's a lot of effort to go into preventing the government from learning that you're withdrawing large sums of cash," said Gil, who serves as an ABC7 legal analyst. "It further appears that the victim of the misconduct may have also been playing an extortion game," he added. ("Dennis Hastert Misconduct Sexual in Nature, ABC News Sources Say," May 29, 2015)