Public records show that one of the men charged, Dean Nichols, worked as his campaign treasurer.

Three others who were charged — Anthony Johnson, Reggi Hopkins and Regina Hollie — were paid by Hendon’s campaign fund to do political work as recently as November 2010, state records show. Kozel and Mary Smith, a Cook County Corrections supervisor, were arrested and charged with submitting corrupt loan applications. Nichols and Hopkins also were arrested. Kozel, Smith, Nichols and Hopkins were released on their own recognizance. The three others charged were to appear in court Wednesday.

The complaint says the cooperating witness is a Chicago Police officer who started cooperating with the government in July 2008 in an investigation of public corruption and gun-trafficking in the Chicago area. The charges make clear that federal law enforcement is attempting to lift the veil on the way taxpayer money is passed out in Springfield.

Charges detail a system in which tens of thousands of dollars in state grants could easily be directed to cronies and relatives, with seemingly little oversight or back checks to see who is actually receiving money at a time when Illinois has reached a fiscal budget crisis. The charges say that in 2007, Hopkins received a $190,000 grant that Hendon earmarked allegedly with the understanding that Hopkins would “provide a portion of the proceeds to [Hendon’s] nephew.” State records show that money went to an organization called MIW Foundation. Hopkins told the cooperator in a conversation that was caught on tape that what he had “been doing is donating 15 percent of what I make off of grants, back to [Hendon’s] campaign . . . I just do it as a donation.”

Hopkins and Nichols each were donors to Hendon, with Nichols ­— described in state campaign records as an accountant — giving the former West Side Democrat $4,500 in contributions and loans.

A call placed to MIW Foundation’s offices was answered late Tuesday afternoon by a man identifying himself simply as an engineer, who was unaware of the indictments or who was in charge of the recording studio he and others had booked time to use.

Hopkins did not answer his cellphone when contacted by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Hendon left the state Senate abruptly in February 2011, giving up a seat that he had held since 1993 and denying to reporters he left because of any “federal problems.” His departure followed a series of federal subpoenas to state agencies, inquiring about grants he had sponsored.

Shortly after he left, despite no clear-cut answers as to why he had pulled the plug on a political career that he seemingly loved, a stream of Democratic and Republican colleagues feted Hendon from the Senate floor, led by Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), who described him as a “brilliant politician.”

Hendon has dropped out of the limelight, though he has kept an active hand in politics. Since the start of the year, five candidates paid him fees for political consulting that totaled $13,950. State Sen. Annazette Collins (D-Chicago), who lost her election bid in March, paid him the most for his services during that period: $6,000.