Burke was corporate secretary of security firm SDI Security, Inc. from shortly after it was formed in 1989 until 1994. Burke hired the President of SDI, Michael A. Pedicone, as an outside lawyer for the Finance Committee. SDI was owned by 11th ward Alderman Patrick Huels, chairman of the Council's Transportation Committee, and Mayor Richard M. Daley's floor leader, and Huels' wife and brother. A federal grand jury subpoenaed Burke's and Huels' campaign finance records and ethics disclosures, and Pedicone's billings. The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Illinois Supreme Court, the state agency that regulates the conduct of attorneys in Illinois, investigated Burke and subpoenaed all records on SDI from the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation. In late December 1997, a grand jury convened by the Cook County State's Attorney's office subpoenaed records on expenditures to SDI from Burke's Finance and Huels' Transportation Committees, notable in that local prosecutors rarely investigate local politicians. In a memo to aldermen, Burke wrote, "He was not a ghost payroller," and that Pedicone had been paid about $490,000 over eight years for handling more than 450 disability-claim cases. Huels' resignation was the first major public corruption scandal of Daley's first two terms, and editorials called for Burke's resignation as well.