HOBART, Ind. (AP) — Former state Democratic chairman Peter Manous, who spent 22 months in prison for taking a $200,000 kickback in defrauding a union pension fund in a $10 million land deal, is working again.

Manous has been working since Dec. 18 for Hind General Hospital, a private hospital in Hobart owned by two Democratic Party contributors. Manous said he is working on a contract basis.

“I’m doing some administrative work under contract with the hospital,” Manous said Tuesday. “I’m just making sure vendors are getting paid, things like that.”

Operators who answered the phone at the 30-bed hospital described Manous on Tuesday as either the facility’s chief financial officer or chief executive officer, but Manous said his duties are more modest.

“They say that because I’m dealing with money, making sure the bills are getting paid,” he said. “It’s a small hospital.”

The hospital was opened early last year by Dr. Navin Barot of Munster and business partner Raghu Nayak. Both men have contributed thousands of dollars in recent years to various state and national political causes, mostly for Democrats, according to campaign finance records.

Manous credited Nayak with giving him the job, the same day Manous was released from six weeks of home confinement following the end of his prison term. He said Nayak has been a friend for a long time.

Manous said he hopes to establish a roster of private clients for whom he can do financial work and get his life back on track.

Manous resigned as state Democratic chairman in February 2003 after 19 months in the position amid reports that he was under criminal investigation. He was indicted by a federal grand jury about seven months later.

Posted 1/11/2007