CHICAGO- Federal investigators have questioned the wife of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s former campaign treasurer about a $1,500 personal check her husband wrote to one of the governor’s children and whether the money was linked to her hiring for a state job, according to a published report.

Beverly Ascaridis, who started her $45,000-a-year position as a state parks administrator in August 2003, told the Chicago Tribune that FBI agents have interviewed her and her husband about the check.

“I tried to do the right thing,” Ascaridis, 56, said about her contact with investigators, the newspaper reported in its Sunday editions. “But now I wonder whether I should have. … My life will be ruined.”

The governor’s office issued a statement Friday, saying the check was given to the governor’s daughter, Amy, on her 7th birthday. The statement called the suggestion that the check was anything but a gift from a friend “simply ludicrous.”

“Mike is like a second brother to the governor, and like a godparent to the governor’s kids,” the statement said. “… It is an outrage that we even have to answer this question.”

Michael Ascaridis, an accountant for the city of Chicago, said he told the FBI the check had nothing to do with his wife’s hiring.

In a statement, he denied “any quid pro quo regarding any gift to Amy and my wife’s job.” He contends the gift was for Amy Blagojevich’s college fund, according to the statement.

For more than a year, federal authorities have been investigating allegations of fraudulent hiring practices by top officials in the governor’s office.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in June that Blagojevich’s administration is under investigation for “very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud” that have implicated several state agencies.