In 1969, Klingbiel and then Chief Justice Roy J. Solfisburg, Jr. were involved in a major state scandal, after Sherman Skolnick revealed that both had accepted stock from the Civic Center Bank & Trust Company (CCB) of Chicago while litigation involving the CCB was pending at the Illinois Supreme Court.

During this period, Klingbiel established a reputation as a kingpin in the Rock Island County Republican Party and Downstate Illinois political power structure, in part as he was the county campaign manager for Governor Dwight Green who won election in 1940 in the backlash against the New Deal.

In 1969, Sherman Skolnick, head of the Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts, examined the stockholder records of the Civic Center Bank & Trust Company (CCB) and discovered that both Klingbiel and Chief Justice Roy Solfisburg owned stock in the CCB.

Skolnick contacted several members of the media, and the story was broken in the Alton Evening Telegraph before being picked up by all the major papers.

The Illinois House of Representatives unanimously voted to appoint a special committee to investigate the matter, but before it could act, the Supreme Court, acting on its "inherent powers", granted a motion filed by Skolnick to appoint a special commission to investigate.