William Chirolas -- World News Trust
-- Jan. 11, 2008 -- While I do not see any legal, or even ethical problems for Barack Obama with
the Antoin 'Tony' Rezko affair, the question is whether or not there are political
problems for Obama in the general election.
Rezko is not someone you want to have in any opponent's political ad. There is a mention of Rezko's 'possible ties' to mob and Syrian bankers in a June New York Times article.
Rezko, a former adviser to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is accused of using his influence with state officials in 2004 to extort kickbacks from firms seeking to do business with the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board and the state Teachers' Retirement System Board.
Stuart Levine, a member of both state boards who pleaded guilty to taking part in the kickback scheme, is expected to be the key government witness against Rezko. Chicago authorities also alleged that Rezko set up a front minority company to win permission to open three Panda Express outlets at O'Hare International Airport. His nominal partner was Jabir Herbert Muhammad, son of the late Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. Rezko and Muhammad settled the matter, which became public in 2005, months before Obama's house purchase. Without admitting wrongdoing, they agreed to end their O'Hare operations and were disqualified from the city's minority business program. Rezko is also charged with scheming to obtain a fraudulent $2.6 million loan for the sale of 17 pizza restaurants he owned. Rezko is charged along with Ali Ata and Abdelhamid Chaib.
In addition to a Obama's Rezko land deal, the senator's ties to the indicted dealmaker include an internship the senator provided the son of a contributor at the request of Rezko, as confirmed by an Obama spokesman.
Obama and Rezko have been friends since 1990, with Rezko raising $60,000 in campaign contributions for Obama's state and federal campaigns, of which at least $19,500 was directly from Rezko and his companies (but after Rezko's indictment, Obama donated $11,500 to charity -- the amount Rezko personally contributed to the senator's federal campaign fund).
In the real estate deal, a home was found (upon Rezko's advice) where the seller was willing to drop the price $300,000 from its listing price. The house had been listed for three months but the sellers were in no hurry to close and wanted to wait until both the side lot and the house lot were under contract. Indeed, the sellers did not want to close until the following June 15, 2005. and said the sale would go through only if someone bought the adjacent lot from them on the same date. Rita Rezko paid $625,000 for the lot on June 15, 2005. Seven months later in 2006, wanting a bigger yard for his $1.65 million house, Obama bought a one-sixths slice of the Rezko property for $104,500 -- one sixth of the prior year's value. In late 2006 Rita Rezko sold the remainder of the lot to a law firm owned by her husband's business attorney for an appreciated value profit of $54,500 on the post Obama original cost of $520,500.
Obama has said he took special care to ensure any financial arrangements with Rezko were ethical, because Rezko was widely reported to be under investigation by a federal grand jury.
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William Chirolas brings 40 years of real-world business experience in
local, state, national, and international tax, pensions, and finance to
the world of blogging. A graduate of MIT, he calls the Boston area
home, except when visiting kids and grandkids. He can be reached at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.