Posted on 04/14/2010 8:11:45 PM PDT by Steelfish
Blagojevich's Wife Received Tens of Thousands From Antoin Rezko, Prosecutors Allege
By Peter Slevin CHICAGO -- Illinois businessman and Democratic fundraiser Antoin Rezko was so anxious to help his friend, then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), that he funneled tens of thousands of dollars in payments to Blagojevich's wife, federal prosecutors contend in a document unsealed Wednesday.
Patti Blagojevich did no work for the payments, which were allegedly disguised as real estate commissions and other payments from one of Rezko's Chicago companies. To make it appear that she had earned them, prosecutors allege, she showed up from time to time at Rezko's offices - usually carrying her infant daughter and soon leaving.
"Rezko was willing to do whatever it took to get her money, whether it was from a monthly retainer or through hiring her to work on his development at Roosevelt and Clark," the prosecutors wrote in a 91-page document. The document was made public by U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel, who is due to preside over Rod Blagojevich's corruption trial starting June 3.
"Rezko did not seem to care if she actually did anything to earn the money," prosecutors continued. "Rezko was only concerned about ensuring that Blagojevich did not have to worry about his finances."
Patti Blagojevich is named as a "conspirator" in the document, but has not been charged with a crime. Prosecutors cited her alleged participation amid evidence that her husband worked with Rezko and other insiders in illegal money-making schemes that began soon after he took office in January 2003.
Rezko, currently in prison, is better-known nationally as a friend and fundraiser for Barack Obama during the first decade of Obama's political career in Chicago. He did not contribute to Obama's presidential campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
Well, anyone from Illinois will not be surprised by this news. I would bet it goes all the way to O too, but that will be covered up, just like the birth certificate.
If the state run “media” wasn’t so busy going after Trig Palin, I’ll bet they’d find that their “messiah” is mixed up in this one also. Unfortunately, they are busy trashing the Palin family right now.
There’s that name again, Antoin Rezko. We need this guy turned into a snitch. I think we would find that he and Monica Lewinsky have a lot in common.
The Obama media wants everyone to look at Blago’s wife instead of Andy Stern,Rahm,and various other folks connected very closely with Obama.
Watch for blaring headlines from various state run media outlets in the coming days about Blago’s wife. It’s a distraction.
Tens of thousands. That's nothing. Rezko and others funneled tens of millions to Obama. Look at Ayers and Valerie Jarrett and that whole collection of scumbags.
Blago is clean as the driven snow compared to Obama.
Tens of thousands. That's nothing. Rezko and others funneled tens of millions to Obama. Look at Ayers and Valerie Jarrett and that whole collection of scumbags.
Blago is clean as the driven snow compared to Obama.
From The London Times
March 5, 2008
Q&A: Barack Obama and Tony Rezko
Who is Tony Rezko?
Antoin “Tony” Rezko, 52, a long-time friend and fundraiser for Barack Obama, is a Syrian-born property developer, pizzeria entrepreneur and political fixer in Chicago. Hillary Clinton has made him a campaign issue by denouncing him as a “slum landlord”. Mr Rezko faces two criminal trials as well as dozens of civil lawsuits.
How does he know Barack Obama?
Mr Rezko approached Mr Obama in 1990 after reading that he had become the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Mr Rezko and two real estate partners offered Mr Obama a job building inner-city homes in Chicago. Mr Obama declined, but remained friendly with Mr Rezko, who became one of his earliest and biggest fundraisers. Mr Obama says that he met Mr Rezko “once or twice a year” for lunch and the Rezkos and Obamas have dined together as couples perhaps “two to four times” since they have known each other. As a lawyer, Mr Obama did six hours’ work for partners of Mr Rezko’s company in state-subsidised apartment rehabilitation projects.
Why are they linked in a property deal?
The Obamas bought a mock Georgian mansion in Chicago in June 2005, after he was elected to the US Senate. Mr Rezko’s wife, Rita, bought the adjacent garden on the same day from the same seller. The sellers say that Mr Obama and Mr Rezko toured the property together before the transaction. At the time, it was already known that Mr Rezko was under criminal investigation. Mrs Rezko paid the full asking price of $625,000 (£315,000) for the garden. The Obamas paid $1.65 million for the house – $300,000 below asking price. The garden could be accessed only through the Obamas’ property, and Mr Obama’s gardener mowed the lawn. In January 2006, Mrs Rezko sold a 10ft strip of her garden to the Obamas for $104,500 and a fence was erected between the two lots. Mrs Rezko has since sold the remainder of the garden to a lawyer for her husband’s business.
Why is Mr Rezko on trial?
Mr Rezko went on trial in Chicago this week for money laundering, fraud, aiding bribery and attempted extortion. He is accused of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking to do business with two Illinois state boards controlled by his friends – the Teachers Retirement System, which manages a $30 billion pension fund, and the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which must approve all building permits involving hospitals.
Is Mr Obama involved in the case?
Mr Obama is not accused of any wrongdoing. However, money from one of the many alleged kickbacks appears to have ended up as a $10,000 donation to his campaign. There is speculation that Mr Obama could be called as a defence witness at the three-month trial. Mr Obama has donated to charity $150,000 in political contributions linked to Mr Rezko.
Where does Nadhmi Auchi fit in?
Mr Rezko ended up in prison in January for violating bail by failing to declare a $3.5 million loan from Nadhmi Auchi, a British-Iraqi billionaire who was convicted of corruption in the Elf scandal in France in 2003. Mr Auchi was involved with Mr Rezko in a pizzeria business in the Midwest as well as a 62-acre property development in Chicago, and had lent millions of dollars to him.
An earlier $3.5 million dollar loan to Mr Rezko was made only weeks before Mrs Rezko bought the garden next to the Obamas’ new house. Mr Auchi says the loan was for business reasons.
Blank=Os wife is the daughter of one of Daley’s aldermen. She won’t be touched until it’s time to bring down her daddy and his friends in higher places.
I pinged you to the CHicago Crime thread....More details there.
Sounds like main obozo fundraiser Rezko is singing like a canary.
http://www.brayincandy.com/id168.html
Pray for America
Obama’s wife is the daughter of a precinct boss in the Daily machine. Like many slimeballs in the Chicago Machine her father was given a no work, no responsibility job with the City of Chicago.
Like father like daughter, Michelle Obama was given a no show job as community relations something or other at a Chicago hospital. She was paid close to $200,000 a year and never showed up for work. When Obama became president, the “job” was eliminated from the hospital budget.
To use the most polite word I can think of that is also accurate, the Obamas are scum.
Yeah, well he needs to sing a little closer to his D.C. buddy’s involvement!
Patti Blago, daughter of a powerful corrupt Chicago city alderman, was brought up in this stuff. Anyone who thinks she’s some innocent victim is naive. I doubt she ever made a legit real estate sale in her life, but it provided great cover.
Small world, Mr President.
Michelle ROBINSON Obama is somehow related to Jesse ROBINSON Jackson. His biological father, Noah Robinson and her ancestors are all from Friends Plantation area. Michelle AKA Sis spent quite a bit of time in the Jackson Home as a youth.
She’s entitled you know.
“Michelle ROBINSON Obama is somehow related to Jesse ROBINSON Jackson. His biological father, Noah Robinson and her ancestors are all from Friends Plantation area. Michelle AKA Sis spent quite a bit of time in the Jackson Home as a youth.”
It’s becoming more clear ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/us/politics/30obama.html?pagewanted=2
He positioned himself early on as a protégé of the powerful Democratic leader, Senator Emil Jones, a beneficiary of the Chicago political machine. He courted collaboration with Republicans. He endured hazing from a few black colleagues, played poker with lobbyists, studiously took up golf. (“An awful lot happens on the golf course,” a friend, Jean Rudd, says he told her.)
(snip)
One of the first was campaign finance reform. Illinois had one of the least regulated campaign finance systems in the country and a history of corruption. Paul Simon, the former United States senator, was running a public policy institute at Southern Illinois University and asked each of the four legislative leaders to name a trusted lawmaker to work on a bipartisan ethics bill.
Mr. Jones recalls receiving a call from Abner J. Mikva, a former Chicago congressman, federal judge and friend of Mr. Simon. Judge Mikva, who had once tried to hire Mr. Obama as a law clerk, suggested him for the job. Mr. Jones says he knew that the new senator was hard-working and bright and that few others would want the assignment.
“He caught pure hell,” Mr. Jones said of Mr. Obama. “I actually felt sorry for him at times.”
“I had lunch with him at the Quadrangle Club, and we were discussing the different bases he had to touch. I said, ‘You have to talk to the Jackson boys first,’ ” Mr. Mikva recalled, referring to Representative Jackson and his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. “Because Jesse Jackson Jr. had his eye on that seat. He said, ‘I know. I’m working on that.’ ”
Mr. Obama soon sat down with the younger Mr. Jackson at the 312 Chicago restaurant. Michelle Obama had attended high school with Mr. Jackson’s sister and been close to the family for years, and the congressman had attended the Obamas’ wedding. “He said, ‘Jesse, if you’re running for the U.S. Senate I’m not going to run,’ ” Mr. Jackson recalled.
But Mr. Jackson had already decided against it, and he gave Mr. Obama his blessing.
Anything for my “little girl”. Remember JJ's under the breath comment about the time that the rumor about BOs illegitimate child came out?
Good thing that this Tony Rezko isn’t the same Tony Rezko that bribed Barack Obama by selling him house at a discounted price. (I’m sure the WAPO would have mentioned that, if it were so). Otherwise, the Big 0 would be in deep trouble. /s
:)
Coincidence that the principal and Michael Scott (RIP) were subpoenaed by a grand jury regarding elite public school admissions such as Whitney Young Magnet HS, where MO and Santita Jackson attended. Wonder if JJ is on the list???
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-admissions-0323—20100322,0,5656688.story
While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help through a shadowy appeals system created in recent years under former schools chief Arne Duncan.
Whispers have long swirled that some children get spots in the city's premier schools based on whom their parents know. But a list maintained over several years in Duncan's office and obtained by the Tribune lends further evidence to those charges. Duncan is now secretary of education under President Barack Obama.
The log is a compilation of politicians and influential business people who interceded on behalf of children during Duncan's tenure. It includes 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard Daley's office, House Speaker Michael Madigan, his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.
(snip)
http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1733015,CST-NWS-clout25.article
Back in 2004, Young was the only college prep to routinely handpick some students outside a rigid formula involving grades, attendance and admission test scores. Kenner said Young's tradition of such picks goes back decades to its inception as a magnet school, and she used them to bring diversity and talent to her school.
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