(Keeping it all together)More from thread ....Stolen it’s the Chicago way!:
Mahru and Rezko also received big loans through Rezmer Corp. from Broadway Bank, which is owned by the family of Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D).
Read more about it here:
http://www.friendsofblago.com/int-alexi.htm
“Despite this gross betrayal of the public trust - or as it’s called in here Chicago, being an elected official - we can thank former Ald. Troutman for this rhetorical gem:
“Most aldermen, most politicians are hos,” she said on one recording.
“They also might want to consider christening a “Chicago Aldermanic Wing” of the closest federal prison:”
FROM:
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/02/ex-ald-troutman-to-be-sentenced-today.html
VIA:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2187389/posts
“Folk in my community understand there can be false allegations when there is someone who is the voice of the people,” Troutman told the Tribune at the time. But in August a subdued Troutman admitted that prosecutors had been right after all and that for several years she had solicited cash from developers to back projects in her ward.
She likely faces about 4 to 5 years in prison when she appears before U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo today.
Troutman is the 12th Chicago alderman convicted of wrongdoing in the last 20 years, but the first since Percy Giles (37th) in 1999.
Prosecutors detailed the evidence against Troutman, including conversations that an undercover informant recorded as part of the FBI sting that snared her. In one exchange, the alderman promised to smooth the way for a development but then asked, “What do I get out of it?”
In another infamous quote that was caught on tape and later drew scorn from council colleagues, Troutman compared politics in Chicago to prostitution.
.........snip....
Troutman long enjoyed the support of some of Mayor Richard Daley’s most prominent black allies, including Bishop Arthur Brazier and Rev. Leon Finney Jr. But after the corruption charges came as she campaigned for a fifth term, Brazier and Finney threw their backing to challenger Willie Cochran in the February 2007 election.
Cochran won a landslide victory, but Troutman, comparing herself to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., declined to concede in election-night comments to her supporters.
The 20th Ward includes some of the city’s poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods, but it’s also at the edge of a spreading wave of new homes.