Same source, too relative,must copy this too:
British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama’s fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.
The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.
A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama’s bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.
Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city’s South Side while Mr Rezko’s wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.…
Mrs Rezko’s purchase and sale of the land to Mr Obama raises many unanswered questions.
It is unclear how Mrs Rezko could have afforded the down payment of $125,000 and a $500,000 mortgage for the original $625,000 purchase of the garden plot at 5050 South Greenwood Ave.
In a sworn statement a year later, Mrs Rezko said she got by on a salary of $37,000 and had $35,000 assets. Mr Rezko told a court he had “no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets, no unencumbered assets [and] is significantly in arrears on many of his obligations.”
Asked if she used money from her husband to buy the land next to Mr Obama’s house, she said: “I can’t answer these questions, I’m sorry.”
Asked how long she and her husband had known Mr Auchi, she replied: “I will not be able to answer this question.”
Mr Auchi’s lawyer, asked whether the Fintrade Services loan was used to buy the land which became Mr Obama’s garden, stated: “No, not as far as my client is aware.”
Although the Carter-Ruck letter did not touch on the issue, Auchi is also alleged to have involvement with several questionable business deals in the new Iraq. A 146 page report to the Pentagon Inspector General posted on Wikileaks is described by Washington Times investigative journalist Bill Gertz who writes:
A 2004 Pentagon report obtained by The Washington Times identified Auchi as a global arms dealer and Iraqi billionaire “who, behind the facade of legitimate business, served as Saddam Hussein’s principle international financial manipulator and bag man.”
The report to the Pentagon inspector general stated that “significant
More:
Human Events reports that Auchi’s General Mediterranean Holdings financed a 250 megawatt power plant in the Kurdish town of Chamchamal, Iraq along with Rezko and Iraq’s former Minister of Electricity (and Chicago resident), Aiham Alsammarae.
Returning in 2003 to post-Saddam Iraq, Alsammarae had been made Minister of Electricity under the occupation government of Paul Bremer. Alsammarae escaped “the Chicago way” from the Green Zone in December, 2006 after being held for four months in relation to a $2 billion Iraqi reconstruction corruption case. He returned to his Chicago mansion.
Writing March 3, 2008 in Human Events’ John Batchelor reports on the Alsammarae-Obama-Rezko connection:
“…in April 2005, one month before Mr. Alsammarae left his post, his Ministry of Electricity signed a contract for $50 million with Companion Security to provide training to Iraqis to guard electrical plants by flying them to Illinois for classes.
“Companion Security was headed by a former Chicago policeman with a troubled history, Daniel T. Frawley, in partnership with Mr. Rezko and in association with Daniel Mahru, the lawyer for the original contract and Mr. Rezko’s former business partner. In April 2006, Mr. Frawley entered negotiations with Governor Rod Blagojevich’s staff to lease a military facility in Illinois to be a training camp. In August 2006, Mr. Frawley started negotiations with Mr. Obama’s U.S. Senate staff to complete the contract….
“The timeline of Companion discussions in 2006 is important to note: April 2006 Frawley speaks to governor’s office; August 2006 Frawley speaks to senator’s office; October 2006 indictment of Rezko revealed; October 2006 Rezko arrested upon return from Syria; October 2006 Alsammarae convicted in Baghdad and makes his first escape attempt; December 2006 Alsammarae escapes from Baghdad. …
“(In 2004) Mr. Auchi traveled by private aircraft to Midway Airport in Chicago and then to a fete at the Four Season Hotel, where he met with his business partner in Chicago real estate, Mr. Rezko, as well as with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Also present that night, according to a fresh report by James Bone and Dominic Kennedy of the London Times, was State Senator Barack Obama, who had recently won the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat….”
Jay Stewart of the Better Government Assn. in Chicago told the LA Times: “Everybody in this town knew that Tony Rezko was headed for trouble. When he got indicted, there wasn’t a single insider who was surprised. It was viewed as a long time coming. . . .Why would you be having anything to do with Tony Rezko, particularly if you’re planning to run for president?”
How much could a US President be influenced by his dealings with Rezko and his associates?