Curtain Time for Barack Obama - Part IV (Excerpts)
Rezko schemes to hide assets from creditors
The second Rezko indictment involves Ali Ata (left) and the Illinois Finance Authority, and alleges fraud in financial transactions with the General Electric Capital Corp in connection with the sale of a string of Papa John pizza restaurants in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The indictment and plea agreement provide a preview for the scheme hatched to conceal Rezko’s assets from creditors through Obama’s secret Land Trust.
When announcing the arrests, U.S. District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald stated: “The new indictment is part of Operation Board Games, an ongoing federal public corruption investigation of insider-dealing, influence-peddling and kickbacks involving private interests and public duties related to various state boards and non-profit organizations.”
Co-schemer Abdelhamid Chaib (right), is the former the director of Rezko Concessions. lllinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Chaib’s wife to a position with the Department of Employment Security Review Board.
An exhibit presented to the jury shows Chaib contributed $10,000 to Blagojevich. Records show Obama received $5,000 from Chaib on June 30, 2003, the same day that Ata donated $5,000.
This indictment alleges that Rezko fraudulently caused General Electric Capital Corporation (GE), to extend more than $10 million in loans to finance what Rezko portrayed as sales of two different groups of Papa John’s pizza restaurants in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.
The indictment says Rezko and his co-schemers fraudulently obtained a $4.5 million loan from GE in March 2001 to finance the purchase of the Milwaukee pizza stores by a straw purchaser, and his company, at an inflated price, and by the submission of fraudulent documents, including false financial statements about the condition of the stores.
The government alleges that they made similar fraudulent representations to obtain another $6 million loan in October 2001, in connection with Rezko’s sale of the Chicago area pizza restaurants from Rezko Enterprises to his own company, Chicago PJ.
After closing on the loan for the Chicago stores, the loan became delinquent, and Rezko caused additional false financial information to be submitted to GE in asking for forebearance on the default, according to the indictment.
In addition to defrauding GE, prosecutors allege that Rezko defrauded investors by concealing that he was transferring the company’s assets to himself and a straw purchaser.
WOW! Wasn’t Bill Ayres father somehow connected with GE?