Sen. Obama linked to accused fundraiser

Boston Globe ^ | 11-05-06 | AP

[xtinct]

CHICAGO --Responding to a newspaper report, Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday that arrangements he had with a political fundraiser accused of shaking down companies might have raised the appearance of impropriety.

Antoin "Tony" Rezko, whom Gov. Rod Blagojevich has described as a friend and a fundraiser, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to squeeze millions of dollars in kickbacks out of investment firms seeking state business. He also has pleaded not guilty to obtaining a $10.5 million loan from General Electric Capital Corp. through fraud and swindling a group of investors.

Photo/Tony Dejak

[pnz1]

No-our local paper does have a photo of Obama in Nashville campaigning for Ford Jr though..

[CT-Freeper]

I hear Disgraced Barrack Obama conveniently changed his religion to Catholic in order to be elected by the dummies to the Senate. So, in addition, the Disgraced One, is hiding his muslime middle name in order not to reveal his true self, ie, deep down he was, is, and, more importanly, continues to be a muslim. The first muslim on the US Senate.

Wake up people!

I don't think Obama has ever claimed to be Catholic, to be honest. Christian, yes -- Catholic, no.

[jackieaxe]

This guy got elected because of the Chicago Trib fishing through the divorce records of his opponent Jack Ryan and finding he asked his wife to go with him to a swingers club. Funny, the Trib didn't fish through John Kerry's divorce records. Osama here looked very innocent and supposedly had nothing to do with outing the Divorce papers, except being the beneficiary of a cake wake to his US Senate seat. For the record, I don't believe he had nothing to do with the dirty tricks but I have no proof.

[Paul Ross]

Now if only we get that guy in the black trench coat and fedora in front of the cameras. WTF was Abramhoff thinking?

[justshutupandtakeit]

Let me give a brief rundown of how this worked. There was a double lot in Kenwood (fancy smancy Southside neighborhood) which had a mansion on half of it. It had always been sold as one property so the owner had a price he wanted for it. Osamabama bought the house for about $200,000 less than it was worth. Rezko (through his wife) bought the land for $200,000 MORE than it was worth. Deals closed on the same day. Seller got what he wanted, Osamabama got a concealed bribe of 200gs, Rezko got his purchased politician and the seller got full price for his property. Niiiice.

Oh and btw Hillary has nothing to do with this disclosure. She is NOT the anti-Rove.

[nopardons]

That's very INTERESTING!

Is this common knowledge in Chicago?

[justshutupandtakeit]

No there has been no putting two and ten together. The facts have been laid out there but no conclusions drawn.

At first the deal made no sense to me. The empty lot has not been built upon, Rezko sold a strip of it to Obama for "market price" and Obama has been taking care of the empty lot, paying for it to be mowed etc.

Then I remember Hillary's cattle futures trading and how Red Bone took the losing side of the transaction in order to give Bubba a surreptious bribe and applied the logic to this deal.

[nopardons]

Good on you, for connecting the dots!

As to Red, yes, that is sort of what he did, but not quite. He took NO loss at all; he passed on the loss to several of his customers, while Hillary and a few others made the profit. She wasn't the only one. The ONLY "loss" that Red finally took, was his fines and being kicked off the trading floor.

[Holicheese]

This is all a right-wing attack. Oh yea, its a Right-Wing Racist Attack... Do I have it right?

[justshutupandtakeit]

OK he took care of spreading the loss. That makes more sense considering the thieves we are speaking of.

[nopardons]

Red was an OLD HAND at this ploy and had been caught doing it, several times before. And YES, he had been punished for fraud before, as well.

This one was just the straw that broke the SEC's back; as well as the exchange and he was out on his ear, for it.

The thing is, everyone on Chicago exchanges, knew of this when it happened; we just didn't know WHO his clients were.

[justshutupandtakeit]

If I recall right that information was supressed or "lost" when the media had a brief spasm of interest before spreading the Hillary is a financial wizard crap.

[nopardons]

It was SUPRESSED by the media when the Hillary is a financial wonder hit the news.

But Red Bone's run in with the SEC hit the Sun-Times and the Trib, when it happened.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Right but I was referring to the client list.

[nopardons]

The client list, for such crimes, is NEVER public knowledge! And it really was unusual, that such a relatively "small fish", such as Red Bone, made the local papers, when the SEC got him, the last time. AFAIK, his previous frauds and convictions hadn't made the Chicago papers, nor ANY papers, for that fact.

The ONLY reason that Hillary's name ever even came up, with respect to this matter, was because Bill was running for president and she, or others, spouted off about the cattle futures stuff, to some reporter/s.

I know of several people who were investigated by the SEC and/or the exchanges, on exchange floors, while we were in Chicago and nary of a one of them and their problems EVER hit the papers; in Chicago or any place else.

[justshutupandtakeit]

That stuff is kept very close and under wraps. It would probably be very interesting to see what has been kept secret.

[nopardons]

Yes and yes.

Unless it is something really BIG, nothing ever hits the papers; or didn't used to. Which is WHY it was so unusual for Red Bone's case to hit the local newspapers. It was a teensy little blurb at the time, IIRC, but it did. But it did NOT make the local T.V. news.

Of course, the news was all of "THE STREET" and everyone in the financial/exchange community, in Chicago, knew all about it.

[2harddrive]

More terrorism by Osama Obama!!!