http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080129/ap_on_re_us/fundraiser_indicted
CHICAGO - An indicted businessman who poured thousands of dollars into the campaigns of Barack Obama and other politicians was jailed Monday after prosecutors disclosed he received $3.5 million from an Iraqi billionaire while claiming to be broke.
Real estate developer and fast-food entrepreneur Antoin “Tony” Rezko was arrested Monday at his home in Wilmette and held after his attorneys failed to dissuade Judge Amy J. St. Eve from revoking his $2 million bond.
“This defendant has played a shell game and I think misled the court about what his assets are,” federal prosecutor Reid J. Schar said.
Iraqi billionaire ping
CHICAGO - An indicted businessman who poured thousands of dollars into the campaigns of Barack Obama and other politicians was jailed Monday after prosecutors disclosed he received $3.5 million from an Iraqi billionaire [UK-based Nadhmi Auchi] while claiming to be broke. Real estate developer and fast-food entrepreneur Antoin “Tony” Rezko was arrested Monday at his home in Wilmette and held after his attorneys failed to dissuade Judge Amy J. St. Eve from revoking his $2 million bond. “This defendant has played a shell game and I think misled the court about what his assets are,” federal prosecutor Reid J. Schar said.-----http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080129/ap_on_re_us/fundraiser_indictedAn Iraqi billionaire wanted in a corruption case involving the former French oil giant Elf gave himself up yesterday. Nadhmi Auchi, 65, appeared at the law courts in Paris just before the case was due to restart. Mr Auchi is one of 37 defendants in the biggest corporate graft trial in French history. ---- "People: Iraqi billionaire faces Paris fraud trial," Independent, The (London), May 6, 2003
The French court heard that in 1991 Elf paid 3.6 billion pesetas to the Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi for his help in purchasing the Spanish Ertoil refinery. The French oil giant was unable to buy the refinery outright because it was waiting for clearance from the European financial authorities. Auchi's job was to caretake the refinery for Elf and he later received a further commission after the US company Conaco made a bid for the refinery. But Auchi struggled to explain why he paid 1.4bn pesetas into an account at the Banque Continentale de Luxembourg belonging to an Irish haulage company called Travlane. When the French investigators looked into the accounts they found that its sole purpose was to act as the conduit for kickbacks paid to Sirven. -----"Mystery of Irish address at centre of fraud scandal," by Martin Bright, The Observer, Sunday May 11, 2003