A new headache for Giannoulias? Another Rezko loan (just in time for -0's visit 8/5 ;)

By February 2006, businessman and political fixer Tony Rezko was already politically radioactive, caught up in a federal investigation that would see him criminally charged by the end of that year.

News reports had linked Rezko, a key adviser and campaign fund-raiser for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to shady deals involving state pension funds -- among the crimes that ultimately would send him to prison.

In 2006, Tony Rezko (inset) sought a loan to develop a 62-acre parcel of land at Roosevelt and Clark.

This was the Tony Rezko who, looking for millions of dollars for a massive South Loop development, turned to Broadway Bank, owned by the family of Alexi Giannoulias. Giannoulias, the Democrat now running for U.S. Senate, had left his post as a senior loan officer at the Chicago bank in late 2005 to mount a successful campaign for Illinois state treasurer, though he still held an ownership stake in the bank.

On Feb. 14, 2006, newly obtained records show, the bank made a $22.75 million loan to a company called Riverside District Development LLC, whose owners, it turns out, included Rezko.

You won't find Rezko's name on any documents filed in the public record in connection with the loan.

But Rezko acknowledged his ownership stake in Riverside District Development to a federal judge about a year after the loan was made, according to a transcript of the court hearing.

The loan could prove to be a political liability for Giannoulias as he campaigns against his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, for the Senate seat now held by Roland Burris. Not only does its disclosure come during the Senate campaign, but records show the loan was made while Broadway Bank was already having problems with an earlier loan to another Rezko company.

Giannoulias, who touted his experience at Broadway Bank in his campaign to win election as state treasurer, has said its failure was the result of the national economic slowdown and the pullback in the real estate market, in which it invested heavily.

Through a spokeswoman, Giannoulias says he knew nothing about the $22.75 million loan to Riverside District Development until reporters contacted him.

"Alexi left daily operations of the bank in September of 2005, months before this loan was made," says Kathleen Strand of his campaign staff. "He had no knowledge of it, and his name is not on any documents related to the loan.

"This guilt-by-association story is an unfortunate and failed attempt to link Alexi to Mr. Rezko.''

Rezko's relationship with the bank developed through his friendship with the bank's founder, family patriarch Alexis Giannoulias, Alexi Giannoulias' father, who died in June 2006.

Giannoulias' brother Demetris Giannoulias is the only Broadway Bank official named in public records regarding the loan, which involved a large, vacant piece of property in the South Loop -- 62 acres at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street -- that Rezko had been trying to develop.

He hoped to build more than 4,000 homes along the Chicago River there, but he couldn't get City Hall to agree to provide $140 million in tax money to help pay to build roads and put in sewers to make the project work.

Broadway Bank made the loan even though another Rezko company, Chicago Hudson LLC, had fallen behind on a $10.9 million loan it got from the bank four years earlier. That loan -- for a proposed high-rise condo building at 750 N. Hudson on the Near North Side that never got built -- ended up in Bankruptcy Court.

The property ended up being sold to another developer. Broadway Bank received $11.5 million from the sale, which took place July 31, 2006.

Following Rezko's indictment in October 2006, he and his lawyers met in January 2007 with U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to discuss his assets. During that closed-door hearing, Rezko disclosed his ownership stake in Riverside District Development, the company that got the $22.75 million loan from Broadway Bank.

Rezko's lawyers said his main partner in Riverside was General Mediterranean Holding, a Luxembourg company controlled by Iraq-born billionaire Nadhmi Auchi.

In a January 2008 court filing in Rezko's case, federal prosecutors in Chicago wrote that Auchi was "convicted several years ago in France on fraud charges" and sentenced to 15 months in prison, "but the sentence was suspended as long as Auchi committed no new crimes."

Auchi has said he has done nothing wrong and has sought to distance himself from Rezko. Auchi's lawyer, Alasdair Pepper, says Rezko no longer has a stake in the 62-acre site, which remains vacant.

Financial institutions typically file a document called a "release of lien'' when a loan is repaid. There's nothing on file with Cook County Recorder of Deeds Eugene Moore's office to show that Riverside District Development repaid the six-month loan from Broadway Bank, which was due Aug. 14, 2006.

But Giannoulias' campaign office says the loan was paid off early. Auchi's lawyer provided documentation to support that, showing the loan was repaid in July 2006.

According to Giannoulias and Auchi, Riverside District Development paid off the Broadway Bank loan with money it obtained from a $27 million loan from another financial institution: Mutual Bank.

Like Broadway Bank, Mutual also ended up getting shut down by federal regulators -- though the loan was paid off, records show. Like Rezko, Mutual's president, Amrish Mahajan, had been a top fund-raiser for Blagojevich.

Auchi was very involved in the Oil For Food scam and I would bet dollars to donuts that some of that Oil For Food loot ended up in Obama’s pocket via Rezko and Auchi. Obama was one of the very few US state senators and politicos screaming about going into Iraq from the very beginning(just like many of those in Europe and here who were being paid by Saddam’s men to lift the sanctions). I believe that is one of the bombshells that the punk is hiding.

Color me surprised .. from Chicagoan James Warren in the NYT:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*snip*

The absence of Christopher Kelly, a confidant and chief fund-raiser for Mr. Blagojevich, deprived us. Indicted three times and convicted twice, Mr. Kelly was to go on trial with Mr. Blagojevich. Not long after telling the news media, “My life is over,” he killed himself.

Having declined to flip for the government, imagine the secrets he took to the grave. What did he know that we don’t?

*snip*

without testimony from Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr., we wonder about a Loop restaurant meeting Mr. Jackson held with Ragu Nayak and Rajinder Bedi, loyalists who allegedly angled to give Blago money if he picked their guy for the Senate. Is it benign blue-skying or illegal conniving?

Then there’s no Tony Rezko, the convicted swindler and once-respected developer deemed so untrustworthy that neither side beckoned him from prison.

The defense sees Mr. Rezko as a slimy manipulator who was putty in Mr. Blagojevich’s hands. But his absence leaves much unclear, including details on a $10 billion state bond issuance in 2003 to bolster pension funds.

It’s the sort of under-the-radar deal that we in the news media rarely mention or understand. We’re left hanging as to what was going on between Mr. Rezko and Robert Kjellander, a Springfield lobbyist and former Republican National Committee treasurer.

Rest here
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us/politics/01cncwarren.html

James Warren pic

http://tinyurl.com/2byu6bd

My computer went completely down when I tried to send you a link to CCT...Most history on the above can be found there. Start a link and read next fifty or so posts.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2151323/posts#35

From link on 35.
Antoin Rezko’s money man and “close friend” is London based Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi who is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the corporate, banking, political and real estate world. It is Nadhmi Auchi who funded Antoin Rezko. Nadhmi Auchi wired 3.5 million dollars to Rezko weeks before Barack Obama and Antoin Rezko made that controversial land deal. Nadhmi Auchi wired another 3.5 million from a Lebanon bank to Rezko at the beginning of his trial. When the authorities found out, he had to stay in custody for his portion of the trial because they thought he was a flight risk.

Nadhmi Auchi owns a great deal of real estate in Chicago and is reported to collect politicians like some people collect stamps.

Meant to ping you all to above.

Graphic is GREAT!
Could you add lights and a horn to resemble a bus to the cello case?
Remember the GIo family is connected to the mob. Also note the Albanian comment shortly after 35...That person just disappeared as soon as the message was sent....Hmmmm????

Now what countries does the drug/poppy route from Afganistan go through? And why are we REALLY not closing the boarder with Mexico? Drugs and Guns...illegal and high money for whom?

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