By Mackenzie Weinger
November 2011
Tony Rezko, former fundraiser and friend of President Barack Obama and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was sentenced on Tuesday to ten and a half years in prison for corruption.
Rezko, 56, has already served about 44 months of the 126-month sentence on his 2008 conviction for corruption - including fraud, money laundering and attempting to get $7 million in kickbacks from companies seeking to win deals during Blagojevich's tenure as governor - the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
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Obama also involved Rezko in a house deal after he was elected to the U.S. Senate, a move he later called "boneheaded mistake," according to a 2008 report in ABC News.
Obama wanted to purchase a home that the seller had a specific condition on: the adjacent empty lot to the house had to be purchased at the same time, ABC News reported. In the house deal, Rezko's wife paid the full asking price for that parcel, $625,000.
Obama shelled out $300,000 under the house's asking price, paying $1.65 million, according to ABC News. Obama then purchased a part of Rezko's lot for $104,500.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2011/11/former-obama-fundraiser-sentenced-068935#ixzz3rI7IJ6k3