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Whether the name of Richie Urso ever makes it into the corruption trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich next June is anybody's guess. You've probably never heard of Richie Urso. But the FBI sure has heard of him. His is a classic Chicago story, about a beefy yet charming guy born on Grand Avenue, who got in trouble with the law as a kid, only to make political friends and become extremely wealthy. He was arrested once for jewelry theft in the '60s by the Outfit's top Chicago police detective, William Hanhardt. Urso's alleged partner in the theft was the...

Amrish Mahajan, former president of failed Mutual Bank of Harvey and a major fundraiser for imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has been barred from future participation in the banking industry under a newly released regulatory order. Mr. Mahajan consented, without admitting or denying unsafe or unsound banking practices, to a May 1 order by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. prohibiting him from participating “in any manner” in the conduct of the affairs of any federally insured institution. ... Mr. Mahajan was known for his political connections, particularly to Mr. Blagojevich. Mutual Bank briefly entered the realm of national politics after...

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. (Rezko, Auchi) This was the Tony Rezko who, looking for millions of dollars for a massive South...

Earlier this month Amrish Mahajan resigned as president of Mutual Bank of Harvey, Illinois, an important financial institution for the Indian community of the Chicago area. Mahajan raised over $500,000 for ousted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich campaign fund. His wife Anita worked with Patti Blagojevich, Illinois' former first lady, on several real estate deals. Anita is awaiting trial for allegedly over billing the Department Of Children & Family Services for drug-screenings. Mutual Bank once held the mortgage to the "Rezko lot" adjacent to Barack Obama's South Side mansion. Jailed-felon Tony Rezko advised Obama during the process of purchasing that home....

A former Illinois bank official, now claiming whistleblower status, says bank officials replaced a loan reappraisal that he prepared for a Chicago property that was purchased by the wife of now-convicted felon Tony Rezko, part of which was later sold to next-door neighbor Barack Obama. In a complaint filed Thursday in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Kenneth J. Connor said that his reappraisal of Rita Rezko's property was replaced with a higher one and that he was fired when he questioned the document. Mr. Connor, a real estate and commercial credit analyst at the Mutual Bank Corp. in Chicago,...

CHICAGO (CN) - A real estate analyst claims that Mutual Bank fired him because he reported that someone had taken his appraisal of the lot where Antoin and Rita Rezko built a home - and of the famous 10-foot strip of property that the Rezkos eventually sold to their next-door neighbors Barack and Michelle Obama - and replaced it with another document in the bank file, after Rezko's business deals became national news. Kenneth Conner says that another appraiser overvalued Rezko's vacant lot by about $134,000 in 2005. Rezko bought the land on Greenwood Avenue in June that year for...