Saturday, October 04, 2008

Feds Looking At Blago's Home Improvements

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the FBI is trying to figure out if convicted political fixer Tony Rezko paid for some or all of the $90,000 in home improvements to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagoyevich's home a few years ago. The Sun-Times says:

A grand jury has issued at least one subpoena related to the project, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Agents also have inquired about the governor's wife's real estate dealings with Rezko and whether Rezko might have disguised payments for the work through sham billings at a large housing development he was building.

The work was done in 2003 shortly after Rezko, a prominent developer, had succeeded in placing his friends and associates on state-government boards that controlled lucrative deals. Rezko was convicted of wide-ranging fraud involving those boards.

In recent weeks, Rezko has broken his long-held silence and sat down in a series of meetings with the feds -- a sign he might cooperate in the Blagojevich probe. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago declined to comment . . .

The work got under way in July 2003 -- about six months after the governor began accepting Rezko's candidates for state boards and about eight months after the state's first lady, real estate broker Patti Blagojevich, landed a $47,000 commission from a Rezko land deal . . .

During Rezko's corruption trial earlier this year, a former top Blagojevich aide, Ali D. Ata, testified he delivered a plastic bag filled with $25,000 in cash to Rezko to prevent subcontractors from placing a lien on the governor's home because they had not been paid.

If Tony Rezko was paying for improvements to the Governor's house in 2003 in consideration for political favors, then why was he helping Sen. Barack Obama purchase his South Side mansion in 2005? The national news media should be all over this story, but they won't touch it. They've already decided Obama is the one and any negative news about him must be suppressed. Folks, Obama is a typical Chicago politician who sells his political soul to advance his own selfish interests. I've been telling you this for months. People have got to start demanding answers from Obama. If you believe Rezko had any above board intentions in helping the Obamas purchase their home, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you. Obama no doubt heard that Rezko had helped out the governor on his home and thought he'd get a piece of the action as well. That's the way a typical Chicago politician thinks and acts. No change here, folks. Wake up.

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