[BretLudwig]

New info on the Rezko-Obama land deal

"Back on October 18, a blog for the NY Daily News (via Kausfiles)
reported that a Chicago real estate appraiser was claiming in his wrongful
termination suit that his ex-employer had inflated the appraisal of the
strip of land which Tony Rezko's wife bought at the same June 2005 closing
at which Sen. Obama bought his stately home. The blog said:

We have no idea of the merits of the case ... But the fact that the
suit has been filed brings back yet another item that Team Obama would
rather not have to deal with in the closing days of the contest.

Of course, Team Obama didn't have to deal with it, just as they didn't
have to deal with much of anything.

The Washington Times reported on Election Day:

A former Illinois real estate specialist says FBI agents have
questioned him about a Chicago property that had been bought by convicted
felon Tony Rezko's wife and later sold to the couple's next-door neighbor,
Sen. Barack Obama.

The real estate specialist, Kenneth J. Conner, said bank officials
replaced an appraisal review he prepared on the property and FBI agents
were investigating in late 2007 whether the Rezko-Obama deal was proper.

€œAgents and I talked about payoff, bribe, kickback for a long time,
though it took them only a short number of minutes of talking with me
while looking at the appraisal to acknowledge what they already seemed to
know: The Rezko lot was grossly overvalued,€� Mr. Conner told The
Washington Times Monday.

€œRezko paid the asking price on the same day Obama paid $300,000
less than the asking price to the same seller for his adjacent mansion,€�
he said. €œThis begs the question of payoff, bribe, kickback.€�

To be pedantic, it raises the question ...

According to his complaint, Mr. Conner reviewed the appraisal of the
Rezko property by another firm, Adams Appraisal, which had set the value
at $625,000. The complaint said he told his bosses the property had been
overvalued by at least $125,000 and that a €œreasonable and fair
evaluation€� should have been no greater than $500,000.

Mr. Conner said the removal of his appraisal €œseemed understood as a
crime with respect to the subpoena€� of the Rezko property and the FDIC
audit.

Well, who knows? There was a housing bubble going on and appraisers were
doing a lot of screwy things in 2005.

But Blagogate has reminded the country that they just elected a Chicago
politician to the White House.

And the appraiser's contention that his bosses inflated the value of the
land Rezko purchased adjoining Obama's house at the same closing fits in
with the low-level general fishiness of the deal.

As you'll recall, the Obamas got $300,000 knocked off the asking price of
the house, while the Rezkos paid the full $625,000 asking price for their
adjoining property. Think about it from your point of view. You see a
house that you want to buy, but the price is steep. The sellers own both
the house and a big side yard, which might be big enough to build another
house on (or might not, depending on a complicated web of development
rules in this historic district). They are willing to sell the two pieces
of land separately and have published separate prices for them.

You call up an old friend and have him come look at the property with you.
On closing day, his wife shows up and buys the side lot while you buy the
big house, meaning that the sellers unload everything, which is obviously
of interest to the sellers.

The sellers wind up with $300,000 less than their asking price for the two
pieces of land together.

Question: How do you and your old buddy divvy up the $300,000 discount? I
would assume that most friends would split it pro-rata based on the asking
prices, which means that Rezko would have gotten about $70,000 off. If the
discount was split unevenly, the normal thing would be for the person
doing the favor to get more. And clearly, Obama was asking a favor of
Rezko -- he called Rezko about the property, not the other way around. So,
if you aren't going to split it pro rata, then Rezko should get more.

Instead, Rezko got none of the $300,000 and Obama got all of it.

The Chicago papers had reported back in March 2005, several months before
Rezko and Obama bought the land at the same closing, that Rezko had
illegally gotten the Panda Express franchises at O'Hare by claiming they
were actually minority-owned and operated, that minority being Jabir
Muhammad, the son of the notorious Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad.
So, Obama would have known about Rezko being a crook just from reading the
newspapers.

Of course, no doubt Obama knew far more about Rezko's Rezkoness than what
was making the papers. But, still he went ahead with the deal. It's the
Chicago Way.

This $70,000 isn't the biggest deal in the world. Bill Clinton doesn't get
out of bed for $70,000. It's precisely its yuppie size that makes it
interesting: What would you do for $70,000?

That's an interesting amount of money... It's not one of these
hypothetical questions -- "Would you do something immoral for $100
million?" -- that sophomores like like to discuss. Instead, it's the kind
of money that you can imagine having dangled before you at some point.

Did Rezko owe Obama a favor? Sure, Obama had been chairman of the Illinois
Senate committe on Health and Human Services for the past two years, during
which time Rezko had come to corruptly control the Illinois Health
Facilities Planning Board, which picked winners in the contest to build
big hospitals. Obama played a helpful role in Rezko's gang getting picked
to build a hospital. See, Rezko owned 5 of the 15 board members, so he
wanted the board "streamlined" from 15 to 9 in the interests of
"efficiency," which gave him a majority of 5 of 9. RezkoWatch pointed
out:

A review of senate records shows Obama played a major role in pushing
through Senate Bill 1332, that led to the "Illinois Health Facilities
Planning Act," which reduced the number of members on the Board from 15 to
9, making the votes much easier to rig.

Democratic Senator Susan Garrett sponsored the bill, and the
co-sponsor was Republican Senator Dale Righter. These two senators were
also on the Human Services Committee with Obama. The bill was assigned to
the Committee for review on February 27, 2003. As chairman, Obama sent
word to the full senate that the bill should be passed on March 13.

Blagojevich made the effective date June 27, 2003, and the co-schemers
already had the people lined up to stack the Board and rig the votes with
full approval from Obama.

A June 2003 email exchange produced in the trial shows Obama received
the names of the nominees for the Board ahead of time, from the office of
David Wilhelm, who headed Blagojevich's 2002 campaign. Rezko's attorney
made the point to the jury that the email was from Blagojevich's general
counsel and Wilhelm's office, and indicated the appointees were
recommended by Wilhelm and supported by those who received the memo.

The new Senate bill said, the €œBoard shall be appointed by the
Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate." But the Senate
Confirmation Hearings were a joke. For instance, the Feds recorded Levine
talking to co-schemer, Jon Bauman, the day Levine learned he was approved
by the Senate from the executive secretary of the Board.

He told Levine Senate President, Emil Jones [Obama's godfather in the
Senate], only allowed 2 members to be approved and "that was you and the
other person he just put in."

"Isn't that hysterical 'cause you know they had this big battle going
on," Levine told Bauman, "don't you just love it."

"I'm one of those independents and not part of the block."

"Well, good, you know it's good to be just a true independent civil
servant," Bauman said laughing along with Levine.

"Is, is that a good thing," Levine replied, "I've never been that."

The corrupt new appointees were all contributors to the presidential
hopeful, Rod Blagojevich, and the US senate hopeful Obama. The Boards
then sitting-chairman, Thomas Beck, appointed by a Republican governor,
testified under a grant of immunity that he brought a $1,000 check to
Rezko on July 15, 2003, to make sure Blagojevich reappointed him.

Beck also testified that Rezko told him Blagojevich was set to appoint
Rezkos three doctor friends to complete the rigged voting bloc.

Dr Michel Malek gave Obama $10,000 a little over a month before the
first Board meeting on June 30, 2003. He also donated $25,000 to
Blagojevich three weeks later on July 25, 2003, and gave Obama another
$500 in September 2003.

Dr Fortunee Massuda donated $25,000 to Blagojevich on July 25, 2003,
and gave a total of $2,000 to Obama on different dates. Massuda's husband,
Charles Hannon, is a co-schemer in the pension fund case and testified
against Rezko in the trial.

Dr Imad Almanaseer contributed a total of $3,000 to Obama after he
landed the appointment. On March 13, 2008, Almanaseer testified against
Rezko and told the jury he was an investor in Rezko's fast-food
businesses.

You'll notice the Middle Eastern flavor to Rezko's flunkies. In Chicago,
Arab operators like Rezko don't control enough votes to matter, so they
have to pay to play.

We're not used to thinking of health as a corrupt field. Yet, as
bankrobber Willie Sutton answered when asked why he robs banks: That's
where the money is. The health industry is, what, $2 trillion per year.
So, it naturally attracts operators like Tony Rezko ... and politicians
like Barack Obama.

You can read more about what attracted Obama to Chicago -- of all places
-- to make his political career in my new book, a reader's guide to Barack
Obama's autobiography, America's Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama's "Story
of Race and Inheritance," which you can buy here."


http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/12/n...land-deal.html

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[Clyde Slick]

On 14 Dec, 18:04, "BretLudwig" wrote:
New info on the Rezko-Obama land deal

"Back on October 18, a blog for the NY Daily News (via Kausfiles)

reported that a Chicago real estate appraiser was claiming in his wrongful
termination suit that his ex-employer had inflated the appraisal of the
strip of land which Tony Rezko's wife bought at the same June 2005 closing
at which Sen. Obama bought his stately home. The blog said:

* * We have no idea of the merits of the case ... But the fact that the
suit has been filed brings back yet another item that Team Obama would
rather not have to deal with in the closing days of the contest.

Of course, Team Obama didn't have to deal with it, just as they didn't
have to deal with much of anything.

The Washington Times reported on Election Day:

* * A former Illinois real estate specialist says FBI agents have
questioned him about a Chicago property that had been bought by convicted
felon Tony Rezko's wife and later sold to the couple's next-door neighbor,
Sen. Barack Obama.

* * The real estate specialist, Kenneth J. Conner, said bank officials
replaced an appraisal review he prepared on the property and FBI agents
were investigating in late 2007 whether the Rezko-Obama deal was proper.

* * “Agents and I talked about payoff, bribe, kickback for a long time,
though it took them only a short number of minutes of talking with me
while looking at the appraisal to acknowledge what they already seemed to
know: The Rezko lot was grossly overvalued,” Mr. Conner told The
Washington Times Monday.

* * “Rezko paid the asking price on the same day Obama paid $300,000
less than the asking price to the same seller for his adjacent mansion,”
he said. “This begs the question of payoff, bribe, kickback.”

To be pedantic, it raises the question ...

* * According to his complaint, Mr. Conner reviewed the appraisal of the
Rezko property by another firm, Adams Appraisal, which had set the value
at $625,000. The complaint said he told his bosses the property had been
overvalued by at least $125,000 and that a “reasonable and fair
evaluation” should have been no greater than $500,000.

* * Mr. Conner said the removal of his appraisal “seemed understood as a
crime with respect to the subpoena” of the Rezko property and the FDIC
audit.

Well, who knows? There was a housing bubble going on and appraisers were
doing a lot of screwy things in 2005.

But Blagogate has reminded the country that they just elected a Chicago
politician to the White House.

And the appraiser's contention that his bosses inflated the value of the
land Rezko purchased adjoining Obama's house at the same closing fits in
with the low-level general fishiness of the deal.

As you'll recall, the Obamas got $300,000 knocked off the asking price of
the house, while the Rezkos paid the full $625,000 asking price for their
adjoining property. Think about it from your point of view. You see a
house that you want to buy, but the price is steep. The sellers own both
the house and a big side yard, which might be big enough to build another
house on (or might not, depending on a complicated web of development
rules in this historic district). They are willing to sell the two pieces
of land separately and have published separate prices for them.

You call up an old friend and have him come look at the property with you..
On closing day, his wife shows up and buys the side lot while you buy the
big house, meaning that the sellers unload everything, which is obviously
of interest to the sellers.

The sellers wind up with $300,000 less than their asking price for the two
pieces of land together.

Question: How do you and your old buddy divvy up the $300,000 discount? I
would assume that most friends would split it pro-rata based on the asking
prices, which means that Rezko would have gotten about $70,000 off. If the
discount was split unevenly, the normal thing would be for the person
doing the favor to get more. And clearly, Obama was asking a favor of
Rezko -- he called Rezko about the property, not the other way around. So,
if you aren't going to split it pro rata, then Rezko should get more.

Instead, Rezko got none of the $300,000 and Obama got all of it.


that is dead on correct.
that is the way the payoff was disguised.
Rezko use the deal to give Obama $150,000
now Rezko is supposedly singing for a reduced sentence.
but I don't know how many songs, or which
ones will make it onto the album.