White-Collar Crime
Rezko Convicted of 16 of 24 Counts in Illinois Political Corruption Case
Posted Jun 4, 2008, 02:57 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Updated: A federal jury reached a verdict today in a much-watched political corruption trial of an Illinois real estate developer who made since-returned campaign contributions to Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Antoin ''Tony'' Rezko was found guilty of 2 counts of money laundering; guilty of 2 of 6 counts of corrupt solicitation; guilty of 12 of 15 counts of mail and/or wire fraud; and not guilty on 1 count of attempted extortion, reports a local ABC News affiliate. The case involved alleged scheming to get kickbacks from companies seeking to do business with the state of Illinois.
"The 10-woman, two-man jury deliberated for parts of 13 days before convicting Rezko of scheming with Stuart Levine, a longtime Republican insider, to extort millions of dollars from firms seeking state business or regulatory approval," the Chicago Tribune recounts in a breaking news story.
As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, the Rezko trial featured dramatic testimony on a multiplicity of topics. Among them: testimony by Levine, the government's star witness, who is an attorney and businessman, about his own fast-lane lifestyle and claims that a Rezko associate who was a Republican heavyweight tried to pull strings in the Bush administration to get U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald fired and end the Rezko prosecution.
Additional coverage:
New York Times: "Fund-Raiser Convicted in Illinois Bribery Scheme"
The Trail (Washington Post): "Rezko Convicted of Influence Peddling"
ABAJournal.com: "Rezko Defense Rests Without Calling Any Witnesses"
Updated at 5:52 p.m., central time, to include Washington Post coverage.
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Posted by kay sieverding - 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 13 hours, 31 minutes ago
We should explore the possibility that parties with baby boomers where cocaine is used are a connecting element between various networks of people that might be involved in various corrupt activities. For centuries, haven’t party rooms been associated with corruption? If you wanted to ask someone for a prohibited or illegal favor, if you approached him when he was doing something illegal or embarrassing, such as participating in a lap dance or being really drunk in public,or being even in the presence of cocaine as a non user, wouldn’t it be extremely difficult for them to complain to the FBI/ state authorities about your approach, because they would have to identify a when and where?
You could have the same scenario with different types of drugs—opium, etc couldn’t you? If we plan to do a good job in developing a democracy in Iraq, we should anticipate scenarios like drug and sex related corruption.
Posted by associate - 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes ago
FYI, Obama returned the presidential campaign contributions, but he retains the millions for his state senate and US senate campaigns as well as the money he got for his current home from Rezko personally.
Posted by Kay Sieverding - 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 7 hours, 54 minutes ago
you don’t offer any evidence suggesting that Obama kept moneys from Rezko. The articles say Obama sold Rezko land and nowhere does it say that it was not at market rate. I never read anywhere that Senator Obama was involved in parties at strip clubs and brothels or involving cocaine and amphetamines. I don’t like the idea of anonymous postings not backed by facts and I don’t think you should use the ABA web site this way.