Bloggers Who Think Dig Into Obama Mortgage Loan Story
By SusanUnPC on July 2, 2008 at 6:02 PM in Barack Obama, Chicago Mansion, Chicago politics, Crown family, Emil Jones, Illinois senate, Labor, Larry Johnson, Media Bias, Nadhmi Auchi, Obamedia, Real Estate, Tony Rezko, Workers
Amid the chorus of “nothing to see here, move along” flock of bloggers writing ho-hum responses to today’s Washington Post story, there are a few who are thinking deeper:
- Our TexasDarlin pointed out the favorable treatment the Obamas received compared to the “neglected slums” of their impoverished neighbors in unimaginably horrific “public” housing that Obama helped privatize so that his rich longtime buddies — like Tony Rezko and Allison Davis — could scoop up tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money while the properties were left in such disrepair that many became uninhabitable.
- LisaB addressed the mysterious payments of property taxes for the Obamas.
- Now, Flopping Aces resurrects the mystery of Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi who helped an in-debt Tony Rezko (in exchange for what?) around the time Rezko somehow managed to help the Obamas buy their mansion:
While there is no evidence that the bank in question had a program like Countrywide did, it sure does smell like political favoritism. Not as big of a deal as Johnson’s, Dodd’s, and Conrad’s, but you combine that with Tony Rezko’s involvement in the house deal when Rezko did not have the money to buy the property (at which point Iraqi financier Auchi comes in) and you get a fishy smell.
Ah. Nadhmi Auchi. Flopping Aces, a few months ago, reported:
Who is Auchi? He is an associate of Saddam’s who gave Rezko some big bucks and soon after receiving those big bucks Rezko helped Obama purchase a new home by buying the empty lot next to it at the same time. Auchi was convicted of fraud in France and was banned from entering the US in 2005. …
How in debt is Tony Rezko? During his federal trial, in March 2008, it was reported he is $50 million in debt. In fact, ABC News used this headline, which I cited in my story, “ABC News: Rezko $50 million in debt [Updated x3]“:
Rezko In Debt $50 Million; How Did He Afford Obama Lot?
Court Transcript Says Rezko Depends on Family Handouts of $7,500 a Month
In the same story, I wrote:
[F]rom the ABC News summary: Rezko “told the judge he had no current source of income, saying his last business deal involving a proposed power plant in Iraq had been cancelled.” That venture involved convicted Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi. See Larry Johnson’s story, “Will Rezko Blow Up Obama?“
Of course, the Rezko scandal hasn’t derailed Obama, so protected by the media. If the Clintons were similarly indebted to an indicted (and now convicted) slumlord who bilked taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars, you’d hear the story ad nauseum.
Here’s more from my March story that owed much to ABC investigative reporter Brian Ross’s digging — including the laughable purchase of the adjacent lot by Mrs. Rezko, who had no financial means and obviously couldn’t rely on her heavily in-debt husband — which begs the QUESTION: Who supplied the money that enabled the Rezkos to make possible the purchase of the Obamas’ $1.6 million mansion?
Rezko’s bleak financial picture raises the question of how the Rezkos were able to buy a vacant lot adjoining the home of Sen. Barack Obama in 2005, at a time Rezko says he was already in deep debt.
Rezko also reveals in the testimony, before Judge Amy St. Eve on Jan. 16, 2007, that he already knew he was under federal investigation at the time of the land purchase and had hired a criminal defense attorney to deal with the “feds.”
Obama says he sought Rezko’s help because the house he wanted to buy in Chicago’s Hyde Park came with an adjoining lot the seller wanted to sell at the same time.
Unable to afford it himself, Obama says Mrs. Rezko bought it for $625,000, and then later sold a strip of the lot back to Obama so he would have a larger yard. Obama says he paid Mrs. Rezko a fair market price. …
Here’s a bit more from the ABC News story:
… Mrs. Rezko makes $37,500 a year.
[...]
According to the transcript, Mrs. Rezko sold the vacant lot a few weeks before the hearing, with all proceeds going to pay previous debts.
Asked how he was able to pay his lawyer, Joseph Duffy, Rezko said family and some unnamed “friends” were paying his legal bills.
Duffy told the judge, “Mr. Rezko has not provided us any money since his indictment.”
Rezko told the judge he had no current source of income, saying his last business deal involving a proposed power plant in Iraq had been cancelled.
He said he had an ongoing relationship with Nadhmi Auchi, a London-based Iraqi billionaire convicted on French fraud charges, who Rezko described as a close friend and business associate. …
Okay, you “professional” journalists — like Politico’s Ben Smith who calls the Washington Post story “padded” and is done with it:
– Tell me how the Rezkos got the money to enable the Obamas to buy the mansion they couldn’t afford.
– Tell me that Nadhmi Auchi’s money didn’t give the Rezkos the funds they needed to buy the vacant lot required for the Obamas to close the sale on the mansion.
– Tell me what Nadhmi Auchi got out of helping Tony Rezko. Billionaires don’t get that rich by helping desperate businessmen who are under federal indictment and facing long prison sentences.
– Tell me that major Obama campaign contributor Susan Crown, on the Board of Directors of Northern Trust mortgage company since 1997, didn’t make a phone call or two to make sure the Obamas got a favorable mortgage loan.
– Tell me why Barack Obama promised Maytag workers he’d fight for their jobs and took their hard-earned money for his campaign, then turned around and got a big donation from Maytag board member Lester Crown (as well as his family and friends), but never said a word to Crown about saving those workers’ jobs?
And, while we’re at it:
– Tell me why state senator puppetmaster Emil Jones put Barack Obama on the state senate pensions committee for three months, during which time that committee defeated an effort to consolidate state pensions? At the same time that Tony Rezko was fighting the consolidation because it would have defeated his schemes for dipping into individual minority-owned pension management companies.
Dear readers, if you want to know more about Nadhmi Auchi and Tony Rezko, click here. We’ve been on these stories since last year.
Again: If Nadhmi Auchi were involved with Hillary Clinton, every American would know his name and his sordid dealings with Saddam Hussein, his conviction in France, and his billionaire status.
But it’s rare that a journalist gets to write about stories like these, let alone get any prominent coverage of his or her story.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
