Obama’s Looming Subprime Nightmare
By Larry Johnson on October 18, 2008 at 2:00 PM in Barack Obama, Chicago Mansion, Chicago politics, Corruption, Crime, Current Affairs, Home Loan, Housing & Housing Crisis, John Batchelor, Patrick Fitzgerald, Tony Rezko
Just like the real estate bubble, which exploded like the Death Star, the Worship Our Savior Barack train is going to derail. According to the Washington Times, a criminal complaint has been filed by a real estate appraiser who claims a fraudulent appraisal was used for the lot eventually sold to Barack Obama:
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, also noted in the complaint that the bank received a grand jury subpoena in October 2006 requiring it to produce information concerning Mrs. Rezko’s purchase, including the bank’s files on the property.
The media, who for the most part have ignored the shady land deal between the felon Tony Rezko and Barack Obama, may now be shamed into at least examining the matter in light of their relentless scrutiny of Joe the Plumber. This was a fairly sophisticated money laundering transaction. For starters, Tony Rezko was one of Barack Obama’s major fund raisers. The property that Barack and Michelle Obama wanted to buy had an asking price of $1.95 million dollars. They got a sweetheart loan and bought the house for $1.65 million. Why? Because the owners of the home were able to sell the adjacent lot on the same day to Tony Rezko and his wife for $125,000 dollars more than the land was worth. The Rezkos paid full price, $625,000 for a strip of land adjacent to the house, that according to the appraiser is only worth $500,000.
The inimitable John Batchelor is on this like a chicken on a bug.
John writes:
Startling news this morning from a bizarre break in the mystery of what Tony Rezko is telling prosecutors in Chicago in exchange for a better deal on his conviction for graft and corruption. In the Washington Times — not from either of the Chicago papers — there is a report of a whistleblower lawsuit by previously unknown bank clerk Kenneth J. Connor against his former employer, the Mutual Bank Corporation in Chicago, for firing him because he refused to go along with an apparent real estate fraud involving the house that Barack Obama lives in. The details are complex, including the inflating of the value of the lot that Rita Rezko purchased and later sold a piece of to Barack Obama, including the fact that the bank owner, Amrish Mahajan, is a long-time Rezko crony and creditor, and I point to the gifted encyclopedic site The Real Barack Obama for a full explanation and savvy speculation of the reason Mr. Connor is upset. The heart of it is that Mr. Connor refused to go along with a fraud with regard the lot at 505o South Greenwood Avenue that Rita Rezko (as a cut-out for her husband Tony) bid on and purchased between January and June 2005 in order to make it possible for Barack and Michelle Obama to bid on and purchase their mansion at 5046 South Greenwood Avenue in Hyde Park. Mr. Conner now reveals all this in a lawsuit against the bank that fired him because he wouldn’t play along. Stepping around Mr. Conner’s ambition, there is the much more fetching clue here that the prosecutors have raced way past talking to Tony Rezko about the “Board Games” that led to his conviction, past Tony Rezko’s corrupt dealings raising cash for Governor Rod Blagojeich, past Tony Rezko’s years of skimming and cheating and bullying in Chicago, to go right after the critical piece of the Obama house deal that underlines that something is rotten in Hyde Park. Kenneth J. Conner doesn’t file a lawsuit in civil court unless he has spoken at great length with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office in front of a Grand Jury with regard the criminal investigation of Rezko and his clients. And the extremely irregular and unexplained purchase of the Hyde Park mansion for the newly elected and then sworn-in Senator Barack Obama in 2005 is a major mystery. On Sunday 12, when I spoke to Natasha Korecki, Chicago Sun-Times, re Rezko talking, I was convinced that the prosecution is pursuing the governor’s vulnerability first, and that the senator’s vulnerability was left till later if at all. Now I see, as can anyone who has studied the byzantine pleasure palace of Cook County, that Mr. Fitzgerald and his team have hold of secrets within secrets, and that Tony Rezko’s talking is like 3-in-1 oil, it lubricates the whole investigation of the governor and the senator. The lot! They are on to Rita Rezko’s lot! That is the backdoor to Barack Obama’s self-described “boneheaded” deal with Tony Rezko. That is the backdoor to what really happened between Tony Rezko and Senator-elect Obama and the Wondisfords sellers and the two silent-so-far realtors who were both friends of Tony Rezko.
Mr. Fitzgerald’s Clock is Ticking
It is follow the money. It is always follow the money. Who paid for the lot? Who paid for the house? When and how? Note that the Conner lawsuit also mentions that the grand jury was seeking, as far ago as October 2006, information on Rita Rezko’s checking account and loan file at the Mutual Bank. Her checking account. Fitzgerald is deeply involved in how 5050/5046 South Greenwood, the lot and the house (right), was passed over to Senator and Mrs. Obama. Mention also that another of my very best Chicago sources writes me that Mr. Fitzgerald best accelerate, his clock is ticking, and his tenure is iffy in an Obama Justice Department with a Democratic dominated Congress and an ineffective Chicago media
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by Ronald Scott
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