Indicted Blagojevich fundraiser got loan from Iraqi billionaire

[gravyboy77]

In the trib:

 

AP Exclusive: Indicted Blagojevich fundraiser got loan from Iraqi billionaire

 

By MIKE ROBINSON | AP Legal Affairs Writer

1:28 PM CST, February 7, 2008

 

CHICAGO - Gov. Rod Blagojevich's chief fundraiser has arranged to get a loan from the same Iraqi billionaire whose $3.5 million payment got another member of the governor's inner circle thrown in jail.

 

Christopher Kelly, head of Blagojevich's campaign fund in both of his races for governor and now under federal indictment, pledged all of his shares in a Nevada land partnership as collateral in exchange for the loan, according to state records reviewed by The Associated Press.

 

The loan came from General Mediterranean Holdings, a company based in Luxembourg and headed by Nadhmi Auchi, a London-based Iraqi who is currently appealing a fraud conviction in France.

 

"I don't want to comment," Kelly's defense attorney, Michael D. Monico, said after conferring with the south suburban roofing contractor.

 

Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a major campaign fundraiser for Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama who is facing a federal fraud trial next month, was jailed Jan. 28 after prosecutors said a $3.5 million payment from Auchi showed he had access to overseas money that could enable him to flee.

 

Records filed with the Illinois secretary of state's office five days earlier show that Kelly received a loan from Auchi. The records do not reflect the size or terms of the loan.

 

According to the records, the loan was secured by all of Kelly's interest in 640 Across I, a Nevada limited liability company. Kelly is one of five partners in the company, according to records on file at the Nevada secretary of state's office. The four others are Nevada residents.

 

Kelly and Rezko were two key members of Blagojevich's inner circle who were with him, raising funds, when he first set out to run for governor.

 

Although both Kelly and Rezko are under federal indictment, Blagojevich has been charged with no wrongdoing. His administration, however, has been under federal investigation for several years.

 

Kelly is charged with impeding and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service. Prosecutors say he made millions of dollars in bets with a Chicago-area bookie and at Las Vegas casinos, and paid off his losses with money from his roofing company, booking them as business expenses.

 

Kelly was at one time the governor's point man on gambling issues. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

 

Rezko is charged with scheming to shake down companies seeking money management business from the Illinois Teachers Retirement System, the $30 billion fund that pays the pensions of teachers outside Chicago.

 

Auchi was listed on the last Forbes magazine list as the 279th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion. He owns a portion of a 62-acre tract just south of downtown Chicago in which Rezko also is a shareholder.

 

Auchi, who visited Chicago in 2004 and posed for a photograph with Blagojevich, was barred from entering the country in 2005, federal prosecutors say.

 

They said in recently filed court papers that Rezko wrote to the State Department in November 2005 to request that Auchi be allowed to enter the United States "and, it appears, asked certain Illinois government officials to do the same."

 

Alasdair Pepper, a London attorney representing Auchi, said the magnate's fraud conviction in France is currently on appeal and "he absolutely denies that he had anything to do with any fraud."

 

Auchi has been accused of no wrongdoing in connection with his dealings with Rezko and Kelly. There was no indication that the loan to Kelly was in any way improper.

 

General Mediterranean is a holding company with assets around the world. The $3.5 million to Rezko was wired from an account in Beirut, Lebanon, to a Chicago bank in April 2007, according to prosecutors. They said it was disbursed within a week.

 

"It appears that Rezko has used the approximately $3.5 million for his benefit without alerting either the government or, as far as the government knows, the court," prosecutors said in a brief seeking to have him jailed. U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve then revoked his bond.

 

Rezko is being held pending a trial scheduled to begin March 3. There has been speculation that the government hoped a taste of jail would persuade Rezko to change his mind and cooperate in its investigation of state corruption.

[GWBH]

...posed with Rod -eh?? Sweet!

If remember right Kelly was also the National Finance Chairman for the DNC not too long ago...

"What tangled webs we weave..."

I can hear it now - "But yer honor - all we was do'n was-a tak'n care 'o bizness!!"