Friday, January 20, 2012

Exclusive: Obama crony Rezko begins federal prison sentence in Pekin, IL

Former Rezko mansion, Wilmette, IL
Pekin, Illinois in Tazewell County has a new resident. Well, sort of.

I don't know when he was transferred, but President Obama's first political sponsor, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, is now an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Pekin, which is across the Illinois River from Peoria.

I've been checking the Federal Bureau of Prisons site for Rezko's arrival every few days--today I got a hit.

The political fixer got into all sorts of trouble while serving as a dealmaker for disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison in November and 7 1/2 years for crimes involved in the sale of his pizza restaurants. But Rezko's trial judge allowed the latter to be served concurrently with the former. And Rezko is getting credit for time served since 2008 while awaiting his sentence at a Chicago federal lockup and a county jail in Wisconsin.

Rezko offered a job to Obama while he was still a Harvard law student. Most notoriously, through his wife, Rezko purchased a strip of land adjacent to the Obama's South Side Chicago mansion on the same day the future first couple closed on that home.

It's my belief that Rezko did that as a favor to then-Sen. Obama so he could afford the purchase of the mansion.

As for Rezko's Wilmette home, which is pictured on top, it was the site of a key Obama Senate race fundraiser in 2003. The food was better that day than it will be at the Pekin FCI. But Rezko, through his experience as a restaurateur, might be able to get a kitchen job there.

Related post:

Obama's "sweetheart" mortgage: Was the competing lender Broadway Bank?

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