Marathon Pundit: Ex-fugitive and prison escapee funded 1/3 of Tony Rezko's bail

Three months ago, alleged polital fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko was jailed after his bail was revoked for failing to disclose a $3.5 million loan from a firm tied to Iraqi-born billionaire Nadhmi Auchi.

Eight days ago, Rezko, with restrictions, was granted bail once again. The new bail was $8.5 million--and the Chicago Sun-Times discloses 1/3 of it comes from businessman Aiham Alsammarae, a man with a very interesting past.

The three homes belonging to former Iraqi Electricity Minister Aiham Alsammarae -- a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who broke out of a Baghdad jail in 2006 -- are part of a long list made public in Rezko's case Friday following a Sun-Times request. Six of the other individuals who pledged property to get Rezko out of the Metropolitan Correctional Center on April 18 are current or former state employees.

Alsammarae put up $1.9 million in equity in his Oak Brook mansion, along with $840,000 in equity from two South Loop condominiums, according to court records. In recent days, he appeared in the downtown federal courthouse to pledge his property and signed papers related to Rezko's bail. That proceeding, however, was conducted in a private session with U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve and lawyers. Records from it weren't immediately released.

International intrigue surrounds Alsammarae, who dramatically fled Iraq in late 2006 after being held on a corruption conviction he maintains was groundless. He and Rezko have been friends since they were classmates at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

U.S. court papers recently revealed that the feds once accused Rezko, a native of Syria, of paying Alsammarae a $1.5 million bribe when Alsammarae was electricity minister.

Rezko's attorneys deny the accusation, but the Sun-Times reports that prosecutors are investigating the Democratic political insider's business dealings in Iraq.

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Rezko accused of bribing ex-Iraqi official, prison escapee

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