In 2005, Barack Obama bought the mansion that can be seen through the adjoining lot. It's that piece of property that interest we're going to focus on this morning. Tony Rezko's wife Rita, a woman of modest income, purchased the "Rezko lot" on the same day the Obamas purchased their Georgian home. Obama paid less than the asking price for the stately residence, but what about the strip of land next to it?
In a lawsuit filed in Cook County Court, the appraiser says the value of the Rezko lot was assessed too high. You can view the lawsuit here.
From the New York Daily News' Mouth of the Potomac blog:
Obama later bought a sixth of Rezko's parcel for $104,500 to expand his yard by 10 feet and she sold the rest to someone else, bagging a profit of about $50,000, Bloomberg reported.
The new issue is that Kenneth Conner, an appraiser for Mutual Bank, says Rezko's land was assessed at an inflated value. He claims he was fired improperly last October after he discovered his low appraisal had been removed from the bank's files and he blew the whistle on it.
We have no idea of the merits of the case, and there's nothing in the suit that suggests Obama had anything to do with the alleged appraisal shenanigans, or Conner's firing.
But the fact that the suit has been filed brings back yet another item that Team Obama would rather not have to deal with in the closing days of the contest. And the validity of the case is not likely to be resolved until after the voting is done.
And results of the "singing" by Rezko to federal prosecutors won't be known until after November 4 as well.
Hat tip to Cal Skinner of the McHenry County Blog.
UPDATE 11:30 AM CDT: My friend Dan Curry of Reverse Spin, a once and future marathoner, has more.
Related posts:
Obama's "sweetheart" mortgage: Was the competing lender Broadway Bank?
Rita Rezko's contribution to America's worst government, Cook County
Technorati tags:
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Illinois Politics 
Tony Rezko 
corruption 
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3 comments:
Don't most people buying an actual home try to pay less than the asking price?
Didn't the Obama family actually pay a higher final price than the other family bidding on the home?
Do Mr. Ruberry and his cohorts display a stunning lack of the most basic understanding of real estate appraisals and transactions?
The answer to all questions is "Yes" but far be it from Mr. Ruberry to display some common sense when he can spew some spin instead.
Say, speaking of common sense, Mr. Ruberry appears confused by writing: "Kenneth Conner, an appraiser for Mutual Bank, says Rezko's land was assessed at an inflated value. He claims he was fired improperly last October after he discovered his low appraisal"...
So the appraisal was both "inflated" and "low"? ;)
PS: Mr. Ruberry, have you bothered to even look at the lawsuit's brief (which is missing all of the accompanying exhibits, by the way)?
The Obamas (and even the Rezkos) are tangential to the entire argument. Conner is suing his former employers because he believes he caught them in the act of violating banking laws and was improperly fired as a result of his discovery.
You could replace the names Obama and Rezko with McCain and Bush and the suit would read the same.
Sorry to burst your bubble with the truth.
At least the Daily News admits: "there's nothing in the suit that suggests Obama had anything to do with the alleged appraisal shenanigans"....
So why bother breathlessly reporting such a curiosity?
Normally yes, they try. But in this pre-bubble market, there was a lot less of that.
Unlike Bush or McCain, Rezko is a convicted felon, and was known to be under federal investigation at the time Obama went into the property deal with him.
Rezko, Ayers, Wright, Pfleger...all of these assocations add up.
Keating, Liddy, Hagee, Gramm, Iseman, Davis...all of these associations add up.
What is it that you're always saying about the need for good judgment?
What was it that the Senate investigation determined about Sen. McCain's judgment going all the way back to the Keating 5 scandal?
Something about McCain's "poor judgment", right?
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