Microsoft Word - obio-MS-fin.doc

V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 195

According to Rawstory, “Auchi, a native of Iraq who lives in Great Britain, has a colorful past
of his own. The businessman set up a variety of deals with Saddam Hussein’s regime prior to the
1991 Gulf War, and was one of the largest private shareholders in BNP Paribas, the bank that
trafficked most of the funds involved in the UN Oil-For-Food scandal. He also admitted taking
kickbacks from the French petroleum company TotalFinaElf in the 1990s (Auchi later sued Elf for
entangling him in their criminal activities, according to Forbes).”

By late summer 2008, right-wing papers from the mainstream media were finally beginning to
realize the dimensions of the Auchi issue. Neocon John Fund wrote in the Wall Street Journal
online edition: ‘Rezko’s trial raised a host of questions. Was Mr. Obama able to save $300,000 on
the asking price of his house because Rezko’s wife paid full price for the adjoining lot? How did
Mrs. Rezko make a $125,000 down payment and obtain a $500,000 mortgage when financial
records shown at the Rezko trial indicate she had a salary of only $37,000 and assets of $35,000?
Records show her husband also had few assets at the time. Last April, the London Times revealed
that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born billionaire living in London, had loaned Mr. Rezko $3.5 million
three weeks before the day the sale of the house and lot closed in June 2005. Mr. Auchi’s office
notes he was a business partner of Rezko but says he had “no involvement in or knowledge of” the
property sale. But in April 2004 he did attend a dinner party in his honor at Rezko’s Chicago home.
Mr. Obama also attended, and according to one guest, toasted Mr. Auchi. Later that year, Mr. Auchi
came under criminal investigation as part of a U.S. probe of the corrupt issuance of cell-phone
licenses in Iraq. In May 2004, the Pentagon’s inspector general’s office cited “significant and
credible evidence” of involvement by Mr. Auchi’s companies in the Oil for Food scandal, and in
illicit smuggling of weapons to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Because of the criminal probe, Mr.
Auchi’s travel visa to the U.S. was revoked in August 2004, even as Mr. Auchi denied all the
allegations. According to prosecutors, in November 2005 Rezko was able to get two government
officials from Illinois to appeal to the State Department to get the visa restored. Asked if anyone in
his office was involved in such an appeal, Mr. Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times last March, “not
that I know of.” FOIA requests to the State Department for any documents haven’t been responded
to for months.’^77

REZKO JAILED BEFORE SUPER TUESDAY OVER PAYMENT TO REZKO

Auchi suddenly became big news just before Super Tuesday, when court proceedings

connected to the Rezko trial revealed that Auchi had transmitted a hefty sum of cash to

Rezko to help him to make bail and get sprung out of jail. When the judge in the Rezko trial

learned of Auchi’s conveyance of this cash, Rezko was ordered back to jail at a very

sensitive moment in the primary season – but most of the impact was blunted because of

the media smokescreen for Barky. Important background information was provided by the

London Times, the British newspaper of record: ‘An undeclared $3.5 million (£1.8 million)

payment from a Iraqi-British businessman has landed Barack Obama’s former fundraiser

behind bars. The payment, disclosed in court papers, is the first time that Mr Obama’s long-

serving bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a Syrian immigrant to the United States, has been

linked to Nadhmi Auchi, the Iraqi-born billionaire who is one of Britain’s richest men.

Court papers describe Mr Rezko as a close friend of Mr Auchi, although Mr Auchi disputes

this. The two are involved in a large Chicago land development together. But it is unclear

how long the two men have known each other or whether they were linked before the 2003

Iraq war. Neither side would discuss their relationship. The Times has, however, discovered