Tony Rezko did some fancy footwork to do that favor for Obama - NYT.

[TacticalPeek]

... But a review of court records, including new details of Mr. Rezko’s finances that emerged recently, show that the lot purchase occurred as he was being pursued by creditors seeking more than $10 million, deepening the mystery of why he would plunge into a real estate investment whose biggest beneficiary appears to have been Mr. Obama.

As Mr. Obama and Mr. Rezko were completing the property purchases in June 2005, Mr. Rezko was fighting to keep lenders and investors at bay over defaulted loans and failing business ventures. But he side-stepped that financial dragnet by arranging for the land to be bought in his wife’s name, making it the only property she owned by herself, according to land records.
...
Vincent A. Lavieri, a lawyer who has represented clients in three lawsuits against Mr. Rezko, said Mr. Rezko’s creditors could have tried to prove that Mr. Rezko was using his wife as a front to shield assets.

It is unclear where Mrs. Rezko got the money for the down payment and how she carried the loan, considering that she later said in an affidavit that she earned $37,000 a year and had few assets.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3206094&mesg_id=3206094

[SoFlaJet]

1. you know what's really gotta suck for the Clinton operatives

that work her at DU and the other blog spots is that NOBODY gives a shit about 3/4 of the anti-Obama propaganda they waste their time posting about-Too bad your girl is done on Tuesday

[indimuse]

24. your boy is going down...

down down..and as the REZKO/OBAMA flame grew higher...no pun...

[indimuse]

25. K&R

:dem: :kick: :dem: :kick: :dem: :kick:

[anonymous171]

2. 3 more fucking days.

[Hepburn]

3. Geeeeeeeeez, three more days of crap like this.

I am sooooooo sick of bullshit like this. :puke:

[anamandujano]

11. Is the New York Times closing shop in 3 days? How do you like that.

You just never know, do you.

[Hepburn]

13. Actually, I do know on this one.

I am a retired atty and I know when witness lists have to be exchanged and witnesses subpoenaed for trial. If Obama was even REMOTELY involved in any of the this, he would have long ago been on a witness list and/or subpoenaed for trial.

Nice try...no cigar. Next time try your bullshit on someone else. This time you hit on someone who knows the ball park and the game whereas you don't even know what road leads there.

You made a fool of yourself...congrats. Next time you try for a smart ass remark that you think is cute don't ASSume that the person to whom you directed your drek is as clueless as you.

[dkf]

4. There was another buyer for that other piece of property that Rezko bought

and at the same amount too. The only difference was the timing, which I don't see as being a big deal.

If Rezko hadn't bought the property, it would have closed on a different date, and Obama would have the house anyway.

This is lame.

[Kittycat]

5. How many Rezco threads is this for today?

Maybe we should ask that they be consolidated... Because all they're doing is cluttering up the board - no one gives a shit, because Obama isn't in any trouble.

[madrchsod]

9. at least two that i have seen tonight

and i`ve been sick all day and have`t been here my usual 3-5 hours!

[high density]

6. Rezko... Haven't you guys figured out yet that nobody gives a shit about Rezko?

Evidently not. The NY Times is giving the NY Post a run for its money these days when it comes to reporting BS non-issue political 'news.'

[Rageneau]

8. I tried to tell the NYT that nobody gave a shit about Whitewater either.

But eight years, five intense investigations, two special prosecutors, 100 FBI agents and and over 100 million dollars worth of vicious, partisan snooping later, people STILL bring up Whitewater as if the Clintons had been found guilty of something.

Maybe Obama's supporters don't want to hear about Rezko, but the rest of us do. If we look into his dealings with Obama one-one-hundreth as much as we looked into Clinton's with McDougal, I'll be satisfied.

This is what being 'vetted" is all about, by the way.

[high density]

10. Vetting him on bullshit non-issues?

That's a lousy test if I've ever heard of one. I'll apply the same feelings to Whitewater.

[ContinentalOp]

19. So Whitewater was a waste of time and money but you want to go through it all again?

You just can't wait to put another Democrat through that circus?

[Honeycombe8]

7. The problem w/this story is...it's about Rezko and doesn't state anything wrong by Obama.

I just don't get why the Clinton people keep pushing this....I'm not seeing even any allegations that Obama did anything illegal or unethical. He, what, bought some land from a shady guy? That's it? Or is there something else?

I mean, I may have bought my house from a shady guy, too, for all I know. That has nothing to do with the purchase of my house.

If there is more to this story, I don't think the public will grasp it. I'm looking for any bad behavior on Obama's part, and I'm not seeing it.

[unc70]

14. The NYT article adds a couple of facts I had not seen before

While I had seen reports detailing how Obama has changed his story wrt Rezko several times over the last two years, I had not previously seen how the money had flowed back and forth. The court documents that were released this week probably helped fill in some critical pieces.

The NYT article raises the possibility that the timing of the purchase by Obama of 1/6 of the lot might have been to help Rezko financially while he was dodging creditors, some backed by court orders.

I see an issue with the appraisal on the lot which allowed Rita Rezko to get a loan of $500k as 80% of the lot valuation. Just a few months later, the same lot was appraised on Obama's behalf for only $240k. I would not want to be the first appraiser because it appears they might have met the loan needs rather than evaluating the property in the current market.

The sale to Obama and the latter sale of the remainder will get close scrutiny, particularly since the latter buyer was an associate of Rezko and might be a sham. At the worst, some of these actions might reach the level of loan fraud, Rule 11 problems, fraudulent hiding of assets, and even obstruction of justice.

While Obama may not have done anything provably illegal, it does appear that his acclaimed judgment and decision making skills were not on display anywhere.

[BearSquirrel2]

18. 1/6 of market value ...

Obama bought the parcel at 1/6 what Rezko paid for it. How is this REMOTELY a payoff even if Obama overpaid Rezko?

[unc70]

21. It might have to do with getting cash into Rita Rezko's name

From the NYT article (you should read all of it before posting anything):

"There is nothing to indicate that Mr. Obama did any favors for Mr. Rezko, but there is ample evidence that Mr. Rezko did favors for Mr. Obama.

...

"Finally, in October 2005, G.E. obtained an order allowing the company to begin seizing Mr. Rezko’s assets. The company’s lawyers filed a claim against the Rezkos’ home and began issuing subpoenas to banks where Mr. Rezko had accounts, finding very little cash. Court records show that G.E. was due to be in court on Jan. 5, 2006, for example, obtaining an order to seize $1,297.39 from one of Mr. Rezko’s checking accounts.

"Less than a week later, Mrs. Rezko sold a 10-foot-wide strip of the empty lot to Mr. Obama, for $104,500, so he could widen his side yard. The Rezkos had little to show for the entire transaction."


Obama has said that it was a boneheaded mistake to have been dealing with Rezko. I would not presume to disagree with his assessment of the situation.

[BearSquirrel2]

27. He is apologizing for the appearance of malfeasance ...

This is something the Clinton's should have learned a long time ago. You apologize right away from the appearance of malfeasance and get it over with.

The fact that Rezko was trying to convert assets to his wife's name has NOTHING to do with Obama. It's merely an issue of who cashed the check. If it was REALLY a scheme Obama would have just bought the entire lot. Given the amount of purchasing power he had, he probably just should have bought the lot himself.

Of course, Obama isn't greedy and he knew Rezko was intending to build housing on it so ... there.

[zulchzulu]

12. Check out this FREE Real Estate 101 Course! You can do it! Yes, you can!

:hi: ASKING PRICE. :hi:

That's usually the first thing you learn when you sell real estate. It's usually an inflated price so that you can get money. That's right...money!

:hi: SELLING PRICE :hi:

That's what the property sells for. 98% of the time, it is LESS than the ASKING PRICE. Why? Because multiple buyers try to buy the property.

OK... now let's look at the Obamas buying a nice home in a nice neighborhood in Chicago. The money from Obama's successful, award-winning books helped get enough money to get a decent home.

The asking price for the property was $2 million. Inflated...and on the market for a long time so the owner wanted to sell.

Still with me? Good!

Two different people bid for the home and the Obamas buy the property for $1.65 million. That's about 7/8th of the asking price. Pretty damn normal especially with the price point.

Then... Obama buys a 10 foot by 20 yard adjacent property to square off the property line for $100,000. A fair buying price for that neighborhood.

So... the Obamas buy a home from Barack Obama's success as a writer. The price point is standard for that neighborhood.

What Rezko is doing with his own money unrelated to that property is completely unrelated to the Obama purchase. Then you have Patrick Fiztgerald, who has profoundly said that Obama is not part of the investigation and has done nothing wrong.

Class dismissed...

[unc70]

16. Sorry, you seem to have flunked. Now what state are you licensed in?

You stated the following:

"That's what the property sells for. 98% of the time, it is LESS than the ASKING PRICE. Why? Because multiple buyers try to buy the property."

Wrong. Multiple buyers would cause the selling price to be MORE than listing/asking price. Multiple competing similar properties would generally make the selling price slightly less than the asking price.

[LadyVT]

15. Yes... and Rezko's trial begins on MONDAY... more to be revealed

[BearSquirrel2]

17. Ask Donald Trump ...

The guy was probably trying to save himself with the next deal. This is what real estate guys do, they finance and deal. They're no different from gamblers.

[KLee]

20. PAUL vs CLINTON (really interesting too, coming soon)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

22. To me, Rezko was doing a favor for Obama, but was it an illegal favor?

From what I have read in various articles, it appears that Obama had a good idea he wanted the strip of land in the future to square his lot, provide a buffer from the fencing, clarify ownership of the driveway, whatever the reason. There was already a bid on the lot (I think). Rezko came in 25,000 higher than the existing bid, bought the lot and sold Obama the strip he wanted. Someone else would probably never have sold that strip to Obama.

Obama paid full market value for both the house and the later strip. The favor by Rezko was not monetary, it was providing the possibility of ownership of the strip in the first place.

I try to put myself in Obama's position. You want a house, but you have stretched to the limit to buy the house and get your loan approved. You know you want to also in the near future buy this strip of land and there's already a bid on the lot. You rack your brains for who do you know that could conceivably be interested in a lot for development that would ALSO agree in advance that they would sell you a strip of land? Hey! You DO know a big time real estate developer and maybe he would do this? He gets a nice buildable lot in a good area and you get your strip of land that you make sure to pay him full market value for.

What is illegal about this? I think nothing. I don't know how much Obama knew about the state of Rezko's finances and how Mrs. Rezko swing the deal, but I don't think that has ANYTHING to do with Obama.

I do not think that will have any traction whatsoever unless it can be proved that Obama did something political in return for Rezko. The quid may exist, but does the quo?

I don't think so. If it does exist and Obama knows it, then we have all been taken for the biggest ride of the century.

[KoKo]

29. I think the worry is that the Lot Sale is red herring...

There will be more digging about Rezko's getting breaks from the Government to renovate properties and that the renovations involved political favors.

It seems that Chicago has history with corruption with the corruption between "powerful people" getting breaks from the Government for Urban Development for poor families. From what I've read from "Chicago Trib." it's that Rezko was getting contracts and that Obama was an activist in the poor neighborhood that Rezko was doing renovations on. There were a couple of letters Obama wrote in support of Rezko when he was a Senator and Obama's relationship goes all the way back to when Rezko offered Obama a job when he was finishing up at Harvard Law school.

Obama knew Rezko from the time he graduated from Harvard. Obama did Community Organizing in the area of Chicago where Rezko was getting (what seem to be questionable) contracts from the government to do renovations and maybe the renovations weren't up to the standards they should have been for the poor people who were supposed to benefit.

This kind of stuff goes on in every state. Real Estate Interests and powerful people getting Government contracts who don't always live up to their end of the bargain for the money they get. Shoddy workmanship and kickbacks can go to these powerful people all under the "wink and nod" by officials who should be regulating this.

Whether there's anything there or not...it seems Obama and Michelle did know Rezko during the time he was involved in whatever has gotten him in trouble...and that the "association" is either perfectly on the up and up...as part of Chicago Politics...or there's something there with Obama's relationship with Rezko when he was a Community activist in the neighborhood that Rezko was doing all these building renovations and new construction with Government money.

MSCorporate Media made such a big deal out of that stupid Whitewater Investment that one can imagine they will go after this...so they don't have to dredge up...Keating Five and McCain's dealing with the lobbyists he supposedly didn't like...but who used him to get what they wanted.

[Iceburg]

23. K&R

[Pryderi]

26. There's no there there. Keep looking, slime merchants!

[NightWatcher]

28. CONGRATS ON REZKO POST NUMBER 783

Quickly approaching the number of whitewater threads on the Clintons from freeperville I can only assume.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

30. Hillary's in it right through to Denver...the trail starts tomorrow

[ProSense]

31. No, innuendo and spin are not facts. Here:

Rezko's trial has nothing to do with Obama, but Hillary has some explaining to do