Obama's Rezko ties deeper than land deal
December 23, 2006
BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter
In addition to a land deal, Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to indicted dealmaker Antoin “Tony” Rezko include an internship the senator provided the son of a contributor at the request of Rezko, an Obama spokesman confirmed today.
John Aramanda served as an intern for Obama for about a month in 2005, said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs. His father is Joseph Aramanda, a Rezko business associate who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal corruption case against Rezko. ...
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Feds probe Rezko's Iraq contract
Want to ask jailed power chief how gov's pal got deal
December 3, 2006
BY CHRIS FUSCO, NATASHA KORECKI AND DAVE MCKINNEY Staff Reporters
Federal authorities are investigating an Iraqi power plant deal involving Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a former top fund-raiser for Gov. Blagojevich charged with defrauding Illinois taxpayers.
Investigators want to talk to Iraq's jailed former electricity minister, Aiham Alsammarae, about how Rezko landed the potentially lucrative contract, a source familiar with the probe told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Alsammarae, who holds dual U.S.-Iraqi citizenship and has a house in Oak Brook, helped Rezko get the deal, another source said.
Rezko and others in the venture were to own the plant and sell electricity back to the Iraqis, but the Iraqi government still was to pay a substantial portion of construction costs, that source added.
The feds want to talk to Iraq’s jailed former electricity minister Aiham Alsammarae about how Tony Rezko (shown leaving the Dirksen Federal Building on Oct. 19), an indicted former fund-raiser for Gov. Blagojevich, got a power plant deal from the Iraqi government.
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