Tony Rezko

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Antoin "Tony" Rezko (* 1955 in Aleppo , Syria ) is an American businessman, restaurant and real estate developer in Chicago , Illinois, who was convicted of corruption . He maintains close contacts with many politicians, especially in the US state of Illinois , where he often does fundraising for election campaigns. They included Rod Blagojevich and Barack Obama .

Life

Rezko came to the United States in the 1970s, where he graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with an engineering degree. As an engineer, he first worked for a company that planned nuclear power plants and then for the state road construction authority. Then he started investing in real estate and fast food restaurants.

In the election campaign for the presidential election in the United States in 2008 , Rezko's contacts with Barack Obama were discussed internationally. The accusation was raised that Rezko had given Obama a financial advantage in 2006 when buying a house.

Rezko maintained particularly close relations with Rod Blagojevich , the then governor of Illinois. He was its fundraiser. Blagojevich was sentenced to fourteen years in prison in the summer of 2011 after attempting to sell Obama's vacated Senate seat.

Rezko was charged with fraud , bribery, and money laundering in the United States and was placed in custody. He was found guilty of corruption on 16 of 24 charges in June 2008.

On November 22, 2011, Rezko was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison, taking into account the prison sentence he had already served. The sentence was postponed after the 2008 conviction, as Rezko agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in the proceedings against Blagojevich and others. However, prosecutors eventually found that Rezko had not provided any useful information and, because of his persistent lies, would have been vulnerable and ineffective as a witness, a view the judge agreed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Jackson / John Chase: Profile: Rezko's life a story of pizza and politics . www.chicagotribune.com, October 12, 2006, accessed June 11, 2008.
  2. ↑ Tim Novak: Broken promises, broken homes ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . www.suntimes.com, April 24, 2007, accessed June 11, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.suntimes.com
  3. ↑ John Fund: Obama and Chicago Mores. In: The Wall Street Journal , March 3 2008 ( online )
  4. ↑ Gabor Steingart: The other face of Barack Obama . In: Spiegel online , March 4, 2008 ( online )
  5. ↑ Huffington Post ( online ( memento of the original from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.huffingtonpost.com
  6. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung ( online )
  7. ^ Political fundraiser found guilty on 16 counts. In: ABC , June 4, 2008 ( online )
  8. ↑ Tammy Weber: Blago adviser gets 10 1/2 years, minus time served ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Associated Press, November 22, 2011, retrieved November 22, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hosted.ap.org
personal data
SURNAME Rezko, Tony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rezko, Antoin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American businessman and real estate developer based in Chicago
DATE OF BIRTH 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Aleppo