Batchelor: Enter the FBI

John Batchelor writes today on his blog:

What is Rezko Talking About, Part 2?

A surprising new report in the Washington Times on Election Day reveals that at least since late 2007 FBI agents have been questioning principals in the Barack Obama and Tony Rezko purchase of the mansion and lot on South Greenfield Avenue in Hyde Park in early 2005.

This is both logical and stunning, because it means that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation of Tony Rezko has targeted exactly the questionable behavior of Mr. Obama when he first became a U.S. senator and was obliged to file a financial disclosure form.

What the convicted Mr. Rezko is talking about to the U.S. Attorney, awaiting his sentencing for government corruption, most certainly includes how he managed to purchase the lot at 5050 South Greenfield Avenue for the unusual high price of $625 thousand on the same day that Mr. Obama purchased the mansion at 5046 South Greenfield Avenue for the unusually reduced price of $1.65 million.

^{Tony and Rita Rezko}
We have the fact of the FBI inquiry from a civil suit, a whistleblower suit, filed in Chicago by a former clerk at Mutual Bank of Chicago. Kenneth J. Conner is asking $4.2 million because, he claims, he was fired when he refused to go along with a scheme that inflated the value of the lot that Mr. Rezko, in the name of his wife, Rita Rezko, purchased from the Fredric Wondisfords in early 2005. An inflated price, so the thinking goes, that allowed the sellers to reduce the price of the mansion by $300 thousand to Mr. Obama. Mr. Conner says that when the FBI agents, working at the request of the U.S. Attorney, visited him in late 2007, they focused on the lot and were not ambiguous about what the lot meant in terms of risk to Senator Obama.

“Agents and I talked about payoff, bribe, kickback for a long time, though it took them only a short number of minutes of talking with me while looking at the appraisal to acknowledge what they already seemed to know: The Rezko lot was grossly overvalued.”

Graft is Impolite

There are not two ways to interpret these remarks and this incident.

The U.S. Attorney is investigating collusion between a money handler Mr. Rezko and a serving senator Mr. Obama, and the impolite word is graft.

The fact that the FBI agents questioned Mr. Conner nearly a year ago — well before Mr. Rezko’s first corruption trial began in March ‘08 — suggests that all the principals in the lot deal may have been questioned by now. Tony and Rita Rezko, the Mutual Bank officers, the sellers of the lot, the Wondisfords, the realtor of the sale, Donna Schwann, and the purchasers of the house at a discount, the Obamas.

Most crucially, if Mr. Obama has not been questioned by now it would be extraordinary, even unbelievable, given the threat of Mr. Conner’s inferences; and if Mr. Obama has been questioned, it will be a major blow to his new administration when and if this fact is revealed. The voters have not been well informed of this felony risk. Bearing false witness on a Senate disclosure form is the same crime for which Ted Stevens of Alaska was just convicted.

Mr. Obama and his lawyers know where the story is. Mr. Rezko and his lawyers know. Now we can guess some of it due to the conscientious snarkiness of a man who wants money for losing his job to crooks.

There is nothing about this story that is neat. It certainly has the feel of presidential lore already, sweetheart deals, secret covenants, grinding evidence, counter-intuitive arrangements, money-laundering, and it has just turned the magic hour in Dixville Notch, Vermont (left, won by a Democrat for the first time in 40 years, 21-6) on the day Mr. Obama will likely become the 44th president-elect.

---

^{That’s the Obama townhouse across the street (on your left) from the temple (round structure)}
Oh, those crafty Feds! Talking with another potential witness: We learn from a November 2, 2008, news release:

Kenneth J. Conner, Plaintiff against the financier of Rita Rezko’s 5050 S. Greenwood purchase, discloses that he met with FBI agents regarding a possible relationship between adjacent Rezko land and Obama mansion sales prices. He requests the Obama appraisal as relevant to his court case, which centers on appraisal issues pertaining to the land next door to the Senator.

Kenneth J. Conner is a former real estate analyst at Mutual Bank of Harvey, Illinois, from whom he seeks $4.2 million for retaliatory discharge (Cook County Case # 2008L011470). Mutual Bank financed the Rita Rezko purchase of 5050 S. Greenwood in Chicago.

While employed at Mutual Bank, Conner conducted an appraisal review of 5050 S. Greenwood. He found the Greenwood lot to be worth a maximum of $500,000 rather than the parcel’s appraised value, asking price and purchase price of $625,000. Conner claims retaliatory discharge related to his appraisal review. [...]

Conner confirms speculation that FBI agents have discussed Barack Obama and Tony Rezko with him. Tony Rezko is the husband of Rita Rezko and Guarantor of the Mutual Bank 5050 S. Greenwood loan. Rita Rezko sold a strip of the land to Barack Obama, and the remainder has sold since then. Mutual Bank has no known further involvement.

Conner and FBI agents discussed whether the Rezko purchase may have enabled Barack Obama to purchase an adjacent mansion for $300,000 less than asking price. Conner attributed no less than $125,000 of the $300,000 to an implied supplement created by the Rezko purchase at $125,000 above Conner’s assessment of supportable value. [...]

Conner requests the Obama appraisal so that he may further support the strength of his appraisal review findings.

Cal Skinner reported at the Illinoize blog on Conner’s request:

The strange thing is that it didn’t make the print edition of either of the Chicago newspapers, even though the suit revealed–for the first time–the delivery of a subpoena to Mutual Bank about the deal.

Also see the many, many RW/RBO articles about Obama’s Rezko house.

   Tagged: Barack Obama, Donna Schwan, Fredric Wondisford, graft, John Batchelor, Kenneth J. Conner, Mutual Bank, Patrick Fitzgerald, politics, RBO, Real Barack Obama, RezkoTrialWatch, Rita Rezko, The Real Barack Obama, Tony Rezko, whistleblower