Antoin “Tony” Rezko has long been one of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s top fundraisers and closest confidants, even recommending candidates for Cabinet directors and state boards and commissions.
But newly obtained public records, including lawsuit documents, show a close circle of Rezko business investors and their relatives received jobs and appointments to influential state posts. The records show Rezko’s ties with the Blagojevich administration are far more extensive than were previously known.
The new documents show, for example, that Blagojevich appointed three Rezko business investors to a controversial board that oversees hospital projects. The board was replaced amid an ongoing federal kickback investigation that led to the indictment of the board’s vice chairman.
The state’s business development agency, run by a former Rezko company executive, employs the daughters of two other business partners, including a man who is a fugitive on federal tax charges.
Another Rezko partner got a loan for pizza franchises through a California businessman whose firm won a $83 million contract for redeveloping the Illinois Tollway’s restaurant oases. The loan came after an introduction from Rezko.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said she was unaware what role, if any, Rezko played in recommending his business associates and their relatives but said those who secured jobs and appointments were qualified.
A self-made millionaire, Rezko cobbled together a small empire of real estate and fast-food companies during the last three decades as he hobnobbed with sports stars and political luminaries. He has raised campaign funds for officials ranging from the late Mayor Harold Washington to President George W. Bush.
Rezko developed an especially deep relationship with Blagojevich that began before the Democrat’s 2002 run for governor. Rezko and Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, a real estate agent, shared a business relationship that started in 1997 and lasted until it came to light last year.
Rezko has acknowledged raising at least $500,000 for Blagojevich, though political observers say he has raised many times more.
But Rezko’s role as a key Blagojevich kitchen cabinet member has brought him unwanted scrutiny. Federal agents conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Blagojevich’s administration have subpoenaed state records pertaining to Rezko, and his business partners and ventures.
Rezko has not been charged with any wrongdoing. He declined Wednesday through a spokesman to comment for this article. In a Tribune interview last year, however, he emphatically denied ever having personally benefited from state business, though he acknowledged having some influence in recommending people to state boards.
“I don’t do any business with state government and have stayed away from it since [Blagojevich] became governor,” Rezko said at the time.
Ottenhoff said Wednesday state officials didn’t know whether Rezko recommended the business partners or their relatives.
“When Gov. Blagojevich came in to office after 26 years of Republican governors, there was a major personnel turnover,” Ottenhoff said. “Naturally, we reached out to supporters and other like-minded people, like Mr. Rezko, for recommendations and as a result we’ve been very fortunate to get some of these people.”
The names of the Rezko food company shareholders emerged recently amid a spate of civil lawsuits from former partners, including one filed in Cook County in April by Dr. Fortunee Massuda. The founder of a chain of foot and ankle clinics, Massuda filed internal Rezko company records to back up her allegations that she invested more than $3 million in Rezko deals while Rezko kept her “completely in the dark” about his companies’ finances.
Rezko attorneys dispute Massuda’s allegations.
In 2003, Blagojevich appointed Massuda to the state’s Health Facilities Planning Board, along with Drs. Michel Malek and Imad Almanaseer. The Tribune previously reported Massuda and Malek each gave Blagojevich’s campaign $25,000 just weeks before being appointed, but their roles as shareholders in Rezko pizza businesses had not been previously disclosed.
Malek, a neurologist, also was a shareholder in a separate Rezko company that sought to develop the 62-acre parcel southwest of Roosevelt Road and Clark Street.
Almanaseer was in another Rezko firm that owned Wisconsin restaurant buildings.
The three Rezko associates and the other hospital board members were dismissed in 2004. The board was revamped that year after it came under federal scrutiny in part for its approval of Mercy Health System’s plans to build a $49 million hospital in Crystal Lake. As described in federal kickback charges against former board vice chairman Stuart Levine, Almanaseer changed his vote on the Mercy project after Levine whispered in his ear. Massuda and Malek also voted for the project.
Massuda, Malek and Almanaseer have not been accused of wrongdoing.
A number of relatives of Rezko’s associates work in a state department run by Jack Lavin, who was chief financial officer for Rezko Enterprises until Blagojevich–at Rezko’s recommendation–made him head of the state Commerce and Economic Opportunity Department.
Almanaseer’s son Ahmed worked for the department from June 2003 through July 2004 and made $3,226 a month.
The department also employs the daughter of another Rezko company officer, Muhamad Dabbouseh. A second Dabbouseh daughter works for the state’s Department of Employment Security.
Lavin’s department also employs the daughter of Alber Najjar, who has had extensive connections with Rezko’s food companies. Najjar became a federal fugitive in 2004, after authorities indicted him for not reporting income from “his sports bookmaking business” on 1990s tax returns.
Najjar was an investor in Rezko food and real estate businesses. He also ran his own import company and another business from offices leased in Rezko’s headquarters building at 853 N. Elston Ave.
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Najjar’s federal indictment gives no details about his alleged bookmaking. But other records show Najjar pleaded guilty in 1996 to a misdemeanor for transmitting bets after Chicago police caught him with tally sheets.
When Najjar was indicted on federal tax charges in April 2004, he told court officials he intended to plead guilty. But he failed to appear at a court date a week later and disappeared.
In a series of transactions during 2002, Najjar and members of his family gave four Chicago-area properties to Abdelhamid Chaib, a longtime Rezko friend and chief operating officer of his food enterprise.
Chaib used the four properties as collateral to secure a $1.32 million mortgage loan–Rezko served as Chaib’s agent-in-fact and signed those mortgage papers for him. It isn’t clear what Chaib or Rezko did with that money. A few months later, Chaib deeded the properties back to Najjar and Najjar’s family, the land records show.
Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed state records related to Chaib’s tollway restaurant contracts. Blagojevich appointed Chaib’s wife, Lori Quartaro Chaib, to a state employment security board.
Another Rezko pizza business partner, Glenview businessman Joseph Aramanda, got a loan from an affiliate of Wilton Partners, the firm awarded the $83 million deal to rehab state tollway oases. State records show he used his restaurants for collateral on the loan, the amount of which was undisclosed.
Jay Wilton, who heads Wilton Partners, said in an interview last year that he met Aramanda through Rezko. Wilton said he was impressed by Aramanda’s fast-food business and personal guarantee.
“I like the collateral. I used to own pizza businesses. It’s a good business,” Wilton said.
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Blagojevich pal’s reach into state government
Newly obtained public records show deep ties between state government and several financial backers of businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, confidante and political fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
NAME
Imad Almanaseer
TIE TO REZKO
Member of LARC Realty, a Rezko business
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Health Facilities Planning Board member; son Ahmed worked for Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
NAME
Abdelhamid Chaib
TIE TO REZKO
Chief operating officer of Rezko Enterprises
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Wife Lori on Board of Review for Department of Employment Security
NAME
John “Jack” Lavin
TIE TO REZKO
Former chief financial officer of Rezko Enterprises
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Director of DCEO
NAME
Alber Najjar
TIE TO REZKO
Investor in Rezko Enterprises, LARC Realty member
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Daughter Claudine works for DCEO
NAME
Michel Malek
TIE TO REZKO
Investor in Rezko Enterprises, Roosevelt/Clark development
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Health Facilities Planning Board member
NAME
Fortunee Massuda
TIE TO REZKO
Investor in Rezko Enterprises
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Health Facilities Planning Board member
NAME
Ali Ata
TIE TO REZKO
Investor in Roosevelt/Clark
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Former executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority
NAME
Joseph Aramanda
TIE TO REZKO
Co-owned Papa John’s pizza franchises with Rezko
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STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Got loan from state tollway contractor
NAME
Velma Butler
TIE TO REZKO
Investor in Roosevelt/Clark
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Illinois Housing Authority member
NAME
Muhamad Dabbouseh
TIE TO REZKO
LARC Realty officer
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Daughter Amy works for the DCEO and daughter Huda for the DES
NAME
Kelly King Dibble
TIE TO REZKO
Former vice president for business development of a Rezko real estate company
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority
NAME
David Gustman
TIE TO REZKO
Attorney for Rezko and companies
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Unpaid chairman of Illinois Finance Authority
NAME
Anthony Licata
TIE TO REZKO
Rezko attorney
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Chairman of the Capital Development Board
NAME
Michael Rumman
TIE TO REZKO
CEO of Heritage Development Partners, and investor in Roosevelt/Clark
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Former director of Central Management Services
NAME
Ed Wynn
TIE TO REZKO
Heritage lawyer
STATE GOVERNMENT TIE
Former general counsel of CMS
Sources: State records, court filings, corporate reports
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