U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is giving charities some $16,500 in campaign donations from two Chicago businessmen who had financial ties to indicted dealmaker Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
A spokesman for Obama’s presidential campaign on Thursday offered no details about Obama’s relationship with the two contributors.
But the announcement puts an unwanted spotlight on the two local businessmen and underscores Obama’s efforts to distance himself from Rezko, a former friend and fundraiser who has become a public relations problem for Obama’s presidential campaign. Rezko has pleaded not guilty to federal influence peddling and bank fraud charges.
This marks the fourth time that Obama’s campaign has shed contributions made by Rezko and associates to Obama’s House and Senate campaigns. Those contributions totaled more than $33,000.
Last week, the Obama campaign gave charities $5,000 in donations from another Rezko associate shortly after the man was indicted. Ali Ata, the former executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, was indicted last week for allegedly using an agency letterhead to provide false information in an effort to secure more than $10 million in loans for Rezko-related business ventures. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
The two contributors whose money is being turned away from the Obama campaign have not been charged with any crimes, but both businessmen have been linked to Rezko deals that are the subject of federal indictments. The campaign announced the actions following inquiries by the Tribune about the contributions.
Federal prosecutors describe both men — without identifying them by name — in court papers outlining charges against Rezko. The Tribune confirmed their identities through sources familiar with the ongoing federal corruption probe. Civil suits over the same transactions also identify them by name. Both are well-known business leaders.
One is Glenview entrepreneur Joseph Aramanda, who gave at least $10,000 to Obama’s 2004 campaign and has overseen Rezko pizza franchises.
The other is Dr. Paul Ray, chairman of the urology division of Cook County’s Stroger Hospital, who gave $6,500 to Obama. Ray has invested in a Rezko real estate development firm and also engaged in 2004 deals to purchase pizza parlors in Wisconsin that were formerly owned by a Rezko firm.
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Both men declined to comment through their attorneys.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the campaign was unclear on how the contributions from Aramanda and Ray came about. Rezko solicited donations for Obama and was one of 85 members of Obama’s 2004 campaign finance committee.
Obama last year gave charities $11,500 to clear his campaign fund of donations that had come directly from Rezko. Obama has denied ever using his government clout to do any favors for Rezko.
Aramanda and Ray were among numerous investors in Rezko land and fast-food ventures — and guests at the political fundraisers Rezko hosted.
Aramanda once served as chief operating officer of a Rezko company, according to court records and business filings.
Wisconsin federal court records show Aramanda has agreed to a nearly $7 million judgment against him for failing to repay loans in connection with his Wisconsin pizza operations. His attorney, Terence Gillespie, declined to comment.
In December, the Tribune reported that Obama hired Aramanda’s son as a 2005 summer intern in Obama’s Capitol Hill office after Rezko recommended the intern. But it wasn’t until this week that the campaign decided to give that money to charity.
Aramanda has been publicly identified as “Individual D” in the pension fraud case against Rezko. He allegedly worked with Rezko to fraudulently obtain $250,000 in consulting fees on a state pension deal, but has not been charged with any crime.
Ray, who earns nearly $347,000 as chairman of Stroger Hospital’s urology division, also has partnered with Rezko in several ventures.
One civil lawsuit over Rezko’s companies contains corporate documents that say Ray personally invested about $1 million in Rezko Enterprises LLC, giving Ray a 2.6 percent stake in that property development firm.
And Ray heads a tax-exempt nonprofit called Urology Education and Research Foundation Inc. that has invested $600,000 in Rezko real estate and business enterprises, according to the charity’s 2004 public tax filings. The foundation took donations from pharmaceutical companies to study the efficacy and safety of drugs. Thomas Anthony Durkin, a criminal defense attorney who represents Ray, declined to comment on any pending court cases but said. “I am quite confident that Paul Ray has done nothing wrong whatsoever.”
Records and interviews show that Ray is the unidentified “Investor 1” in court filings last week that allege Rezko engaged in a scheme to defraud a lending company of more than $10 million. Prosecutors allege that Investor 1 entered into a 2004 purchase of 15 Wisconsin pizza parlors that were formerly owned by a Rezko firm. In an effort to obtain financing for that purchase, Ata wrote a letter to a lending company saying the state would guarantee a portion of a loan, according to the indictment.
Ray is not named as an unindicted co-conspirator in Rezko’s alleged schemes and has not been charged with any crime.
Ray separately faces a pending civil lawsuit over his alleged failure to repay a $647,000 debt stemming from those Wisconsin pizza deals. Ray has denied wrongdoing in that Cook County civil lawsuit.
Randall Samborn of the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago declined to comment on whether Ray played any role in deals leading to the most recent indictment of Rezko and Ata.
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