Tony Rezko

Antoin "Tony" Rezko (born 1955 in Aleppo, Syria) was a political fund raiser and real estate developer in Chicago, Illinois. On May 13, 2008 Rezko was found guilty of six counts of wire fraud, six counts of mail fraud, two counts of corrupt solicitation, and two counts of money laundering. He has close connections with Democrat politicians, especially Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Starting in 2003, Rezko was one of the people on Obama's U.S. Senate campaign finance committee. After it had been reported in 2006 that Rezko was under federal investigation for influence-peddling, Obama purchased a 10 foot (3.0 m) wide strip of Ms. Rezko's property for $104,500, $60,000 above the assessed value.