Reuters Reports: U.S. judge on Tuesday sentenced Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a former Chicago fundraiser for President Barack Obama, to 10-1/2 years in prison for corruption and extortion.
Rezko’s conviction was among a slew of guilty pleas that led to the conviction in two trials of former Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and several of his aides.
A Syrian immigrant who earned millions in the real estate and restaurant businesses, Rezko has been imprisoned since his 2008 conviction on 16 fraud and attempted bribery counts.
“Enough is enough. Corruption in Illinois has to stop,” U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve in handing down sentence to the now-gaunt, 56-year-old Rezko.
Rezko became a minor campaign issue for Obama during the 2008 presidential race. The two had become close friends and Rezko had raised tens of thousands of dollars for the then-Illinois state senator’s successful U.S. Senate and presidential campaigns.
At one point, the Republican National Committee referred to Rezko as Obama’s “money man”.
Rezko also advised Obama in the purchase of the future president’s large home on the south side of Chicago. Rezko’s wife purchased and then resold to the Obama family a side yard to the home they could not afford initially. When Rezko was convicted, Obama said he was “saddened” and added, “This isn’t
the Tony Rezko I knew.”
Because he has spent some 44 months in prison — some in solitary confinement awaiting a chance to testify that never came — Rezko has roughly 6 years, 10 months, left to serve.
