Rich Illinois Democrat Mobster Gets Richer Off Guy Who Really Armed Saddam

9:19 pm, 9/29/05

Rich Illinois Democrat Mobster Gets Richer Off Guy Who Really Armed Saddam
Blagojevich goon Tony Rezko has just made a killing in real estate. You might even call it an assassination.

Chicago businessman Antoin S. "Tony" Rezko, a controversial figure in local political circles, has agreed to sell his massive real estate development in the South Loop to an Iraqi-born British billionaire with a similar knack for generating controversy on the international stage.

General Mediterranean Holding SA, a Luxembourg-based conglomerate headed by Nadhmi Auchi, is buying Riverside Park, a yet-to-be-built development on a prime 62-acre parcel on Roosevelt Road, says Michael Rumman, a consultant on the project. He declines to disclose a price, another person familiar with the deal pegged it at $130.5 million.

A partnership headed by Mr. Rezko, chairman of development firm Rezmar Corp., had planned to build 4,600 residential units and about 670,000-square-feet of retail space on the site. But a city minority contracting scandal involving Mr. Rezko imperiled the project's chances of getting as much as $140 million in tax subsidies to help cover infrastructure costs.

A member of the Baath party in Iraq before Saddam Hussein came to power, Mr. Auchi moved to Great Britain in 1981. He has denied having any ties to Mr. Hussein and blames the ousted dictator for the 1998 murder of his brother, according to British media reports. Yet other media reports indicate he sold naval ships to Mr. Hussein's government in the 1980s and is one of the largest shareholders in BNP Paribas, a French bank that was involved in the United Nations oil-for-food program for Iraq.

Mr. Auchi, 68, also received a 15-month suspended sentence in France after being convicted in 2003 for taking kickbacks from French oil giant Elf. He is appealing the conviction. And U.S. officials are investigating allegations of bribery involving a mobile phone contract in Iraq that recently was awarded to Orascom, an Eqyptian firm in which Mr. Auchi is a shareholder. Orascom has denied the allegations.

Messrs. Rezko and Auchi were introduced several years ago by a mutual acquaintance in London. They teamed up recently on a $150 million contract to build a power plant in Iraq.

Mr. Rezko will no longer be an investor in the project, but "there's a possibility he may have a consultant's role in the project," Mr. Ryan says.

Oh yeah, this doesn't smell funny.