Together, They Will Destroy Superman

10:25 am, 3/26/06

Together, They Will Destroy Superman
Lex Luthor, er, I mean, Tony Rezko's pariah project has a new patron.

A firm founded by shopping mall mogul [and convicted felon] Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. is planning a $750-million retail and housing project on part of an expansive South Loop site that Chicago developer Antoin S. "Tony" Rezko gave up last year.

Tampa, Fla.-based DeBartolo Development LLC has signed a contract to buy 17 acres at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street, says DeBartolo President Ed Kobel. The firm also is talking with Chicago-based shopping mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. about forming a joint venture to develop the property, he says. General Growth declines to comment.

"We really think this is one of the best retail sites in America," Mr. Kobel says.

So did Mr. Rezko, head of a partnership that wanted to develop the entire 62-acre tract. Those plans fizzled last year after Mr. Rezko, an adviser and fund-raiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, became embroiled in a minority contracting scandal, imperiling the development's chances of getting as much as $140 million in city tax subsidies.

Specifically, Rezko was putting up "shill minorities" to bilk Chicago taxpayers out of minority enterprise subsidies through his Panda Express chinese food restaurants by pretending that his projects were actually run by the son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammed. Hilariously, some of the people involved actually claimed that they had been instructed by City officials on how to best cheat the system, scratching out names on forms and whatnought.

Last fall Mr. Rezko's partnership sold the property for $130.5 million to a company led by Iraqi-born British billionaire Nadhmi Auchi.

Mr. Auchi, whose firm would still control the remaining 45 acres of the site, has been a source of controversy himself for a 2003 corruption conviction in France and alleged ties to the former Iraqi government.

Nadhmi "Lord of War" Auchi was seemingly a direct accomplice of Hussein's during his rise to power, stood trial in 1959 for plotting the assassination of Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim, and not only later sold warships to the Ba'athist Iraqi government through a Panamanian front, but was one of the largest stakeholders in BNP Paribas, one of the French banks stealing from the Oil-for-Food program. Auchi was apparently a prime mover in the establishment of Saddam's hidden Swiss funds, including what was euphemistically known as the "Satan" account, did the same for Gadaffi, and was inevstigated in the 1980's for his bribery schemes with the leaders of ludicrously corrupt post-war Italy. His influence may even reach into MI6, and despite his brother being whacked by Saddam's goons, his shady deals with the regime continued unabated: He was given a 15 month suspended sentence for taking kickbacks from TotaFinaElf, the Saddam-snuggling French oil company of which former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's son-in-law had become head, and was investigated by American authorities for bribery in relation to an Iraqi mobile phone contract given to an Egyptian company in which he was a shareholder. Rezko and Auchi have been fast friends ever since they were introduced in London, presumably by people who travel in the same circles, such as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

DeBartolo is buying the parcel from Mr. Auchi's firm. Citing a confidentiality agreement, Mr. Kobel declines to say when the acquisition is scheduled to close or how much the firm has agreed to pay.

Mr. DeBartolo has had his own scrape with the law. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge for failing to report a casino-license extortion plot orchestrated by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who went to prison. Mr. DeBartolo testified that he paid Mr. Edwards $400,000 to get a license.

DeBartolo, former owner of the San Francisco 49ers, reportedly paid the bribe with an actual briefcase full of cash. DeBartolo was also involved in the incident where a New York pizza chain (indeed, the official pizza chain of the New York Yankees) was unexpectedly given contracts for locations at Illinois tollway islands, despite it being, er, Illinois, not New York. Panda Express was there, too:

The Subway sandwich shops and Panda Express Asian restaurants now being installed in the tollway's seven revamped rest stops are controlled by firms with strong ties to the food-service empire of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a Blagojevich confidant who has seeded the governor's cabinet with former business underlings.

Christopher G. Kelly, Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, who also recommended the tollway's executive director for his job, is an investor in at least one Rezko-controlled food firm, a spokesman said.

The $83 million oases overhaul is being overseen by Los Angeles-based developer Wilton Partners, whose owner delivered a $50,000 personal check to the Blagojevich campaign just weeks after the governor announced with great fanfare the launch of the work.

What's more, food-service permits filed in Boone and Lake Counties, where two of the oases are, identify the manager of the Subway shops as Rezko's nephew, Rimon Rezko. The nephew lives in Oak Lawn in a home sold to him by Tony Rezko, property records show.

In addition to his Rezko ties, Chaib also has donated $10,000 to the Blagojevich political fund run by Kelly. The governor also appointed Chaib's wife, Lori, to a $15,000-a-year, part-time position on an obscure state board dealing with employment issues.

Chris Kelly, who is generally described as a "roofing contractor" (best said while doing a Godfather impersonation), has also been a helpful fundraiser for for a Chicago alderman whose brother determines how much he gets paid for roofing work at O'Hare Airport. His sister was given a cushy do-nothing job as head of the Bureau of Real Estate Professions five days after being issued a real estate license, and he threatened to sue the Governor's father-in-law for daring to suggest that he and the Governor might be criminals.

They are!