Friday, December 26, 2008

Why Does Tony Rezko's Lawyer Own Barack Obama's House? And Why The Media Silence?

Bob Robbins and Jim Crum forwarded documentation of the property title of Barack Obama's house on 5046 S Greenwood, Washington, DC that appeared on News and Commentary for Thinking People (NCFTP). NCFTP posts the records here. If you were a senator or a presidential candidate, would you ask your former boss to hold the title to your house? Especially if your boss was a lawyer representing your friend who had been an indicted and now convicted felon? And if you were the news editor of anything that conceivably calls itself a news outlet, would you cover this story about a presidential candidate and now president-elect?

A few days ago Bob Robbins forwarded 48 pages of property records, the first page of which is copied from the PDF file below and appears in NCFTP's link.

Here is the article that appears today in Worldnet Daily:

>An attorney for convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko is listed as the owner and taxpayer for Barack Obama's Chicago mansion, according to records obtained by WND.
William Miceli is a lawyer at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which also formerly employed Obama...

>Miner, Barnhill & Galland was Obama's employer when he did extensive legal work for Rezko, who awaits sentencing after he was convicted in June of fraud, money laundering and bribery-related counts.

>Miceli, as a senior attorney at the firm, supervised Obama when the future president wrote letters on behalf of Rezko urging public authorities to award him new public properties...

>Following the Jan. 21 Democratic Party primary debate, Miceli told the Washington Post that he was Obama's supervisor at the law firm, in response to Sen. Hillary Clinton's charges Obama had worked for a Chicago slumlord, Rezko...

WND confirmed the tax bill for the Obama home is mailed to Miceli, not to Obama or the Northern Trust account through which Obama has claimed the home was purchased.

>Records from the Cook County Treasurer's Office give the PIN number for the Obama property as 20-11-115-037-0000 and list Miceli as the person who receives Obama's property tax invoice by mail.

>Eric Herman, a spokesman for the Cook County assessor, confirmed to WND that the Treasurer's Office records were correct and that Miceli did receive the Obama property tax invoice by mail.
...

>Rosslyn Whitlock, an Internet support specialist at the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, confirmed to WND that the office has no information listed for the Obama home under the PIN number 20-11-115-037-0000, the number used by the Cook County Assessor's office for property tax purposes.

>WND was able to locate warranty information at the Cook County Recorder of Deeds , which Herman at the County Assessor's office told WND was the "old PIN number" assigned to the Obama home at 5046 S. Greenwood Avenue, before the home was sold to Obama.

>Neither spokesman could explain to WND the discrepancy in PIN numbers, nor why the Cook County Recorder of Deeds has no information filed under the new PIN number assigned to the property after the Obama purchase...

>Meanwhile, WND has reported that since arresting Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has taken new interest in Rezko's involvement in the Obama mansion purchase.

>WND also reported real estate credit analyst Kenneth Conner has filed a civil suit alleging he was wrongfully dismissed by Mutual Bank of Harvey for objecting to what he considered a fraudulent appraisal of the vacant lot. The appraisal was submitted by the Rezkos at an intentionally high figure, he claims, permitting them to borrow an additional $125,000 that amounted to a "political payoff" to Obama.

Quoting Democracy Rules of News and Commentary for Thinking People:

>"The price was too high for Obama, so he went to Rezko for help. Rezko’s plan was to buy the adjacent property on the same day Obama bought the house. Obama would still have to overpay, even for just the house. But once the whole deal was finished, the package would become a reasonably good deal.

>"Obama (or William Miceli) bought the house, and Rezko’s wife bought the adjoining lot. Then Obama got a strip of the lot from Rezko’s wife for about $100,000. This did two things. It expanded the house lot, which increased the house value. The picture shows a new fence that Obama had built along the new property line. It also made the adjacent lot so narrow, it’s unlikely anyone who bought it could make money building something on it. They might not even be able to get a building permit. So essentially the deal gave Obama a house and the use of two lots...

>"But wait, there’s more! The mortgaged amount is very high. It’s so high it violates the ordinary lending rules for Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, which carries the mortgage. This is probably legal, because the owners set up a complicated land trust arrangement to bypass those rules. But why? And who pays this mortgage? Why would Obama pay a mortgage on a house he doesn’t own? Does he just pay rent, while Rezko’s lawyer pays the mortgage?

>"But wait, there’s even more! It’s now clear the adjacent lot was overvalued by Rezko’s bank. At the time, an appraiser said it was worth $500,000. But Rezko’s bank unilaterally upped the value to about $650,000. This enabled Rezko’s wife to get a bigger mortgage on the lot. Bank employee Kenneth J. Conner found out, and complained this was mortgage fraud. Overvaluing a property to get a bigger mortgage is against the law. Conner blew the whistle, but he was fired. Now he’s suing the bank.

>"Conner filed a civil complaint in October with the Illinois Circuit Court in Cook County alleging he was fired by Mutual Bank of Harvey, Ill., because he objected to land appraisals submitted on behalf of the Rezkos and the Obamas, with the complicity of the bank.

>After he was fired, Conner told World Net Daily that the bank and the Rezkos were engaged in "fraud, bribes or kickbacks, use whatever term you want," to benefit the Obamas...

1 OF 35 RECORD(S)

Assessment Record For COOK County
Owner Information
Original Name: WILLIAM MICELI
Standardized Name: MICELI, WILLIAM

Original Address: 14 W ERIE ST
CHICAGO, IL 60610-5397
Standardized Address: 14 W ERIE ST
CHICAGO, IL 60654-5397
COOK COUNTY
Property Information
Original Property Address: 5046 S GREENWOOD

CHICAGO, IL 60615
Standardized Property Address: 5046 S GREENWOOD AVE
CHICAGO, IL 60615-2806
COOK COUNTY
Land Use: SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL
Legal Information
Assessor's Parcel Number: 20-11-115-034
Recording Date: 06/21/2005
Legal Description: DISTRICT: 70; CITY/MUNI/TWNSP: HYDE PARK; SEC/TWN/RNG/MER:
SEC 11 TWN 38N RNG 14E; MAP 20-11-NW (C&D)
Sale Information
Recording Date: 06/21/2005
Sale Price: $1,650,000 - FULL AMOUNT
Document Number: 517233010
Assessment Information
Assessment Year: 2006
Assessed Land Value: $14,700
Assessed Improvement Value: $139,681
Total Assessed Value: $154,381
Tax Information
Tax Rate Code: 70001
Tax Amount: $22,162.47
Tax Year: 2006
Property Characteristics
Baths: 6
Partial Baths: 1
Fireplace: 3
Roof: SHINGLE (NOT WOOD)
Garage Type: DETACHED
Garage Size: 4 Car(s)
Building Area: 6,199 T TOTAL
Air Conditioning: CENTRAL
Construction: MASONRY
Page 1
Basement: UNFINISHED
Square Footage: 10500 SF
Important: The Public Records and commercially available data sources used on reports have errors. Data is sometimes entered
poorly, processed incorrectly and is generally not free from defect. This system should not be relied upon as definitively
accurate. Before relying on any data this system supplies, it should be independently verified. For Secretary of State
documents, the following data is for information purposes only and is not an official record. Certified copies may be obtained
from that individual state's Department of State.
Copyright© 2008 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the media will get around to Obama's mansion when they get around to Obama's first home mortgage involving the Giannoulias family and the now infamous Broadway Bank known for ties to Rezko.

Or maybe this has to do with Obama buddy Rahmbo, Director of Freddie Mac when they misreported earnings by billions.

Or Obama buddy Jim Johnson ex CEO of Fannie Mae who was on Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee and had to resign because of a controversy about his time at Countrywide Mortgage.

Or Obama buddy Franklin Raines, ex CEO of Fannie Mae, where the con man misstated earnings for 3 1/2 years.

Yet another Obama friend,Jamie Gorelick was Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae from 1997 to 2003. Fannie's Enron cooking style was found out in 2004.

Obama knows the true meaning of keep your friends and enemies close but quid pro quo those who know.