Jurors in Rezko Case Hear From Both Sides

Lawyer Points to Alleged Co-Conspirator

CHICAGO, March 6 -- Antoin Rezko, a businessman best known as a political fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), was too busy making money legally to join an elaborate scheme to cheat Illinois taxpayers and extort millions of dollars from financial firms, his attorney told a federal jury Thursday at the start of Chicago's latest high-profile political corruption trial.

The investigation that led to 24 counts of fraud, money laundering and attempted extortion is built upon the drug-addled imaginings of a con man and political fixer named Stuart Levine, lawyer Joseph Duffy said. He portrayed Rezko as a Syrian farmer's son "pursuing the American dream."

Rezko, a fundraiser for politicians from both parties, was a "somewhat idealistic" campaign supporter who backed candidates he believed in, Duffy said. He cited a handful of prominent Illinois politicians, including Obama, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D) and former governor Jim Edgar (R). "Not one will come in here," Duffy told the jury, "and tell you he ever asked for anything."

The prosecution described Rezko, 52, as the central figure in an illegal pay-to-play scheme that depended on his role as a Blagojevich partisan in stacking government boards with loyalists. Rezko then plotted with Levine to shake down companies seeking state business, the government alleged.

"Defendant Rezko was the man behind the curtain pulling the strings," Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie E. Hamilton said in summarizing a case that is expected to allege influence-peddling inside Blagojevich's administration. The two-term governor has not been charged with a crime.

Although Duffy mentioned Obama, saying Rezko "became a friend of Obama's and supported him in his campaigns," the Chicago-based Democratic presidential candidate is a footnote in this trial. There is no connection between Obama and the allegations.

The Obama campaign has returned about $150,000 in contributions made by Rezko, his relatives and his employees, as well as by guests at a fundraiser in his Wilmette, Ill., home. Obama has said that he made a "boneheaded" mistake when he bought a piece of property from Rezko's wife, Rita, in 2005. He said Rezko, who befriended rising political stars, never sought favors and the senator never offered any.

Thursday's opening statements provided a window into the complex charges against Rezko, whose bond was revoked in January when U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve feared that he might flee the country. The case hinges on a wiretap on Levine's telephone and testimony from insiders who are expected to say that Rezko and Levine rigged the permit process for a hospital, and showed that they could steer business to investment firms.

Levine sat on two state boards, including one that oversaw more than $20 billion in teacher retirement funds. In one case, the prosecution said, the pair found an agent willing to share his finder's fee in return for the steering of a $50 million pension fund investment to a private bidder. Rezko and Levine hid their participation, the prosecution said, by directing that a $250,000 payment meant for them go to a Rezko associate who had played no role in the deal.

In an episode that Hamilton called "a full-on shakedown," an executive at a company seeking to invest $220 million on behalf of the teacher retirement fund was allegedly told that he faced a choice: His firm could pay $2 million as a fake finder's fee or it could raise $1.5 million in Blagojevich contributions.

The executive threatened to expose the scheme, forcing Rezko and Levine to back down, Hamilton said.

Later, Hamilton said, Rezko and Levine met at a private club near the Chicago federal courthouse and schemed to share $7 million in payoffs. The FBI cornered Levine in May 2004, before the deals were consummated.

Duffy countered by portraying Rezko as the ambitious owner of two large restaurant chains and an aspiring real estate developer consumed with raising capital for a 62-acre real estate parcel near downtown Chicago. He said "first and foremost on Tony's mind was business, not politics."