Barack, the billionaire, and the “bagman”

The Times of London, having perhaps noticed that no one over here seems willing to look too deeply into Barack Obama’s past, have done it themselves – and here’s what they found (emphasis added):

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama’s fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama’s bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.

Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city’s South Side while Mr Rezko’s wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Now, Mr. Auchi has what one might call a colorful history (same story Page 3):

Mr Auchi was convicted of corruption, given a suspended sentence and fined £1.4 million in France in 2003 for his part in the Elf affair, described as the biggest political and corporate scandal in post-war Europe. He, in a statement from his media lawyers, claims he is appealing against the sentence.

However, the real story here is Tony Rezko, whom the Times notes is a “friend of Barack Obama from 1990 and fundraiser since earliest local campaigns.”

One other thing about Tony (Times again):

Mr Rezko has since been indicted for allegedly scheming to pressure companies seeking business with the state of Illinois for kickbacks and contributions to the governor Rod Blagojevich’s campaign. He goes on trial on March 3.

A prosecution document filed last month alleged that a “political candidate” – identified by the Chicago Sun-Times as Mr Obama – received a $10,000 campaign contribution from what is said to be a $250,000 kickback in the corruption case.

Now, Obama has since tried to pretend he has no idea who Rezko is, and handed off $150,000 to charity to “atone” (Times‘ verbiage).  However, IMHO, that doesn’t end the questions of what Obama knew about this fellow while he was running for State Senate in 1996 and 2000, let alone his U.S. Senate race in 2004 when Blagejovich was already Governor.

Then there is that loan and the house deal.

Now, I can understand why Senator Clinton might be hesitant to bring this up (after all, corruption and real estate together are not exactly ideal topics for her), but it should be of great concern to the rest of us.  Democrats are being drawn to Obama because he represents a move away from corruption – not a return to corruption.

Rezko’s trial begins the day before Texas and Ohio vote; odds are that won’t be enough time to make an impact.  Perhaps Obama can knock Clinton out of the race before people notice (a win in TX might do it, wins in both TX and OH certainly would, I think), but something like this can’t be waved away by the Audacity of Hype.