A few months after Obama became a U.S. senator, he and Rezko's wife, Rita, bought adjacent pieces of property. The mansion was sold to Obama for $300,000 below the asking price (1.32 Million.) Rezko's wife paid full price for the adjacent vacant lot ($625,00.) The deals closed in June 2005. Six months later, Obama paid Rezko's wife $104,500 for a strip of her land, so he could have a bigger yard. At the time, it had been widely reported that Tony Rezko was under federal investigation. Then is 2006 Rezko agreed to build and pay for the $14,000 fence that runs along their property line.
Obama's answers when he was questioned about the transaction:
"I don't recall exactly what our conversations were or where I first learned, and I am not clear what the circumstances were where he made a decision that he was interested in the property," Obama said.
"I may have mentioned to him the name of [a developer and] he may at that point have contacted that person. I'm not clear about that," Obama said.
RE: FENCE "My suspicion is that it would probably be a couple of thousand dollars. On the architectural side it might be more," he said. "I think legal fees were a couple thousand."
Is he that naive that he would not know that the "Rezco-he-knew-then" was buying the adjacent VACANT lot for 47% the price that Obama for an entire mansion estate right next door to him???
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0611010273nov01,0,6186743.story?page=2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1978741/posts
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