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Obama-Barack (1971) Corruption (1744) Barack Obama (1082) Chicago (295) Party Politics Democratic (276) Party Machine Democratic (173) Party Platforms DNC (127) Obama Hillary New Hampshire (112) Rezko (34) Blagojevich (13) Washington (9)
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The Tony Rezko trial opened the door to more Board Game cases not yet tried and more Combine members threw in the towel. Ali Ata, the former director of the Illinois Finance Authority, entered into a plea agreement on April 22, 2008. The Authority was established by Blagojevich in 2004, “to support the Governor of Illinois' economic development agenda," and "IFA approves about $3 billion in project financing each year," according to its web site. Ata pled guilty to charges that included tax fraud, and lying to the FBI in saying he received nothing in return for $50,000 in contributions to Blagojevich when according to the plea agreement, he did "receive something for those contributions, specifically employment with a state agency ... with an annual salary of approximately $127,000." The agreement notes that Ata met with Blagojevich, not Rezko, in 2000 or 2001, and Blagojevich asked for his support because he was contemplating a run for higher office. Ata testified that he held his first Blagojevich fundraiser in the 1990s when he was asked to raise money for Blagojevich‘s run for Congress within the Arab community. Ata made a $5,000 donation to Obama on June 30, 2003. Talat Othman was also appointed to this Board, and he donated $1,000 to Obama on June 30, 2003. David Gustman was made chairman, and his wife, Lisa, also gave Obama $1,000 on June 30. Ata is a former president of the Chicago Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. He represents “a deeper corruption” in the Arab American community, “an aspect of the story that has not received much attention,” according to a May 2, 2008 report by Ray Hanania in the Southwest News-Herald. Hanania points out that many in the Arab community are calling Ata a “rat.” But he’s not alone, Hanania says: “The real rats are those who used their positions as “leaders” to rape and pillage their own community. The real rats are the so-called “leaders” who worked to benefit themselves pretending they were doing it for the benefit of the community.” In his report, Hanania explains how Ata and others would often gather at a “hookah” café on Harlem Avenue, where they helped organize political dinners attended by Arab Americans from the Southwest suburbs at which politicians where “honored.” “These Arab community “leaders,” he says, “would tell the community that if they bought tickets to their “candidate’s nights,” their organization fundraisers or donated through them to local politicians, these politicians would respond by giving the Arab American community empowerment.” “They did get jobs, contracts and clout,” he notes, “but the people who benefited were not members of the community but rather the relatives, children, friends and business associates of these leaders.” Ata has apparently done quite well as a member of the Combine. In 2004, his net worth was $12 million, according to the Tribune. During the Rezko trial, Ata testified that he had about $2 million invested in Rezko projects, which include Riverside Park, and wanted to get it back someday. Rezko’s attorney got him to admit that he really did not have to worry about the money he gave Blagojevich. In one state deal, Ata and three business partners, Faysal Mohamed, Fuad Mohamed and Refat Zayed, “took in more than $3.2 million from taxpayers by leasing a West Side office building to the state over 10 years,” according to the June 6, 2005 Sun-Times. On May 4, 2008, the Times reported that the Blagojevich administration is still “paying Ata and his partners more than $800,000 a year to lease space for the Department of Human Services in the building.”
Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.
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