Who Is Nadhmi Auchi and What's His Tie to Obama?

mudwhistle · 04-13-2008, 10:06 AM

You probably would have heard of Nadhmi Auchi by now if Sen. Barack Obama were a Republican.
A British citizen of Iraqi descent, Mr. Auchi, 70, is a billionaire, the 279th richest man in the world, according to a Forbes magazine survey last year.

A great deal of Mr. Auchi's money was made doing business with the regime of Saddam Hussein, much of it under the table. In 1987, Mr. Auchi helped French and Italian firms win a huge oil pipeline contract in Iraq, chiefly by paying off Iraqi officials, according to testimony given by an Italian banker to prosecutors in Milan. In 2003, he was convicted for his role in what was then the largest scandal in French history, involving payoffs from executives of the oil company now known as Total to political figures in Spain, Germany and Africa.

"He has been able to collect British politicians the way other people collect stamps," wrote Nick Cohen in a 2003 profile of Mr. Auchi in the left wing British newspaper the Observer.

Mr. Auchi was a leading supplier of arms to Saddam's regime. A former Belgian ambassador to Luxembourg charged that a bank in Luxembourg owned principally by Mr. Auchi laundered funds -- including oil for food money -- for Saddam and other Islamic dictators.

"The name Nadhmi Auchi was just another name for Saddam's intelligence service, or so we thought," said Nibras Kazimi, a former Iraqi dissident who is now a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

Mr. Auchi is a business partner of Syrian-born businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who has supported Mr. Obama financially since his first run for the Illinois state senate in 1996.

Mr. Rezko currently is in jail awaiting trial on charges he extorted money from firms seeking to do business with the state of Illinois. (Mr. Rezko was also a fund raiser for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.) Mr. Rezko's bail was revoked Jan. 28 when the trial judge learned that he, friends and relatives had been wired $3.5 million from firms in Lebanon controlled by Mr. Auchi. The judge feared Mr. Rezko was about to flee the country.

Federal prosecutors allege a $10,000 contribution made by Mr. Rezko to Sen. Obama came from a $250,000 kickback, but there is no evidence Sen. Obama was aware of the source of the funds. Nor is there evidence Sen. Obama did any favors for Mr. Rezko that skirted the law.

The most eyebrow raising connection between Mr. Rezko and Sen. Obama is the assistance Mr. Rezko provided in the purchase of the mansion on Chicago's South Side that Sen. Obama bought in 2005. The Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million -- $300,000 below the asking price -- perhaps because Mr. Rezko's wife purchased from the owner an adjacent garden plot for $625,000. (The sellers deny they offered the Obamas a discount.) The Times of London wondered where Mrs. Rezko got the money to buy the garden plot. At the time, she had a salary of $37,000 and assets of only $35,000, the Times learned. Her husband told a court that at the time he had "no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets," the Times said.

The Times learned Mr. Rezko received an earlier $3.5 million loan from Mr. Auchi on May 23, 2005, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA.

Mr. Rezko has described Mr. Auchi as a "close friend." Mr. Auchi says they have only a business relationship. They've been partners in a chain of pizza restaurants in Wisconsin and in a major real estate development in Riverside Park in Chicago.

The connection between Mr. Auchi and Sen. Obama is tenuous. But given Mr. Auchi's shady past, his history of bribing politicians, it's not unreasonable to ask if Mr. Auchi, through Mr. Rezko, was trying to buy influence with a rising political star. And it's curious that outside of the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune, both of which have written extensively on the Rezko-Obama relationship, only a British newspaper is asking.

The New York Times and the Washington Post have made much of Sen. John McCain's friendship with an attractive female lobbyist, though not even the Times' anonymous sources allege Sen. McCain had an affair with Vicki Iseman, or acted improperly on behalf of her clients. But they and the rest of the national news media have been remarkably incurious about Sen. Obama's relationship with Mr. Rezko, and his with Mr. Auchi.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Who Is Nadhmi Auchi and What's His Tie to Obama?

OSheila · 04-13-2008, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudwhistle

You probably would have heard of Nadhmi Auchi by now if Sen. Barack Obama were a Republican.
A British citizen of Iraqi descent, Mr. Auchi, 70, is a billionaire, the 279th richest man in the world, according to a Forbes magazine survey last year.

A great deal of Mr. Auchi's money was made doing business with the regime of Saddam Hussein, much of it under the table. In 1987, Mr. Auchi helped French and Italian firms win a huge oil pipeline contract in Iraq, chiefly by paying off Iraqi officials, according to testimony given by an Italian banker to prosecutors in Milan. In 2003, he was convicted for his role in what was then the largest scandal in French history, involving payoffs from executives of the oil company now known as Total to political figures in Spain, Germany and Africa.

"He has been able to collect British politicians the way other people collect stamps," wrote Nick Cohen in a 2003 profile of Mr. Auchi in the left wing British newspaper the Observer.

Mr. Auchi was a leading supplier of arms to Saddam's regime. A former Belgian ambassador to Luxembourg charged that a bank in Luxembourg owned principally by Mr. Auchi laundered funds -- including oil for food money -- for Saddam and other Islamic dictators.

"The name Nadhmi Auchi was just another name for Saddam's intelligence service, or so we thought," said Nibras Kazimi, a former Iraqi dissident who is now a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

Mr. Auchi is a business partner of Syrian-born businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who has supported Mr. Obama financially since his first run for the Illinois state senate in 1996.

Mr. Rezko currently is in jail awaiting trial on charges he extorted money from firms seeking to do business with the state of Illinois. (Mr. Rezko was also a fund raiser for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.) Mr. Rezko's bail was revoked Jan. 28 when the trial judge learned that he, friends and relatives had been wired $3.5 million from firms in Lebanon controlled by Mr. Auchi. The judge feared Mr. Rezko was about to flee the country.

Federal prosecutors allege a $10,000 contribution made by Mr. Rezko to Sen. Obama came from a $250,000 kickback, but there is no evidence Sen. Obama was aware of the source of the funds. Nor is there evidence Sen. Obama did any favors for Mr. Rezko that skirted the law.

The most eyebrow raising connection between Mr. Rezko and Sen. Obama is the assistance Mr. Rezko provided in the purchase of the mansion on Chicago's South Side that Sen. Obama bought in 2005. The Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million -- $300,000 below the asking price -- perhaps because Mr. Rezko's wife purchased from the owner an adjacent garden plot for $625,000. (The sellers deny they offered the Obamas a discount.) The Times of London wondered where Mrs. Rezko got the money to buy the garden plot. At the time, she had a salary of $37,000 and assets of only $35,000, the Times learned. Her husband told a court that at the time he had "no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets," the Times said.

The Times learned Mr. Rezko received an earlier $3.5 million loan from Mr. Auchi on May 23, 2005, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA.

Mr. Rezko has described Mr. Auchi as a "close friend." Mr. Auchi says they have only a business relationship. They've been partners in a chain of pizza restaurants in Wisconsin and in a major real estate development in Riverside Park in Chicago.

The connection between Mr. Auchi and Sen. Obama is tenuous. But given Mr. Auchi's shady past, his history of bribing politicians, it's not unreasonable to ask if Mr. Auchi, through Mr. Rezko, was trying to buy influence with a rising political star. And it's curious that outside of the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune, both of which have written extensively on the Rezko-Obama relationship, only a British newspaper is asking.

The New York Times and the Washington Post have made much of Sen. John McCain's friendship with an attractive female lobbyist, though not even the Times' anonymous sources allege Sen. McCain had an affair with Vicki Iseman, or acted improperly on behalf of her clients. But they and the rest of the national news media have been remarkably incurious about Sen. Obama's relationship with Mr. Rezko, and his with Mr. Auchi.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Who Is Nadhmi Auchi and What's His Tie to Obama?

McCain will have no trouble defeating the gangsta in the GE

mudwhistle · 04-14-2008, 12:49 PM

If this were about Clinton or McCain it would have three pages worth of responses at least. The acolytes of Obama can cover their ears and ignore it all they want. But this is going to come up again in the GE and lack of response won't cut it.

Noob920 · 04-14-2008, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudwhistle

If this were about Clinton or McCain it would have three pages worth of responses at least. The acolytes of Obama can cover their ears and ignore it all they want. But this is going to come up again in the GE and lack of response won't cut it.

If it was about Clinton of McCain, they would have need for moist towelettes.

ibex · 04-14-2008, 01:43 PM

Jack Kelly is a GOP ass kisser and a partisan hack. He pieced together this so called connection between Obama and Auchi out of whole cloth and predictably, Mudpie and the other drones bought it hook, line and sinker. And BTW, is O Sheila really Dr. Dog aka Tub O' Crap? Why haven't we heard more about this so called connection? Because it's bullshit from the blogosphere that can't be verified.

mudwhistle · 04-16-2008, 03:39 PM

Pieced together from whole cloth? An eyewitness just testified that B Hussein was at a party to honor him:

Quote:

The government's star witness at the fraud trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko testified Monday that Sen. Barack Obama and his wife attended a party four years ago at the home of the indicted political fundraiser.

Stuart Levine said the party took place in April 2004 and was held to honor Iraqi-born Nadhmi Auchi, a London-based billionaire who was visiting the United States at the time.

Rezko, 52, was a major fundraiser for Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and the trial has been closely watched because of Obama's presidential campaign. But very little has been said about the senator thus far.

Neither Blagojevich nor Obama has been accused of wrongdoing. The Obama campaign has now given to charity nearly $150,000 in contributions received by Obama's House and Senate campaigns that came from Rezko, his employees, his associates and his family

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said Monday that the senator "does not recall meeting Nadhmi Auchi at any time or on any occasion," and that Obama and his wife do not remember attending the party.

Auchi's attorney, Alasdair Pepper, has said his client doesn't remember meeting Obama.

Neither Blagojevich nor Obama has been accused of wrongdoing.

Rezko is charged with scheming with Levine to squeeze money management firms wanting state business for kickbacks and split a bribe. Rezko has denied that he took part in such a scheme.

But his bond was revoked and he was jailed by the trial judge after federal prosecutors discovered a wire transfer of $3.5 million in 2007 to his attorneys from Auchi by way of a bank in Lebanon. Rezko had told Judge Amy J. St. Eve that he had no money, no way of getting money and was living off the charity of friends and relatives.

Levine has pleaded guilty to the charges and taken the stand as the government's star witness in hopes of getting a lenient sentence.

Levine said very little about the party at Rezko's home or Obama's presence there.

He said he had flown Rezko's family back from Mexico the same day so that they would be in Chicago in time for the party.

"Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn was there?" Rezko attorney Joseph J. Duffy asked.

"Yes, Sir," Levine answered.

"Mr. and Mrs. Obama were there?" Duffy asked.

Levine agreed with a Duffy statement that "the governor was a no-show."

Witness: Obama Attended Rezko Party

Chantytown · 04-16-2008, 04:17 PM

*yawn*

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