Good old Tony Rezko, he has his fingers in so many public pies we get a steady diet of stories. Sun Times: Two years ago, Iraq's Ministry of Electricity gave a $50 million contract to a start-up security company owned by now-indicted businessman Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop with a checkered financial past.
Within a month, an Iraqi leadership change left the deal in limbo.
Now the company, Companion Security, is working to revive its contract to train Iraqi power-plant guards in the United States.
Companion found support last summer from Gov. Blagojevich, whose staff offered to let the company lease a military facility in western Illinois.
Last summer, when Rezko was already implicated in several questionable deals. And recall Sen. Obama's cozy relationship with Rezko. Companion contacted his office, though nothing came of it. The proposed modus operandi in Iraq sounds familiar: Rezko and others in the venture were to own the plant and sell electricity back to the Iraqis, but the Iraqi government still was to pay a substantial portion of construction costs, that source added.
The deal is dead, Rezko's partner charged with corruption. Obama's office thought the Illinois part of the deal might bring jobs to the Quad Cities. How much would we have paid for that sweet-heart deal, pay to play-piece of pie?
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