I haven't been follwoing too closely so I dn't know if this has been talked about. Timeline is Arpil 2008

Pajamas Media » Rezko Witness Leaves New Questions about Obama Real Estate Deal Unanswered


The problem for Obama is that he first said, through campaign spokesman Bill Burton in an email to the news site Raw Story back in January, that “[h]e has no recollection of ever meeting him [Auchi].” Then, in an interview with the Chicago Sun Times, Obama let on that he “may” have met Auchi at the Four Seasons reception sponsored by Blagojevich.

The question will almost certainly be asked how Obama could forget meeting his longtime friend’s very important business partner twice in such a short period of time.

This is especially true since Auchi apparently attended at least one Obama fundraiser. Joseph Cacciatore, whose family once owned a 62-acre plot of land bought by Rezko and was in the process of developing with Auchi, says he met Auchi a few years ago:

Cacciatore can’t suppress at least a touch of admiration for the dapper, sophisticated Auchi. He said they met at an Obama fundraising party that Rezko gave at his home several years ago.

“He was well dressed,” Cacciatore said. “He seemed distinguished.”

Both men say they don’t know each other.

And Obama isn’t the only one who wished to downplay this relationship with Auchi. Raw Story reported that shortly after rumors began circulating that Obama met with Auchi, two websites connected to Auchi’s holding company, General Mediterranean Holding, were scrubbed of any mention of his trip to Illinois.

Obama himself has been extraordinarily vague about any possible meetings, saying that while he very well may have met Auchi, he doesn’t recall it.

Why is this so important? Establishing a previous relationship between Obama and Auchi opens a fresh line of questions about the real estate deal on his home involving Rezko and Obama –questions about the source of money that Rezko used to buy a side lot to Obama’s mansion at a time when he told a court he was flat broke and heavily in debt.


HERE IS SOME MORE OF THE ARTICLE:
So Auchi –friend of Saddam, international fraudster, and business partner to one of Chicago’s premiere fixers– gave Rezko the money that allowed Obama to purchase his house. Without the loan, Rezko would not have been able to afford the $125,000 downpayment on the lot and Obama would not have been able to meet the terms set by the sellers.

Did Auchi know that part of that money would be used to help Obama purchase his house? Did Obama know where Rezko’s money came from?

This is important to know because about the time of the loan to Rezko, Auchi was put on the State Department’s “undesirable alien” list and was prevented from getting a visa to the United States. Rezko told prosecutors that he tried to intervene on Auchi’s behalf with the State Department to get the ban lifted. Running into a stone wall at State, the prosecutors say that Rezko turned to “certain Illinois politicians to do the same.” Who would Rezko have turned to except Obama (and probably Governor Blagojevich)?

The fact that Obama knew Auchi from his trip to Chicago a year before alters what we had previously known about the billionaire’s visa problems. The question arises if any quid pro quo was given with regard to the Rezko loan, involving Obama’s possible intercession with the State Department on Auchi’s behalf. Going to bat for your patron’s business partner to solve a little thing like a visa problem is not a mortal sin. But connecting it to a loan that made it possible for Obama to purchase his house would be a little more serious and could involve the Senate Ethics Committee.