Nutters Knowing No Parallel
ArchPundit
It gets better–remember how the Strogers backed Dan Hynes in 2004 and Obama said he was voting for Stroger’s opponent, Forrest Claypool–he’s no close with the Strogers and somehow implicated in Orlando Jones’ suicide.
We interrupt yet again the scheduled publication of Part II of Barack Obama’s Mob to discuss the latest Obama related suicide.
Fresh from yesterday’s article (Barack Obama and The Suicide Note) in which Norman Hsu wrote a suicide note which blamed Obama for planting stories in the press about him; we now have an actual Suicide in Chicago to discuss.
First, the immediate facts – Former Cook County Official Found Dead In Michigan [Check video at the site too.]
CHICAGO – Orlando Jones, the godson of former Cook County Board President John Stroger and an insider in county politics, has been found dead on a Michigan beach from what authorities say is a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Cook County political insider was found Wednesday night, just as a corruption inquiry targeting him was heating up.
Police found the body of Orlando Jones on a beach in Union Pier, Mich. As CBS 2’s Rafael Romo reports, Jones had close ties to the Stroger family. [snip]
Jones rose to the level of chief of staff for former president John Stroger, who was his godfather. [snip]
Jones left his position in county government to create a lobbying firm in association with Tony Rezko, who has been indicted on fraud charges.
Recent reports from Las Vegas also claim that he was the target of a federal investigation stemming from a hospital deal that he negotiated.
Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica says Jones’ untimely death, while firstly is a human tragedy, also raises many questions about the Cook County president’s office.
“Some of these matters Jones was involved in that are currently being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are reaching to the highest level of county government,” Peraica said.
The Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday published an article about Jones, who has worked for the past several years as a lobbyist and consultant, pointing out that he was earning a six-figure “referral fee” every year from the financial firm William Blair & Company, for helping steer state pensions to the firm.
The Chicago Sun-Times article was called Stroger’s Godson’s Sweet Deal which outlined Orlando Jones’ lucrative relationship with William Blair & Co., “a Chicago financial firm that pays him a six-figure “referral fee” every year — for a job he did in 2004.”
The Illinois State Board of Investment oversees retirement funds for state employees, lawmakers and judges. In 2004, the state agency invested $280 million with the William Blair firm.
The Chicago Sun-Times article detailed on a yearly basis the amount of the payments to Orlando Jones. More disturbing however was the Chicago Sun-Times publication of The original investors in Tony Rezko’s big South Loop deal
Orlando Jones was among investors in a Tony Rezko real estate venture in 2003, records show. Rezko wanted to develop 62 acres of prime land at Roosevelt and Clark — for which his company, Rezmar Corp., sought $140 million in city tax subsidies.
The deal stalled when Mayor Daley’s administration accused Rezko of minority-owned-business fraud. But most investors apparently recouped their money after Rezko sold the site in late 2005.
Here is a previously undisclosed list of the investment groups for the project (in most cases, City Hall couldn’t find records identifying the groups’ investors):
The list of investors in Obama pal Rezko’s deal included Anthony Licata, the project’s attorney, Tony Rezko Fighting federal corruption charges, Daniel Mahru Rezko’s former partner, Orlando Jones and Chicago Police Board member Art Smith, trucking mogul Michael A. Tadin, Dr. Paul Ray, chief urologist at Cook County’s Stroger Hospital, Joseph Scoby Executive at UBS O’Connor, an investment company, Victor J. Cacciatore, once extorted for $5 million by Chicago mob, Joseph P. Cacciatore, one of Victor Cacciatore’s sons, and Michael Seibold, a former insurance executive; as well as Dr. Mamdouh Bakhos Suburban cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Michel Malek a Chicago neurosurgeon appointed to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board at Rezko’s request, and George LoCasto a Manager with UBS O’Connor
Here is the link to an article by the Chicago Tribune, Stroger Godson Wielded Power Behind The Scenes which provides additional information on Orlando Jones.
We will explain this complicated story in Part II of Barack Obama and the Chicago Suicide. For the curious read Obama – Turning Pages, Part II for our prescient analysis concerning the healthcare connection to Michelle and Barack Obama and Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the Strogers and the expanding investigations by the Federal Prosecutors from Patrick Fitzgerald’s relentless office.
Strangely, I cannot find an actual connection to Obama and Jones in the above other than both are in Chicago and involved in politics. Most of us remember who horribly offensive the Arkansas Project was–why are Clinton supporters trying to recreate it to attack a Democrat?