Obama sidekick has mob ties

There’s an old term ‘if you scratch my back, I will scratch yours!'

In this case it works for Senator Obama. In year 2006, Barack Obama was using his political influence for several candidates running for office in Illinois that year. He has made an expensive TV commercial endorsing a young candidate in the state treasurer's race. Obama is the narrator in a new TV spot that launches a million-dollar-plus statewide ad campaign, financed in large part by Giannoulias's wealthy family which owns the Broadway Bank in Chicago, where Alexi's a vice president and contributes a lot of money to a lot of candidates, including Obama.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=3939317

According to Charles Hurt at the New York Post,

"Alexi Giannoulias, who became Illinois state treasurer last year after Obama vouched for him, has pledged to raise $100,000 for the senator's Oval Office bid. Alexi Giannoulias who has long been dogged by charges that the bank his family owns helped finance a Chicago crime figure will host a Windy City fund-raiser in 2007 for Obama."

But before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled "Jaws" Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution. The fundraiser of course was closed for journalist and was held at the restaurant in Chicago's Greektown community. Reference: Chicago Sun-Times

Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links that several top Illinois Dems, including the state's speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama's help. Obama and Giannoulias reportedly met on the basketball court "...in the late 1990s ... at the East Bank Club, a luxurious spot in downtown Chicago," according to Jodi Kantor wrote June 1, 2007, in a New York Times article in June, 2007. Other regular gym mates include the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health and several investment bankers who were early and energetic fund-raisers.

To reiterate, Giannoulias has NOT been charged with any crimes and being associated with those who do is not itself a crime, but these connections are highly suspicious for a candidate for U.S President, who must have known about those associations since they have been reported often in local newspapers in Chicago. To maintain a close association to Giannoulias…a situation which under scrutiny could prove embarrassing at the very least -- and it would also raise doubt about Obama’s judgment.

A part of judgments that Obama’s fail to disclose were contributions by Tony Rezko. And to this extent, Tony Rezko was being sued for more than $10 million by a Chicago man who says he helped Rezko secure a $1 million loan from the Broadway Bank, whose vice president is Democratic State treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

This is the same Tony Rezko who is Obama’s fundraiser and helped Obama in his property deals. The same Tony Rezko who is on trial for money laundering, aiding bribe, fraud and attempted extortion.

Only in Chicago does crime TRULY pay.