Tax-delinquent Rezko pal runs toll restaurants

The AP reports:

Illinois law prohibits tax deadbeats from getting state business, but that hasn't kept an associate of indicted gubernatorial adviser Tony Rezko from operating restaurants on state property.

Al Chaib owes the state $359,639 in unpaid business taxes dating back five years, yet his firm, Morpheus LLC, owns Subway sandwich shops at all seven Illinois Tollway oases, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in Thursday's editions.

"We have asked the tollway and lawyers from the attorney general's office to look into the ownership issue and make sure there is no conflict with state procurement rules," said Abby Ottenhoff, spokeswoman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Chaib and his lawyer did not return calls seeking comment, the Sun-Times reported.

Sen. Terry Link, a Democrat from Vernon Hills who helped craft the tax-deadbeat legislation, said tollway officials should determine whether Chaib is repaying his state debt. If not, he said, Chaib's deal should be canceled.

"It's truly in violation of the intent of any law that we passed," Link said. "If the intent of the law was . . . to have these deadbeats pay their dues, then why are we allowing someone who's not paying their dues to participate? That's my question."

Joelle McGinnis, a tollway spokeswoman, said the toll authority has final approval of vendors at its oases, but it relies on Wilton Partners, which manages the oases, to screen those people. Wilton Partners did not respond to Sun-Times' questions about details of Chaib's deal.

Rezko, who raised funds for Blagojevich and advised him, and Chaib built a stable of Papa John's and Panda Express fast-food franchises. They attended the Illinois Institute of Technology together in the late 1970s.

It's not clear whether Chaib's tax woes, which the Sun-Times says were revealed in recently filed public documents, are connected to the fast-food franchises he ran with Rezko.

The selling of food on state property is not the only perk Chaib's family has secured under Blagojevich. The governor, in 2003, gave Chaib's wife a part-time job in the Department of Employment Security Review Board, an agency charged with collecting more than half of her husband's tax debt.

Aides to Blagojevich told the Sun-Times that Lori Chaib never tried to influence officials about her husband's back unemployment taxes. Al Chaib also owes sales taxes.