The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
With the jury still out deliberating corruption charges against him in Chicago, Tony Rezko is facing fresh criminal charges in Las Vegas for allegedly failing to pay $450,000 in gambling debts.
Rezko faces two counts of drawing or passing a check with insufficient funds, Clark County District Attorney David Roger said.
“We have notified the marshals we have a warrant for his arrest,” Roger said. “They will execute the warrant at the appropriate time.”
In all liklihood, if Rezko is convicted and detained, authorities in Las Vegas will put a detainer on him so he later transferred to Nevada. If he is acquitted in the Chicago case, he will face extradition for the Nevada charges.
According to his warrant, Rezko owes $450,000 in gambling debts to Caesars Palace and Bally’s Hotel Casino that he allegedly racked up between March and July of 2006. Rezko’s allegedly tried to back up his gambling with markers on his account, but it had insufficient funds, Roger said. Insufficient funds in varying amounts, from $15,000 to $120,000 were drawn against his account at Broadway Bank, according to Rezko’s warrant.
Rezko owed a total of more than $800,000, but Bellagio LLC obtained a judgment of default against Rezko in 2007 for not repaying $331,000 in gambling markers, court records show.
Sources say federal authorities in Chicago were notified of the new warrant earlier this week.
Here's more on
Broadway Bank and Obama's good friend Alexi Giannoulias:
A man 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 tonight for Sen. Barack Obama.
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.
Before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution.
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.
Giannoulias was the bank's vice president and chief loan officer for most of the more than $15 million in loans.
He was not charged with breaking any laws. The Obama campaign disputed any suggestion that Obama is tarnished by the association.
"Barack Obama has a long record of fighting for ethics reform from his days as a state senator," a campaign rep said.
The Obama-Rezko-Giannoulias operation.
Here's Crain's Chicago Business on Broadway Bank.
