Patti Blagojevich's real estate success under scrutiny

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Illinois First Lady Patricia Blagojevich walked away from her successful career as a real estate agent earlier this year amid scrutiny from federal agents probing whether clients hired her to win favor from her husband's administration.

With her commissions plummeting and her most famous client, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, in prison on a corruption conviction, her once-lucrative career all but came to an end.

The Blagojeviches are not charged with any wrongdoing, and the financial affairs of first ladies are rarely the subject of public scrutiny. Since the Tribune first disclosed her eight-year financial relationship with Rezko, though, authorities have taken an interest in many of her real estate deals.

The Blagojeviches still refuse to say how much her home-based River Realty Inc. made from Rezko.

But a Tribune analysis of public records, along with real estate listings and interviews, reveals it earned more than $700,000 in commissions on other deals after her husband began raising money in 2000 for his first run for governor.

The Chicago Way.