Rezko linked to $1.5B Iraq power bribe

CHICAGO, March 5 (UPI) -- A Chicago fundraiser charged with angling kickbacks from state contractors has been accused of a $1.5 million bribe for an Iraqi electricity security deal.

Tony Rezko was accused by federal prosecutors in a private meeting with the judge of paying the money and winning the $50 million deal in 2005 to train security officers at power stations in Iraq, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

He hasn't been charged for the alleged Iraq bribe.

He allegedly paid it through his new company called Companion Security to Iraq Electricity Minister Aiham al-Samaraie, a classmate of Rezko at the Illinois Institute of Technology two decades ago.

Samaraie lived in Chicago until 2003 when he returned to Iraq. He has been accused by the Electrical Utility Workers Union of ignoring workers in exchange for foreign labor and purchasing equipment that was mothballed.

He was arrested and charged with corruption but escaped after four months in prison, with the help of U.S. contractors, he says, and now lives in Chicago.

Rezko is charged with drawing kickbacks from companies looking for deals with the state of Illinois. He also has raised funds for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. The Democratic Party presidential hopeful has donated the funds to charity. A photo of Rezko and Sen. Hillary Clinton, also a presidential candidate, and her husband former President Bill Clinton has surfaced. The senator from New York says she doesn't know Rezko.