'Rezko-gate' details emerge

CHICAGO, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama's past ties to indicted Chicago developer Tony Rezko may prove a real problem for the Democrat's presidential hopes, a media report suggests.

A Chicago Sun-Times review Thursday outlined those ties, which Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York has brought to the forefront of the campaign.

Obama, now the junior senator from Illinois, and Rezko met in 1990. Rezko offered Obama a job, which he turned down.

The Sun-Times said in 1993 Obama joined a Chicago law firm, Davis Miner Barhnill, which counted a low-income housing developer affiliated with Rezko among its clients.

Rezko in 1995 contributed $2,000 to Obama's bid for the Illinois state Senate and hosted a "lavish fundraiser" for Obama's 2003 campaign for the U.S. Senate, the Sun-Times said.

Media Matters said reports that Obama closed a real estate deal in 2005 with Rezko's wife while the families lived next to each other, and that Obama paid Rezko's wife a price substantially lower than market value for an adjoining parcel, are incorrect.

Media Matters said the two families never lived next to each other, and Obama paid substantially more than the land's appraised value in 2006, not 2005.

Federal officials charged Rezko in October 2006 with business fraud and influence peddling involving the administration of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Some of that money -- $10,000 -- found its way into Obama's campaign fund, the newspaper said. The candidate has since donated the $10,000 to charity.