House lost to Rezko?
SOUTH SIDE MANSION | Muhammad says it was 'embezzled,' Rezko says he bought it
A son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad says he's been "embezzled" out of his ownership of eight properties -- including the South Side mansion where he still lives -- by indicted businessman and political fund-raiser Tony Rezko.
"He embezzled me," Jabir Muhammad, 78, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "He had taken it without my knowledge and didn't pay me for it."
"He embezzled me," Jabir Muhammad, 78, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "He had taken it without my knowledge and didn't pay me for it."
Rezko called the allegation baseless and upsetting given that he has "generously supported Mr. Muhammad" in their nearly 30 years as business partners and friends.
Rezko called the allegation baseless and upsetting given that he has "generously supported Mr. Muhammad" in their nearly 30 years as business partners and friends.
"His preposterous accusations today are extremely hurtful . . . as I have given him and his family millions of dollars over the years," Rezko said in a statement.
Muhammad's allegations mark another twist in the saga of Rezko, whom Muhammad takes credit for helping become one of Illinois' biggest political players. Rezko's indictments on public-corruption and business-fraud charges are causing headaches for politicians he's backed, including Gov. Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who's now running for president.
On Tuesday, Rezko's lawyers produced a contract that was signed by Muhammad and his wife, Antonia, showing they sold the mansion and three adjacent lots to Rezko in 1993 for $519,000. Rezko resold the property nine years later for $2.8 million.
Under their contract with Rezko, the Muhammads were to leave the house by Dec. 31, 1995, but they still live there. The current owner -- Dr. Paul S. Ray, a Rezko business partner -- recently asked them to move out. Ray's attorney said Ray has clear title to Muhammad's house.
Muhammad's attorney, Joseph Morris, said Tuesday the Muhammads "never knowingly signed any papers" to convey the home to Rezko. The Muhammads originally entrusted Rezko to handle their financial affairs in 1991, around the time Jabir Muhammad fell ill with the first in a series of potentially life-threatening ailments, Morris said.
Since Rezko paid the property taxes on the home, Muhammad said years passed before he realized he no longer owned it.
Despite Muhammad's accusations, he hasn't sued Rezko.
The sales contract that Rezko's lawyers produced for Muhammad's home and three adjacent lots shows Rezko paid the Muhammads a $150,000 down-payment, assumed payments on a $125,000 business loan to Muhammad and agreed to pay $244,000 in monthly installments. Rezko's attorneys showed copies of checks totaling $186,500 from Rezko to Muhammad.
Morris acknowledged Muhammad got payments from Rezko -- but not for those properties nor for four others that Rezko obtained in a second real estate deal. He said any Rezko checks to Muhammad were related to their business ventures.
In the second deal, public records show a Rezko-owned company paid Muhammad $225,000 in 1998 for four lots at 47th and Woodlawn, across from a mosque Muhammad founded. Within months, the land was resold to another Rezko company for $517,500.
Muhammad said he never got any money from Rezko for those lots, either. Those properties have since been developed by Rezko business associates into town homes.
The Muhammad house figured in a lawsuit that Antonia Muhammad, 75, filed in 2004 when she was considering separating from her husband of 59 years. Jabir Muhammad said his wife suspected then that he and Rezko were "in cahoots" to wrest the mansion from her. She dropped the case last month.
"The biggest mistake that I did was trusting Tony Rezko," Muhammad said.