Suit says Rezko, doctor stole man's mansion
S. SIDE | More legal woe for fund-raiser in corruption trial
Political fund-raiser Tony Rezko, whose corruption trial has been making headlines for weeks, has a new legal headache:
A son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad is suing Rezko and the chief urologist at Cook County's Stroger Hospital, claiming the two of them bilked him out of his South Side mansion.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
(AP)
Jabir Muhammad -- a former close friend and business associate of Rezko's -- and Muhammad's wife, Antonia, filed suit Friday in Cook County Circuit Court against Rezko and Dr. Paul S. Ray.
The lawsuit comes about nine months after a Chicago Sun-Times story in which Muhammad first publicly claimed that Rezko "embezzled" him out of his mansion and seven other properties. At the time, Rezko called the allegation baseless and "extremely hurtful ... as I have given [Muhammad] and his family millions of dollars over the years."
The Muhammad suit involves only the mansion, in the 1100 block of East 49th Street. The Muhammads say Rezko persuaded them to put the home into a land trust when Jabir Muhammad was extremely ill in the 1990s. They say they had no idea Rezko intended to seize it from them.
Rezko's lawyers have produced a real estate contract that shows the Muhammads sold the mansion and three adjacent lots to Rezko in 1993 for $519,000. Under their contract with Rezko, the Muhammads were to leave the house by Dec. 31, 1995, but they still live there.
Ray now has clear title to Muhammad's house.