Nadhmi Auchi ?

I have done this site especially for Nadhmi Auchi
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Career Highlights - Nadhmi Auchi

Nadhmi Auchi, is a British-resident, Iraqi-born billionaire. He is believed to have a net worth of around £1.4 billion, which would make him Britain's 22nd wealthiest individual. Auchi graduated in Economics and Political Science from the Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad in 1967. He also worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, becoming Director of Planning and Development. In 1979 he founded General Mediterranean Holding SA in Luxembourg. Auchi was Vice-Chair of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University between 1996 and 2000. He has been president of the Anglo-Arab Organisation since its founding in 2002. In November, 2003, Auchi was given a two-year sentence for his involvement in the Elf scandal, " "the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War" according to the Guardian. Elf became a private bank for its executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewellery, fine art, villas and apartments"A French court found Nadhmi Auchi guilty of accepting £50 million worth of illegal commissions. He was also fined £1.4 million. The "Guardian" also noted that Nadhmi Auchi had helped Orascom (which owns Djezzy GSM), owned by Onsi Sawiris (worth $5.2 billion with his family according to Forbes, gain a contract to set-up mobile phone networks in post-Saddam's Iraq. Moreover, as owner of the General Mediterranean Holdings, Auchi is the largest private share-holder of BNP Paribas, which until 2001 had the escrow account through which the money from the Oil-for-Food programme transited.

Company Contact Information - Nadhmi Auchi

Angloarab
P.O.Box 1219, KINGSTON UPON THAMES
Surrey ,KT
United Kingdom
4402076051811
4402076035533
http://www.angloarab.org/main.htm

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Nadhmi Auchi - From Wikileaks

Nadhmi Auchi (Arabic: نظمي أوجي‎) is a British resident Iraqi billionaire and former Ba'ath party member who left Iraq in the early 1980s. He is the founder and chairman of the Luxembourg registered General Mediterranean Holding (GMH SA), a conglomerate of 120 companies worldwide.

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Nadhmi Auchi - forbes.com

Age: 68
Fortune: self made
Source: Diversified

Lives life in the fast lane, thanks to a $40 million racecar franchise in Lebanon for the new A1 Racing League. Iraqi-born Londoner got criticized for hosting a lavish1,000-person wedding for son Tameem and his wealthy Palestinian bride-on the same day that the antipoverty Live 8 concert kicked off in adjacent Hyde Park. Recently added a $131 million (purchase price) property in Chicago's South Loop to his $1.2 billion estimated real estate holdings.

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Nadhmi Auchi - barackbook.com

Who Am I?

Nadhmi Auchi Is An Iraqi Billionaire With Business And Personal Ties To Convicted Obama Fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko. ("Who's Who In The Antoin 'Tony' Rezko Trial," The Associated Press, 6/4/08)

* "Auchi Is The Man Who Provided Rezko A $3.5 Million Loan That Rezko Did Not Disclose To The Court -- Resulting In His January Arrest." (Natasha Korecki, "Obama Bomb Droped," Chicago Sun-Times’ "Eye On Rezko" Blog, blogs.suntimes.com, 4/14/08)

Auchi Reportedly Built His Fortune Partly "Through Arms Deals With The Iraqi Regime In The 1980s." (Romesh Ratnesar, "Cronyism In Iraq?" Time, 11/17/03)

"Auchi -- Who Lives In London -- Had Been Convicted Of Fraud In France In 2003." (Natasha Korecki, Chris Fusco and Tim Novak, "Obama’s Name In Rezko Trial," Chicago Sun-Times, 4/15/08)

Auchi Was Also One Of The Largest Shareholders In A French Bank Involved In The UN’s Oil-For-Food Program For Iraq. (Alby Gallun and Greg Hinz, "Rezko Sells Loop Project For $131 Million," Crain’s Chicago Business, 9/29/05)

* "[Auchi] Helped ‘Arrange For Significant Theft From The U.N. Oil-For-Food Program To Smuggle Weapons And Dual-Use Technology Into Iraq.’" (Editorial, "Obama And Rezko," Investor's Business Daily, 3/7/08)

Rezko "Asked Certain Illinois Government Officials" To Help Auchi Obtain A Visa To Visit The U.S. After He Had Previously Been Turned Down By The State Department. (Brian Ross, "Obama ‘Backer’ Rezko Ordered To Jail," ABC News’ "The Blotter" Blog, www.abcnews.com, 1/28/08)
Facts About Me and Barack

According To Rezko Trial Testimony, Obama Attended A Reception For Nadhmi Auchi At The Home Of Tony Rezko April 3, 2004. (Natasha Korecki, "Obama Bomb Droped," Chicago Sun-Times’ "Eye On Rezko" Blog, blogs.suntimes.com, 4/14/08)

* A Source Told The Chicago Sun-Times That "Obama Not Only Gave Rezko's Guest Of Honor, Iraqi Billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, A Big Welcome … But He Made A Few Toasts!" (Michael Sneed, "Which Is It? Obamarama…" Chicago Sun-Times, 4/16/08)

Obama Might Have Also Attended A Rezko Party Where Auchi Was The Guest Of Honor At The Chicago Four Seasons Hotel. (Mike Robinson, "Mysterious London-Based Billionaire In The Background At Political Fundraiser Tony Rezko's Trial," The Associated Press, 4/14/08)
What Barack Says About Me

In Response To Rezko Trial Testimony, An Obama Spokesman Said That Obama "Does Not Recall Meeting Nadhmi Auchi At Any Time Or On Any Occasion." (Natasha Korecki, Chris Fusco and Tim Novak, "Obama’s Name In Rezko Trial," Chicago Sun-Times, 4/15/08)

Obama: "I have no specific recollection. [Auchi and Alsammarae] may have been there. I can't say unequivocally that I did not meet them, but I just don't recall." (Sen. Barack Obama, Interview With The Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com, 3/15/08)

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Tony Rezko's billionaire buddy - Nadhmi Auchi

Tycoon who invested nearly $170 million in 62 acres in the South Loop -- land indicted fund-raiser had been trying to develop -- has been named by prosecution

February 28, 2008

On a spring day in 2004, Nadhmi Auchi, one of the world's richest men, flew in to Midway Airport on a private jet. Met by a welcoming party that included Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (there at the request of the Blagojevich administration) and businessman Tony Rezko, Auchi was brought to a downtown hotel where he was the guest of honor at a reception hosted by Blagojevich.

The Iraqi-born billionaire -- who lives in London -- had come to Chicago on business. He would go on to invest nearly $170 million in a prime piece of vacant land in the South Loop -- 62 acres along the Chicago River that Rezko wanted to develop.

Now, Auchi is surfacing in Rezko's corruption case, set to go to trial Monday. Auchi is mentioned by prosecutors in the court filing that got Rezko's bail revoked and landed him in jail.

Rezko was indicted in October 2006 in a scheme to shake down firms seeking state pension business to enrich himself and Blagojevich's campaign fund. He got $3.5 million from Auchi's company in April 2007 but never told a judge about it, raising concerns that Rezko, a native of Syria, might flee the country.

Auchi wasn't accused of wrongdoing regarding Rezko. But he had faced legal troubles in Europe, prosecutors noted, having been "convicted several years ago in France on fraud charges" and sentenced to 15 months in prison, "but the sentence was suspended as long as Auchi committed no new crimes."

They raised the possibility that, even though Auchi's Luxembourg-based General Mediterranean Holding has taken control of the valuable South Loop property from Rezko, Auchi might be barred from entering the United States. "In November 2005, after Auchi was unable to enter the United States, Rezko directly appealed to the State Department to permit Auchi to enter the United States and, it appears, asked certain Illinois government officials to do the same," prosecutors wrote.

So how was Auchi not allowed in the United States in November 2005 but able to come here in 2004 -- despite his criminal conviction in France in 2003?

Auchi's London-based lawyer, Alasdair Pepper, wouldn't answer that. State Department and Homeland Security officials said they couldn't comment.

But Pepper did say Auchi maintains his innocence and is appealing the conviction "through applying to the European Court of Human Rights." Also, he said by e-mail that Auchi didn't authorize "Mr. Rezko to appeal to the State Department or to contact 'Illinois government officials' to help him obtain a visa."

Prosecutors haven't said which "Illinois government officials" Rezko contacted. Rezko was a longtime fund-raiser for Blagojevich and for Sen. Barack Obama, but aides to both said Rezko never reached out to them about Auchi.

Blagojevich did pose for pictures with Auchi at the April 2004 reception. Obama, now the leading Democratic presidential contender, wasn't there.

"The senator doesn't recall ever meeting Auchi," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

Said Pepper: "My client has no recollection of meeting Sen. Obama."

Auchi has sought to distance himself from Rezko -- but still plans to develop the 62 acres at Roosevelt and Clark. Asked about the project, Pepper referred questions to a Feb. 12 story posted on the Web site Newsmax.com.

"As negative information about Rezko came to light last year, GMH moved to buy out Rezko's interest" in the project, Newsmax reported. "In July 2007, Rezko sold the majority of his interest."

General Mediterranean has invested nearly $170 million in the property and has "80 percent control of the holding company that owns the land," the report said.

It described Auchi as a political opponent of Saddam Hussein whose brother was murdered by the Iraqi dictator. Describing Auchi's star power in London, it wrote: "Many liken Auchi's fame in Britain and the Middle East to that of Donald Trump in the U.S."

Auchi, who left Iraq in 1980, has been honored "for his charitable work and business success" by Queen Elizabeth II, according to Newsmax.

Forbes ranked Auchi No. 279 on its 2007 list of the world's billionaires. The magazine described him as a "onetime go-between for major oil companies and state-owned oil fields in the Gulf" who settled in Britain after fleeing Iraq. After being convicted of fraud charges involving the French oil company Elf, Forbes reported, he "started a lawsuit in early 2007 against France's Elf, accusing its former directors of fraud and of entangling his name in their criminal acts."

Chris Fusco and Tim Novak

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Who is Nadhmi Auchi? Rezko pal? Obama pal? Saddam pal?

by Mark Rhoads - illinoisreview.typepad.com

Nationally syndicated-columnist Bob Novak has always been affiliated with The Chicago Sun-Times (and the old Chicago Daily News) as his home newspaper. Novak grew up in Will County and wrote for the Joliet Herald-News early in his career. In a column today, Novak starts to assemble bits and pieces of stories published in Chicago and London in the last week about a London-based Iraqi billionaire with strong ties to the former Saddam Hussein government.

This mystery figure, Nadhmi Auchi, wired $3.5 million to Tony Rezko about one month before Mrs. Rezko purchased land adjacent to the Obama home from the same seller. What does all that add up to? Nothing concrete as yet but it should raise some red flags for any member of the U.S. Senate let alone a member who is also leading a contest for nomination for president by one of the two major parties. How does Rezko know Auchi and even though the amount of money was small, did Mrs. Rezko use part of that money to help buy a plot of land next to the Obama house?

Nadhmi Auchi is one of the wealthiest people in the UK. He was convicted in November 2003 by a French court of illegally accepting more than $120 million in oil commissions. He was fined more than $2 million. Not much of a fine compared to his profit. CLICK HERE to read more about Auchi. Stay tuned. CLICK HERE to see the Bob Novak column in full.

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Oil scandal billionaire tells French court of bribes - Nadhmi Auchi

Iraqi-born Briton describes huge kickbacks

* Paul Webster and Martin Bright in Paris - guardian.co.uk
* The Guardian, Wednesday 7 May 2003 03.03 BST

An Iraqi-born British billionaire told a French court yesterday how he had paid millions of pounds in kickbacks to French oil executives.

Nadhmi Auchi, 65, reputedly Britain's seventh-richest man, is one of 37 company administrators and business partners accused of being involved in France's biggest postwar financial scandal in which the oil firm, now TotalFinaElf, allegedly paid out huge sums in bribes and backhanders to expand its empire.

Mr Auchi gave himself up in London after two years resisting French demands for his arrest in connection with Elf's purchase in the 90s of interests in Spanish refineries owned by Cepsa, and petrol stations belonging to Ertoil.

The prosecution has alleged that Mr Auchi, whose brothers were murdered by Saddam Hussein, received illegal commissions then worth about £30m, half of which he redistributed to go-betweens.

Yesterday Mr Auchi explained to a court how his company, General Mediterranean Holdings, was paid more than 3bn pesetas in commission for buying the Spanish Ertoil refinery for the French oil giant in 1991.

Sweating profusely in the heat of the packed courtroom at the Palais de Justice he confirmed that his company received the money and, more extraordinarily, that 1.4bn pesetas was paid back to Elf, or rather to the senior executives who had set up the deal.

This massive retro-commission, more commonly known as a kickback, first found its way into the bank account of Alfred Sirven, then Elf's head of special operations, and was then distributed in chunks to various other executives, including the company's president, Loik le Flock-Prigent.

Both Sirven and Le Flock-Prigent have already received prison sentences for their roles in the Elf affair.

Constantly mopping his brow with his handkerchief, Auchi stated that he was told by Elf representatives that the deal would be "good for Elf and good for France".

Asked by the president of the court, Michel Desplan, whether he thought it strange that Elf would pay him more than 3bn pesetas in commission but that 1.4bn had to be paid back to the company, Mr Auchi said that he had been dealing with a French state company and so he assumed everything was above board.

Mr Le Flock-Prigent had earlier explained that the Ertoil purchase was part of a wider Elf strategy to get a foothold in the Spanish market. The ultimate aim was to get a presence for Elf on service station forecourts across Spain ahead of competitors such as Shell, BP, Conoco and their main French rival Total.

The case is expected to last four months.

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Obama's Auchi Problem - Nadhmi Auchi

By Steve Rhodes - beachwoodreporter.com

Who is Nadhmi Auchi and why is he important to Barack Obama? Let's take a look.

Contrary to Obama's persistent claims, he indeed did favors for Tony Rezko, including this one:

"While Mr. Obama was running for the Senate, Mr. Rezko was also raising money for a huge development in the South Loop of Chicago, often playing host to dinners in a private room at the Four Seasons Hotel here.

"Former Rezko associates said that Governor Blagojevich attended one of the dinners, and that at Mr. Rezko's request, Mr. Obama dropped in at one for Middle Eastern bankers in early 2004, just as he was starting to pull ahead in the Senate primary. The visits, Mr. Rezko's partners said, helped impress foreign guests.

"'I remember that he had been on the campaign trail, and he was completely wiped out and exhausted,' said Anthony Licata, a lawyer who represented Mr. Rezko on real estate deals. 'My recollection is that he drank ice tea, and he talked about how he was really making progress, and we were all excited to see him.'"

Last March, I asked: Was Nadhmi Auchi there?

Stuart Levine's testimony on Monday didn't answer that question, but no matter. Levine testified that both Barack and Michelle Obama attended a reception Rezko held at his Wilmette home for Auchi. "News reports from the courtroom said Mr. Rezko wanted to impress Mr. Auchi, who ultimately poured nearly $170 million into the real estate venture," the New York Times reports.

"Mr. Rezko's lawyers have raised questions about Mr. Levine's credibility on other issues, and Mr. Levine offered few details on Monday about the party at Mr. Rezko's house. Mr. Levine said Mr. Obama's wife, Michelle, was there. Mr. Obama's campaign said she had no recollection of the event. Mr. Auchi's lawyer, Alasdair Pepper, has said that his client does not remember meeting Mr. Obama."

The Sun-Times, however, reports that "according to two sources familiar with the gathering, the Obamas attended the Wilmette reception, which came less than a month after Obama's Democratic primary win for his U.S. Senate seat."

Let's be clear then: The Obamas attended the Rezko party, and it's not like Auchi was just another guest. He was the guest of honor. The party was for him, as part of Rezko's effort to get him to invest in a real estate venture in the South Loop. Surely Obama would know the purpose of a party and why the guest of honor was the guest of honor (even as he somehow didn't know that Rezko had slum properties in his state senate district at the same time).

So that is established. Now, why does it matter?

*

First, who is Nadhmi Auchi?

A lot of folks have been asking that question.

Short story: He's a controversial Iraqi-born, British billionaire who, according to one report, "set up a variety of deals with Saddam Hussein's regime prior to the 1991 Gulf War, and was one of the largest private shareholders in BNP Paribas, the bank that trafficked most of the funds involved in the UN Oil-For-Food scandal. He also admitted taking kickbacks from the French petroleum company TotalFinaElf in the 1990s (Auchi later sued Elf for entangling him in their criminal activities, according to Forbes)."

Auchi is apparently still appealing a 2003 fraud conviction in France. He visited Chicago and Detroit in 2004, but wasn't allowed back in the country in 2005.

"Prosecutors in Mr. Rezko's case have said that Mr. Rezko asked Illinois officials to help obtain a visa for Mr. Auchi's visit to Chicago," the Times says. "The officials have not been identified, and Mr. Obama's campaign has said he was not involved in that effort."

Let me ask you a question: You're Tony Rezko and you've bankrolled Barack Obama's entire political career. You helped him buy his house and you and your wife socialize with him and his wife. You've held a reception for a potential investor in which you invited Obama, who had just been elected to the United States Senate, to impress your business partner. And you appeal to Illinois officials to help him get a visa. Are you telling me you do not ask for Obama's help?

*

Obama's campaign says the senator "does not recall" meeting Auchi. There's a lot he didn't "recall" about Rezko either for quite awhile. You know, like actually knowing him.

*

Via RezkoWatch:

"Rick Moran of Pajamas Media reminds us that, during his March 14, 2008, exclusive interview with the editorial board and reporters of the Chicago Sun-Times, "Obama denies helping Auchi in any way with his visa [in 2005] but can't vouch for his staff":

Q: Did you ever help Auchi enter the country?

A: No.

Q: Or your office?

A: Not that I know of.

*

Here's the way the Trib put it:

"Just weeks after winning the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in 2004, Barack Obama was the guest of developer Antoin 'Tony' Rezko at a party for a controversial British billionaire whom Rezko was trying to lure into an investment, a witness testified Monday at Rezko's corruption trial.

"Stuart Levine, the government's star witness, said Obama and his wife, Michelle, were among the guests at Rezko's home on April 3, 2004, for the party honoring Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born tycoon currently appealing a fraud conviction in France.

"As he campaigns for president, Obama has acknowledged social and political ties to Rezko, as well as a real estate deal between the two that involved Obama's South Side home. But Obama has not disclosed his presence at the Auchi party, which Rezko threw as part of a campaign to persuade Auchi to pour money into a financially troubled 62-acre development in the South Loop."

And:

"Auchi came to the rescue as Rezko's business ventures began to crumble and his legal troubles mounted in recent years. Auchi, who heads General Mediterranean Holding SA, bought about 15 Wisconsin pizzerias from Rezko, court records show. He also took a stake in Rezko's South Loop development at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street.

"But help from Auchi ultimately landed Rezko in jail. Rezko had remained free on bond after his indictment in 2006 by convincing U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve that he was nearly broke and had no access to overseas funds.

"Then $3.5 million from an Auchi-related company was wired from Beirut to Rezko's lawyers, who argued it was a loan to pay legal fees and family expenses. St. Eve didn't buy it and in January revoked Rezko's bond."

*

And now it gets interesting. Via MyDD:

"The [London] Times has, however, discovered state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent money to Mr. Obama's fundraiser in May 2005. Fintrade's directors include Ibtisam Auchi, the name of Mr Auchi's wife. Mr Auchi's spokespeople declined to respond to a question about whether he was linked to this business."

*

"In what appears to be a clumsy 'cleanup' operation, evidence of Auchi's visit to Illinois has now been deleted from two websites linked to his company, General Mediterranean Holding," Raw Story reports.

"After rumors began circulating that Auchi may have met with Obama, information was deleted from two websites connected to Auchi's company about a spring 2004 visit to the United States that occurred as Obama was campaigning to be Illinois' junior senator.

"On Tuesday, ABC News first reported the existence of photos showing Auchi meeting with Gov. Blagojevich on the website Middle East Online. The link on the website that the report pointed to, which said that 'businessmen, and congressmen' also met with Auchi, is now gone.

"Auchi had extensive commercial ties with Rezko, including the $130 million purchase of a property development near downtown Chicago from the indicted businessman. In 2004, according to Crain's Chicago Business, Rezko brought Auchi to Illinois for the aforementioned meeting with Blagojevich and other government officials in Illinois. Blagojevich promised at the time that he was "ready to provide the necessary means for [GMH's investments] to succeed."

From Crain's, Sept 29, 2005:

"Chicago businessman Antoin S. 'Tony' Rezko, a controversial figure in local political circles, has agreed to sell his massive real estate development in the South Loop to an Iraqi-born British billionaire with a similar knack for generating controversy on the international stage.

"General Mediterranean Holding SA, a Luxembourg-based conglomerate headed by Nadhmi Auchi, is buying Riverside Park, a yet-to-be-built development on a prime 62-acre parcel on Roosevelt Road, says Michael Rumman, a consultant on the project. He declines to disclose a price, another person familiar with the deal pegged it at $130.5 million.

[Who is Michael Rumman? "Michael Rumman, former director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, the state's internal operations real estate agency. Mr. Rumman, the former president of Peoples Energy Services, has been hired as a consultant.He announced his resignation in April after a draft audit of CMS found problems at the agency."]

"A partnership headed by Mr. Rezko, chairman of development firm Rezmar Corp., had planned to build 4,600 residential units and about 670,000-square-feet of retail space on the site. But a city minority contracting scandal involving Mr. Rezko imperiled the project's chances of getting as much as $140 million in tax subsidies to help cover infrastructure costs."

And:

"Mr. Rezko, a close confidante and fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, arranged for Mr. Auchi to meet the Governor and State Senate President Emil Jones on a visit to the U.S. last year.

"The odds that Mr. Rezko's partnership would be able to pull off the project fell this year, when city officials determined that he set up a minority front to obtain a concession for two Panda Express restaurants at O'Hare International Airport. The Daley Administration would have had difficulty explaining $140 million in tax increment financing (TIF) - the most ever requested by a developer in Chicago - to someone who skirted city rules, especially with corruption allegations sweeping through City Hall."

*

Wow! The only one untouched is Todd Stroger!

Let's see if I can summarize, because I know this is confusing. Tony Rezko pimped out Barack Obama to impress Nadhmi Auchi, a bad operator who found the political culture in Chicago and Illinois amenable to his kind of investment acumen. The only problem was that Rezko's deal was in trouble, and Rezko himself was caught up in, among other scandals, a minority-contracting scam with the Dalely administration. At the same time, Rezko was wheeling and dealing with the Blagojevich administration and everyone in the political universe knew he was under federal investigation for it but Obama asked for his help buying a $1.6 million mansion and appeared at a couple of events to help Rezko impress Auchi and others.

Now Obama's memory is faulty because there's that pesky question of judgement, as well as the stain on his meticulously burnished image as a beacon of hope and reform because his relationship with both Rezko and the Machine and politics-as-usual is deeper than he's ever cared to admit. Have I missed anything? Does that make sense now? Do you get the feeling there's still more to the story that we don't know about?

Another editorial board meeting!

*

Further resources on Auchi.

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See more of the worlds' best Obama analysis in Obamathon.

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Ever Heard of Nadhmi Auchi?

By Dr. Richard Swier

On August 30, 2008 John Fund from the Wall Street Journal reported, "...the London Times revealed that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born billionaire living in London, had loaned Mr. Rezko $3.5 million three weeks before the day the sale of the [Obama] house and lot closed in June 2005. Mr. Auchi's office notes he was a business partner of Rezko but says he had "no involvement in or knowledge of" the property sale. But in April 2004 he did attend a dinner party in his honor at Rezko's Chicago home. Mr. Obama also attended, and according to one guest, toasted Mr. Auchi. Later that year, Mr. Auchi came under criminal investigation as part of a U.S. probe of the corrupt issuance of cell-phone licenses in Iraq.

In May 2004, the Pentagon's inspector general's office cited "significant and credible evidence" of involvement by Mr. Auchi's companies in the Oil for Food scandal, and in illicit smuggling of weapons to Saddam Hussein's regime. Because of the criminal probe, Mr. Auchi's travel visa to the U.S. was revoked in August 2004, even as Mr. Auchi denied all the allegations. According to prosecutors, in November 2005 Rezko was able to get two government officials from Illinois to appeal to the State Department to get the visa restored. Asked if anyone in his office was involved in such an appeal, Mr. Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times last March, "not that I know of." FOIA requests to the State Department for any documents haven't been responded to for months."

So who is Nadhmi Auchi? What is his link to Antonin (Tony) Rezko and Barack Obama?

According to John A. Shaw (former senior official of U.S. Defense, State, and Commerce departments), "Auchi is suave, cosmopolitan, brilliant, and ruthless, and he has bottomless pockets. His business is international banking, which is complexly organized and appropriately camouflaged to conceal any criminal activity. He is the Godfather, but speaks in an Iraqi, not a Sicilian, dialect. A British survey credits him with being toward the bottom of a list of the two hundred richest men in the world. But in such a rendering Auchi would both feign modesty and ensure that any such accounting show only the tip of his financial iceberg. Other sources credit him with being the fifth richest man in the world. His methodology, however, is straightforward: Under cover of seeking legitimate business, buy whoever is necessary in the political decision chain to control the process and the outcome. As his longtime telecommunications partner Ala al-Hawaja, candidly put it to a potential competitor in Cairo, "there is nothing that cannot be accomplished with a suitcase full of money". So far he has been proven correct.

Rezko had identified Obama as a good political target before he graduated from Harvard Law School. He was both the source of Obama's employment and of his largest political donations during his short political career. Rezko had no financial source apart from Auchi, his partner of over a decade. Rezko was also the source of the financing for Obama's $2.3 million mansion despite his having no clear source of funding apart from Auchi. What did he get from Obama in return?

...As the Wall Street Journal showed several weeks ago, Obama has been anything but forthcoming about his real relationship with Rezko and Auchi. And the public has no idea how extensive and how corrupt the network that Auchi has developed across the world is. Let me count the ways: Like organized crime, the network shows no public profile beyond legitimate business activities, and has a small army of lawyers threatening any critics with libel actions in Britain, Auchi's adopted residence where there is no First Amendment protection.

...So we have a pattern of buying influence which tied directly into the Illinois Democratic Party, the Daley machine, and the Democratic National Finance Committee. It is no wonder that Barack Obama "has no recollection" of being at a welcoming dinner feting Auchi at Rezko's house in April 2004. At that moment Auchi was flying high despite his corruption conviction in France: He was then still the darling of the neocon cabal at the Defense Department, which was so heavily invested in Iraq. He had been a welcomed guest at two White Houses, and appeared to own the entire Illinois government. We still do not have any sense of the full extent of his influence.

...But his underwriting of the purchase of Obama's multimillion dollar Chicago mansion may have been the step too far which finally brought down Auchi's grand scheme of empire and intrigue. It was, however, cheap at the price to buy a putative United States Senator. Nothing boneheaded about that decision at all. What is a candidate worth? This was Chicago, after all. On the other hand, however, if Barack Obama becomes President of the United States, the sky may be the limit for Nadhmi Auchi."

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Royal Gala dinner - Speech by Mr Nadhmi Auchi

Royal Gala dinner held to welcome Constantinian Order delegation attended by leading spiritual and state officials from Lebanon. Beirut
March 2004.
The delegation arrived in Beirut and was received by the Minister of Displaced Persons who was officially representing His Excellency General Emile Lahoud, President of the Republic of Lebanon. A gala dinner was held for some 200 guests at Le Royal Hotel in Beirut hosted by Nadhmi Auchi, a senior British Muslim member of the Order of Francesco I and leading Lebanese businessman. The dinner was attended by many religious figures and Lebanese Cabinet Ministers including those of Defence, Home Affairs, Religious Affairs, Tourism and Social Welfare. During the evening, The Duke of Calabria bestowed on Mr Nadhmi Auchi the Gold Benemerenti Medal of the Constantinian Order.

Banquet Speech by Mr Nadhmi Auchi on the occasion of the visit of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Calabria to Beirut, Republic of Lebanon held at Le Royal Hotel. March 2004.

Speech by Mr Auchi to mark the occasion:

Your Royal Highnesses

Representative of His Excellency The President of the Republic of Lebanon, General Emile Lahoud, His Excellency the Minister Abdallah Farhat,

Representative of His Excellency the Speaker of the National Assembly President Nabih Berri, His Excellency the Deputy Mr Adnan Arakji,

Representative of His Excellency The Prime Minister of Lebanon Mr Rafic El Hariri, His Excellency the Minister Ali Abdallah,

Your Excellencies

Your Eminences

Distinguished Guests

It is truly an honour for me to welcome you all here this evening to the Le Royal Beirut.

In particular I am delighted to formally welcome my guests of Honour, Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Calabria, for their first visit to Lebanon.

As some of you are aware, His Royal Highness is the Grand Prefect of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, one of the oldest internationally recognised Roman Catholic Orders of Knighthood.

In recent years, this great Catholic institution, through its Royal Order of Francis I, of which I have the honour to belong, has led the way in encouraging meaningful inter-church and inter-faith dialogue between the followers of all faiths across the world.

Such activities, together with its long established tradition of humanitarian and medical assistance to those less fortunate in society, is to be commended and welcomed.

Yesterday the President of Syria became the first Muslim Head of State to be invested into the Order of Francis I.

Tomorrow, the President of the Republic of Lebanon, His Excellency General Emile Lahoud will become the first Arab Head of State to be invested into the Constantinian Order. This high religious award recognises His Excellency's personal merit, and in a wider context, the great efforts which the people of our country and faith communities have undertaken to rid religious intolerance from our society.

This is especially important when we consider how much our country has suffered in the past, when such dialogue, respect and understanding have broken down.

I look forward, Your Royal Highness, to establishing activities here in Lebanon and on behalf of everyone here I wish you a most enjoyable stay in this wonderful country I call home.

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Iraqi Billionaire Threatens Reporters Investigating Rezko Affair - Nadhmi Auchi

AIM Column | By Andrew Walden | August 24, 2008

U.S. media outlets are historically strong defenders of press freedoms. But there has been near-total silence about the UK-based legal threats to public discussion of the Rezko affair.

Why aren’t the American media investigating the role of British billionaire businessman Nadhmi Auchi in supplying loans to Barack Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko? Some point to media bias, but there is another factor. Working for Auchi, who was born in Iraq, attorneys from London law firm Carter-Ruck have for several months been flooding American and British newspapers and websites with letters demanding removal of material they deem “defamatory” to their client.

In its June 28 edition, British satirical magazine Private Eye explains: “Until Carter-Ruck and Partners and England’s stifling libel laws got to work, the few American journalists not caught up in Obama-mania were turning to the archives of the British press to answer an intriguing question: who is Nadhmi Auchi?”

What is so “stifling” about English libel law? In the U.K., as Carter-Ruck explains on its own website, “A libel claimant does not have to prove that the words are false or to prove that he has in fact suffered any loss. Damage is presumed.”

The Obama campaign recently issued a non-denial denial in response to claims that Obama met with Auchi―contained in Jerome Corsi’s bestseller, The Obama Nation. They cited only two references. One is, “Mr. Auchi’s lawyer” who told the February 27, 2008 London Evening Standard, “As far as he can remember he has had no direct contact with Mr. Obama.” Another is, “A lawyer for Auchi, Alasdair Pepper” who says, according to the April 16, 2008 Washington Post, “Auchi Had ‘No Recollection’ Of Meeting Obama or Michelle.” Alasdair Pepper is the attorney whose name appears on the Carter-Ruck demand letters.

The Secret Loan

A secret $3.5 million loan from an Auchi company to key early-money Barack Obama fundraiser Antoin Rezko was exposed while Rezko was awaiting trial on fraud and money-laundering charges earlier this year. Rezko’s bail was revoked and police showed up banging on the doors of his Wilmette Chicago mansion to drag him off to jail early in the morning of January 28th. Auchi’s loan to Rezko had come on May 23, 2005 but had not been disclosed to the Court as required in his bail agreement. Three weeks later, on June 15, 2005, Rezko’s wife assisted the Obamas in the purchase of their South Chicago mansion by purchasing a next-door undeveloped lot being sold with the house.

According to the Times of London, “Mr. Rezko’s lawyer said his client had ‘longstanding indebtedness’ to Mr. Auchi’s General Mediterranean Holding (GMH). By June 2007 he owed it $27.9 million. Under a Loan Forgiveness Agreement described in court, M. Auchi lent Mr. Rezko $3.5 million in April 2005 and $11 million in September 2005, as well as $3.5 million transferred in April 2007. That agreement provided for the outstanding loans to be ‘forgiven’ in return for a stake in the 62-acre Riverside Park development.”

Rezko’s relationship with Barack Obama goes back to at least 1990, when Obama’s law firm did work relating to thousands of now-decaying Rezko apartment units in South Chicago. Rezko was a key early-money fundraiser in Obama’s state Senate campaigns and his failed run at the U.S. Congress.

According to The Times of London, “Mr. Auchi first met Mr. Rezko after the 2003 Iraq war and they have a business relationship.” At the time Auchi was facing the possibility of extradition to France. The Times of London explains: “Mr Auchi was convicted of corruption, given a suspended sentence and fined £1.4 million in France in 2003 for his part in the Elf affair, described as the biggest political and corporate scandal in post-war Europe. He, in a statement from his media lawyers, claims he is appealing against the sentence.”

In 2003, Nick Cohen of the UK Guardian wrote:

Allow me to introduce you to Nadhmi Auchi. He was charged in the 1950s with being an accomplice of Saddam Hussein, when the future tyrant was acquiring his taste for blood. He was investigated in the 1980s for his part in alleged bribes to the fabulously corrupt leaders of post-war Italy. In the 1990s, the Belgium Ambassador to Luxembourg claimed that Auchi’s bank held money Saddam and Colonel Gadaffi had stolen from their luckless peoples. In 2002, officers from the Serious Fraud Squad raided the offices of one of Auchi’s drug companies as part of an investigation of what is alleged to be the biggest swindle ever of the (British National Health Service). With allegations, albeit unproven, like these hanging over him, wouldn’t you think that British MPs would have the sense to stay away?

But after threats from Carter-Ruck, Cohen’s “defamatory” article became one of six Guardian and Observer articles scrubbed from the Internet this April.

Blogger “A Jacksonian” received a similar demand on or before June 24. His article is still up. It details much of the information contained in the six deleted Guardian/Observer articles.

Source of Wealth

Auchi in 1967 began an Iraq Oil Ministry career eventually rising to be Director of Planning and Development under the Baathist dictatorship. He formed GMH in 1979 and then left Iraq. A key source of weapons procurement for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, GMH became the largest single private shareholder of Banque Nationale du Paris (BNP) which later merged with Paribas to form BNP-Paribas. BNP and BNP-Paribas, at Saddam Hussein’s insistence, handled all Oil-for-Food transactions until 2001 when the incoming administration of George W. Bush demanded change.

Investigative journalist Bill Gertz explains:

“A 2004 Pentagon report obtained by The Washington Times identified Auchi as a global arms dealer and Iraqi billionaire ‘who, behind the facade of legitimate business, served as Saddam Hussein’s principle (sic) international financial manipulator and bag man.’

“The report to the Pentagon inspector general stated that … ‘significant and credible evidence has been developed that Nadhmi Auchi has engaged in unlawful activities working closely with Iraqi intelligence operatives to, Bribe foreign governments and individuals prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom to turn opinion against the American-led mission to remove Saddam Hussein.’”

The web scrubbing did not stop with the six Guardian/Observer articles. New Statesman writer Martin Bright reports that Auchi lawyers “have written to ask us to remove the names of the articles concerned.” Removed, the six titles are now available for reading only in difficult-to-find independent web archives:

“Labour blocks extradition of Iraqi tycoon” Observer, 2 February 2003

* “Billionaire linked to Labour arrested in London” Guardian, 2 April 2003
* “So, Norman, any regrets this time?” Observer, 6 April 2003
* “Tycoon in quiz over ties to Labour” Observer, 6 April 2003
* “Politics of sleaze” Observer, 16 November 2003
* “MP questions Iraq role of Briton tainted over Elf” (this has also been titled “British fraudster to profit from Iraq contract”) Observer, 16 November 2003

Auchi’s Middle East Online April 23 celebrates the removal of the six articles with a photo of a sphinx-like Auchi. The caption: “Tracking even the search engines.” In addition to the UK Guardian, the MEO article speaks proudly of articles forced off the Internet sites of the UK Sunday Times, the Financial Times, and Italian business weekly Il Mondo.

Crows Carter-Ruck attorney Alasdair Pepper: “Another publisher is now shortly to be sued over false material it is publishing on the internet, having failed to heed a warning letter. A fulsome apology, injunction and substantial damages will be sought against it.”

Carter-Ruck’s website touts the UK Daily Mail’s description of the firm as “London’s best known and most feared libel lawyers.” But dead men cannot sue. On December 23, 2003 former Carter-Ruck partner David Hooper wrote:

“The libel lawyer Peter Carter-Ruck, who died on Friday, had a chilling effect on the media. He was a chancer, out for the maximum fee. And he did for freedom of speech what the Boston Strangler did for door-to-door salesmen… He established the idea that libel law was complicated and merited very high fees. In the process he became very rich. ‘I like to bill the clients as the tears are flowing,’ he told me.”

In another article now missing from its original website, Jack Kelly of RealClearPolitics.com wrote:

“‘The name Nadhmi Auchi was just another name for Saddam’s intelligence service, or so we thought,’ said Nibras Kazimi, a former Iraqi dissident who is now a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

“Mr. Auchi is a business partner of Syrian-born businessman Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko, who has supported Mr. Obama financially since his first run for the Illinois state senate in 1996.”

Additional Targets

Journalists are not the only targets. The former Wikipedia entry for Auchi’s GMH remains available on Answers.com. It reads in part: “In 1996, according to European news accounts, Belgium’s ambassador to Luxembourg charged that Banque Continentale du Luxembourg, a bank that Nadhmi Auchi and Paribas jointly controlled until 1994, had handled personal accounts for former dictator of Iraq Saddam Hussein.” Banque Continentale denies the charges.

But the original GMH Wikipedia article has been taken down, replaced by an entry flagged as being “written like an advertisement” which mentions none of the controversy swirling around GMH.

Lead is joined by silver. In the scrubbed article, the Guardian’s Cohen wrote: “(Auchi) has been able to collect British politicians the way other people collect stamps.”

The London Times, which has held out against most of the Carter-Ruck litigation threats writes:

“On the 20th anniversary of his business in 1999, Mr. Auchi received a greeting card signed by 130 politicians, including Tony Blair, William Hague and Charles Kennedy, who were then leaders of their respective parties.”

But even this Times article has been tagged. At the end is a disclaimer added after the original publication:

Note: we wish to make it clear that, in the original piece “Obama bagman is sent to jail over $3.5m payment by British tycoon” (Feb. 1), we did not intend to suggest that there was any connection between the $3.5m loan from Mr. Auchi to Mr. Rezko and any approaches Mr. Rezko may have made to Illinois State Officials. We apologise to Mr Auchi for any misunderstanding.”

Sanitizing the Record

Web scrubbing begins at home—in this case with Middle East Online, owned by GMH. The Real Barack Obama documents January 2008 deletions taken down from Auchi’s website as Rezko prepared to go to trial. Also scrubbed: the website of the press secretary of Rep. John Knollenberg (R-MI) and even an ABC news article. The deletions appear aimed at obliterating all reference to Auchi’s April, 2004 visit to Michigan and Illinois.

Auchi is photographed meeting with Rezko, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-Il), and President of the Illinois Senate Emil Jones during the visit. Jones and Rezko were both key early-money Obama backers. The Chicago Tribune and numerous other reports place Obama at the dinner at the Four Seasons hotel with Auchi, Blagojevich, Rezko and others. Court testimony by Stuart Levine in the Rezko trial places Obama at an April 3, 2004 party held in Auchi’s honor at Rezko’s house.

In spite of his British connections and an earlier 2004 U.S. visit, Auchi was denied entry into the U.S. in 2005. It is believed that he was attempting in 2005 to win a U.S. visa with the help of Rezko and several as-yet-unnamed Illinois political figures. Among Auchi’s many international awards is a 2005 election as an “Honorary Member in the International College of Surgeons in Chicago, Illinois.” Obama has denied trying to help Auchi.

Media Protection

In the U.S. efforts are underway to prevent foreign court libel judgments from infringing on the First Amendment guarantees of press freedom. On May 7, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) was among those announcing introduction of the Free Speech Protection Act which has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration. He explained: “The United Kingdom has become a popular venue for defamation plaintiffs from around the world, because under English law it is not necessary for a libel plaintiff to prove falsity or actual malice as is required in the United States.”

Lynne Bradley, Director of American Library Association’s Office of Government Relations, explains the ALA’s July 31 decision to support the bill: “ALA is concerned that foreign libel lawsuits threaten U.S. authors and publishers and our freedoms of speech and the press. Through its chilling effect, such ‘venue shopping’ also denies the American people the right to read and to access information―another inherent First Amendment right essential to our democratic form of government.” The ALA has endorsed the bill, which is cosponsored by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Charles Schumer (D-NY).

Auchi is not the only one taking advantage. In the UK, several books have been pulped and removed from libraries and booksellers after threats of expensive, drawn out litigation by wealthy Arabs and others.

While Islamist illegal combatants captured in combat on foreign soil and held at Guantanamo are moving closer to attaining the legal rights of U.S. citizens, American authors investigating and writing about subjects related to Islamist terror and Mideast corruption have been sued under a foreign legal system with inferior free speech protections and subjected to six-figure judgments entered in foreign courts.

Carter-Ruck’s efforts on behalf of Auchi go beyond major newspapers. Several websites carrying articles by RezkoWatch writer and progressive investigative journalist Evelyn Pringle were threatened with UK-based lawsuits. This was the second demand letter directed at RezkoWatch; the first arrived February 9. In response, RezkoWatch editors scrubbed any reference to Auchi as “corrupt” from their website except when quoted from an external source. In its posted response to Pepper, RezkoWatch indicates it also “archived” numerous articles pending verification of their contents.

In a June 29, 2008 AmericanThinker.com article: “Free Speech, the Obama Campaign, and the Washington Post”, this author wrote: “A Presidential candidate must be prepared to face extraordinary levels of scrutiny. If Obama and his supporters think they can silence questions about his background, his leftist terror-bomber backers, his ‘God damn America’ pastor, his cocaine use, his financial dealings with indicted Syrian-born businessman Tony Rezko, or with Saddam Hussein crony and oil-for-food banker Nadhmi Auchi, they are mistaken.”

Intimidation

Apparently I was mistaken. After American Thinker received a letter from Carter-Ruck, the sentence was chopped off after the word “Rezko.” Many website operators simply do not have the legal or financial resources necessary to face off with Carter-Ruck.

Larry Johnson of the No Quarter Blog received and posted online a February 18 demand letter from Carter-Ruck which claims Auchi “was not involved in any of (Saddam Hussein’s) operations.” Carter-Ruck even demands removal of material in the comments section below Johnson’s blog postings.

Similar claims, as well as misspellings, are contained in other of Pepper’s letters seen by this writer—perhaps indicating that the Auchi threat letter machine is nearing its operational limits and might fail if Internet users revolt and begin randomly posting deleted Auchi material all over the Internet in an act of cyber-civil-disobedience.

Senator Lieberman’s Free Speech Protection Act is modeled on “Rachel’s Law” signed April 30, 2008 by New York Governor David Paterson. Rachel’s Law had passed both houses of the New York state legislature unanimously March 31 after being introduced with bi-partisan support. “Rachel” is Rachel Ehrenfeld, an investigative journalist and author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It.

Ehrenfeld’s 2003 book, published in the U.S., pointed to Saudi multi-millionaire Khalid Salim Bin Mahfouz as a funding source for al-Qaeda prior to 9-11. Mahfouz sued. He is Saudi; the book, its author and publisher are American; but rather than coming to a U.S. court, Mahfouz selected English jurisdiction in a typical case of “libel tourism.” Ehrenfeld did not answer the English suit and instead countersued in U.S. federal court.

Legal assaults from Middle Eastern sources are becoming so widespread that the Middle East Forum has founded The Legal Project to raise funds and recruit some of the nation’s finest attorneys willing to stand up pro-bono for free speech and defend writers against lawsuits and intimidation.

Six weeks after Governor Paterson signed Rachel’s Law, the New York Times published “Out of Step with Allies, U.S Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech” painting U.S. free speech as “out of step” with almost every other country because so-called hate speech is not banned. The Times’ primary example―a trial in British Colombia, where the Canadian Islamic Conference accuses MacLean’s magazine of violating Canadian ‘hate speech’ laws for publishing an excerpt from Mark Steyn’s book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know it.

According to the Times, the Muslims demand, “the magazine should be forbidden from saying similar things, forced to publish a rebuttal and made to compensate Muslims for injuring their ‘dignity, feelings and self-respect.’” Canada’s laws are similar to those in Britain and the many other countries with which the U.S. is “out of step.” As negative comment raged across the Internet, the Times scrubbed its own article, removing “Out of step with allies” from the title.

Also quoted in the Times, Jeremy Waldron, a New York University law professor, wrote in the New York Review of Books May 29: “It is not clear to me that the Europeans are mistaken when they say that a liberal democracy must take affirmative responsibility for protecting the atmosphere of mutual respect against certain forms of vicious attack.”

Silent Treatment

U.S. media outlets are historically strong defenders of press freedoms. But there has been near-total silence about the UK-based legal threats to public discussion of the Rezko affair. While Auchi’s interference may explain part of the media’s lack of interest, the attitude of the New York Times and New York Review of Books goes a long way towards explaining the rest.

If elected President, Obama will be required to swear to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Will Senator Obama now join in co-sponsoring S-2977, the Free Speech Protection Act of 2008, and call upon his fellow Democrats to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate for a vote? If not will Obama explain why the Free Speech Protection Act is not necessary to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution?”

Will reporters covering the campaign ask Obama whether, if elected, he would approve a request for U.S. residency from Auchi?

Are the media now cooperating in their own silencing? The attitude of the New York Times does not bode well.

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Who Is Nadhmi Auchi and What’s His Tie to Obama?

By Jack Kelly, RealClearPolitics - israpundit.com

You probably would have heard of Nadhmi Auchi by now if Sen. Barack Obama were a Republican.

A British citizen of Iraqi descent, Mr. Auchi, 70, is a billionaire, the 279th richest man in the world, according to a Forbes magazine survey last year.

A great deal of Mr. Auchi’s money was made doing business with the regime of Saddam Hussein, much of it under the table. In 1987, Mr. Auchi helped French and Italian firms win a huge oil pipeline contract in Iraq, chiefly by paying off Iraqi officials, according to testimony given by an Italian banker to prosecutors in Milan. In 2003, he was convicted for his role in what was then the largest scandal in French history, involving payoffs from executives of the oil company now known as Total to political figures in Spain, Germany and Africa.

“He has been able to collect British politicians the way other people collect stamps,” wrote Nick Cohen in a 2003 profile of Mr. Auchi in the left wing British newspaper the Observer.

Mr. Auchi was a leading supplier of arms to Saddam’s regime. A former Belgian ambassador to Luxembourg charged that a bank in Luxembourg owned principally by Mr. Auchi laundered funds — including oil for food money — for Saddam and other Islamic dictators.

“The name Nadhmi Auchi was just another name for Saddam’s intelligence service, or so we thought,” said Nibras Kazimi, a former Iraqi dissident who is now a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

Mr. Auchi is a business partner of Syrian-born businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who has supported Mr. Obama financially since his first run for the Illinois state senate in 1996.

Mr. Rezko currently is in jail awaiting trial on charges he extorted money from firms seeking to do business with the state of Illinois. (Mr. Rezko was also a fund raiser for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.) Mr. Rezko’s bail was revoked Jan. 28 when the trial judge learned that he, friends and relatives had been wired $3.5 million from firms in Lebanon controlled by Mr. Auchi. The judge feared Mr. Rezko was about to flee the country.

Federal prosecutors allege a $10,000 contribution made by Mr. Rezko to Sen. Obama came from a $250,000 kickback, but there is no evidence Sen. Obama was aware of the source of the funds. Nor is there evidence Sen. Obama did any favors for Mr. Rezko that skirted the law.

The most eyebrow raising connection between Mr. Rezko and Sen. Obama is the assistance Mr. Rezko provided in the purchase of the mansion on Chicago’s South Side that Sen. Obama bought in 2005. The Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million — $300,000 below the asking price — perhaps because Mr. Rezko’s wife purchased from the owner an adjacent garden plot for $625,000. (The sellers deny they offered the Obamas a discount.) The Times of London wondered where Mrs. Rezko got the money to buy the garden plot. At the time, she had a salary of $37,000 and assets of only $35,000, the Times learned. Her husband told a court that at the time he had “no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets,” the Times said.

The Times learned Mr. Rezko received an earlier $3.5 million loan from Mr. Auchi on May 23, 2005, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA.

Mr. Rezko has described Mr. Auchi as a “close friend.” Mr. Auchi says they have only a business relationship. They’ve been partners in a chain of pizza restaurants in Wisconsin and in a major real estate development in Riverside Park in Chicago.

The connection between Mr. Auchi and Sen. Obama is tenuous. But given Mr. Auchi’s shady past, his history of bribing politicians, it’s not unreasonable to ask if Mr. Auchi, through Mr. Rezko, was trying to buy influence with a rising political star. And it’s curious that outside of the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune, both of which have written extensively on the Rezko-Obama relationship, only a British newspaper is asking.

The New York Times and the Washington Post have made much of Sen. John McCain’s friendship with an attractive female lobbyist, though not even the Times’ anonymous sources allege Sen. McCain had an affair with Vicki Iseman, or acted improperly on behalf of her clients. But they and the rest of the national news media have been remarkably incurious about Sen. Obama’s relationship with Mr. Rezko, and his with Mr. Auchi.

Mr. Rezko’s trial begins Monday, March 3. It will be interesting to see if the national news media will cover it.