After eight weeks of evidence and 34 witnesses in Tony Rezko's corruption trial, it was the last-minute testimony of a former Blagojevich appointee Thursday that finally put illicit cash in Rezko's hands.
Ali Ata, onetime executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, told how, at Rezko's demand, he would pull piles of cash from a safe for payoffs -- once to keep a lien from being slapped on Gov. Blagojevich's home, another time to pay the debt of an adviser to the governor.
Ata was the last major witness before the prosecution rests -- probably Monday. He testified that he bought his state job. Ata told jurors that, although Rezko wasn't a state employee, he had to report to Rezko while heading the finance agency, having to "take orders and listen," or "not show up to work the next day."
Ata said Blagojevich named him to his $127,000-a-year state job after he held fund-raisers for Blagojevich's campaign and delivered a $25,000 check to the governor at a meeting in Rezko's North Side office in 2002. He said Rezko later asked for another $50,000 for Blagojevich's campaign chest -- but he gave just $25,000.
Ata said he subsequently saw the governor at a 2003 fund-raiser at Navy Pier. "He was aware of myself making another contribution and said he understood I was considering a position with the new administration," Ata said, adding Blagojevich "said that it better be a job where I could make some money."
Later, speaking with Rezko, "I said I was surprised that the governor would make such a statement," Ata said. "Mr. Rezko said he wasn't surprised."
Ata pleaded guilty last week -- in a separate Rezko case -- of lying to the FBI and tax fraud. He'll likely get a reduced sentence from the 18 months he faced.
Ata said after he was appointed, Rezko's demands grew. He said he ended up giving Rezko a total of $125,000 -- in cash.
Once, Ata said, in early 2004 he met Rezko at a restaurant on Touhy west of the Edens Expy. "He said there were contractors there at the restaurant that needed to get paid because they had done work on the governor's house," Ata said, adding that Rezko told him: "If they don't get paid, they will file a lien, and it will be embarrassing for everybody."
That fall, Ata said, Rezko told him "he was being pushed, he had a lot of obligations, and he needed $100,000 in cash." Ata said he told Rezko he would give half that. Rezko showed up at Ata's Lemont home and "he asked me to get in the car," Ata said, recounting that they drove to the home of fellow Blagojevich fund-raiser Chris Kelly, dropping the cash with Kelly.
Ata also testified that:
• • He told Rezko he had problems with a state lease on property, at 59th and Ashland, in which he was a partner. Rezko said he could fix the problem -- for 50 percent ownership, settling on 25 percent, as a secret owner. The lease was reinstated.
• • Rezko warned him in the time preceding Ata's 2007 indictment that Rezko was under investigation. Rezko told him "we should be careful speaking on the phone, he was being watched," Ata said. "He mouthed F-B-I."
• • Rezko told him that people cooperating with the feds "will be dealt with."
• • Rezko said he was working through his friend, Republican Party official Bob Kjellander, to get U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald removed from that post, replaced with someone friendlier to the Blagojevich administration.
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