Seeing Red

By Shannon in News on Nov 5, 2006 6:19PM

You know what debt feels like. All those student loans, some old hospital bills, that killer LCD TV you just picked up. It all adds up. However, no one should know what it feels like to be in debt better than former Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko. According to reports, the man's in the hole to the tune of more than 50 million dollars.

Rezko's financial woes are piled up higher than anyone could have thought, including his lawyer, Joseph Duffy. Duffy requested more time to go over his client's records, for simply put, it's a hot mess. Rezko's so much in debt ("How much in debt is he?" we hear you asking in unison) that he couldn't put his own Wilmette mansion up for bail money; he'd signed away his equity long ago. On top of that, before Rezko landed in court over his two indictment charges that put him in the public eye, he'd written a $100,000 check towards his mortgage that had subsequently bounced.

Rezko has his fingers in many different pies. There's his chain of Papa John's franchises - oops, sorry, we mean Papa Tony's. One of his charges concerns fraudulently obtaining a $10 million loan to keep the chain from going under. His wife (his wife, mind you ... thank goodness for separate bank accounts) also bought a parcel of land right next to Barack Obama on the South Side, a symbiotic deal that Obama wishes he could take back. On the bright side, Rezko thinks there's at least one thing that can save him: A 62-acre parcel at Roosevelt and Clark that Rezko sold but in which he still has a stake. We'd love to hear what else he had going on to rack up such a ridiculous amount of coin. At this rate, we think he may as well just go on the World Series of Poker. He's gambled enough of this city away.