REZKO ON TRIAL
Images: Fraud Trial Of Tony Rezko
Star Witness In Rezko Trial Reveals Drug Use
Levine Also Says He Paid Bribes
CHICAGO -- The star witness at political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko's fraud trial took the witness stand Tuesday and painted a panorama of bribery, heavy drug use, huge profits and blockbuster campaign contributions before FBI agents finally closed in on him.
Admitted political fixer Stuart Levine launched what is expected to be at least two weeks of testimony by dropping a bombshell: He said he made payoffs for clients seeking city contracts through former Alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak, a powerhouse in Chicago politics for decades.
"Absolutely false," Vrdolyak attorney Michael Monico said.
Levine said his odyssey through the sometimes shady side of business and government as well as a flair for investment in stocks and bonds made him as much as $10 million in profits. But the soft-spoken attorney said he now works for a messenger service.
"I deliver packages," said the government's key witness at the biggest political corruption trial in Illinois since the 2006 racketeering and fraud case that sent former Gov. George Ryan to federal prison.
Rezko, 52, a fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is charged with scheming with Levine to split a $1 million bribe and pressure $7 million in kickbacks out of money management firms seeking to invest assets of the $30 billion state teachers pension fund.
Rezko denies that he took part in any such scheme. Obama and Blagojevich have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Chief defense counsel Joseph J. Duffy says Levine's brain has been so badly hammered by drugs that his memory has now become unreliable.
Levine pleaded guilty to money laundering and mail fraud charges in the case and agreed to testify on behalf of the government.
He said he expects a 51/2-year prison sentence for his cooperation. The deal will likely save him from a worse fate if he had been convicted of all the charges in the indictment.
"I would go to prison for the rest of my natural life," he testified.
Levine did not come to the stand until late in the afternoon and barely got started talking about Rezko. He is expected to remain on the stand for at least two weeks at the estimated three- to four-month trial.
As he began to testify, there was none of the frantic stammering and mile-a-minute chatter that jurors have heard on tapes FBI agents made after getting a court order allowing them to wiretap Levine's home phone.
It was because of the wiretap that agents confronted Levine and stopped the alleged scheme before any money changed hands.
Levine calmly testified that he took drugs for decades, including LSD, Quaaludes, marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth and kaetamine, and sometimes more than one in a single session. But he said he took them only once or twice a month and quit in 2004.
Levine said he had long paid bribes on behalf of companies seeking contracts from local government.
He said he made payoffs on behalf of companies that sold tires to the City of Chicago and school buses to the Chicago Board of Education.
Levine said he paid bribes on behalf of a health maintenance organization that wanted business from a postal union and a dental insurance plan to get business from the Chicago Board of Education.
He said he funneled payoffs through Vrdolyak, a longtime power broker who currently faces charges in connection with a real estate deal that also touches on Rezko and Levine.
Vrdolyak has pleaded not guilty. Defense attorney Monico said he had never heard Levine's allegations before and dismissed them as false.
Levine testified that even after he made his deal with federal prosecutors and promised to tell all he knew he lied about his old friend Vrdolyak's involvement in the corruption surrounding him.
"I tried to protect him," Levine said. But he said he finally told the truth because prosecutors figured out he was lying and he was in danger of losing his deal and going to prison for life.
Levine, a Republican, said he hired such big GOP guns as William Cellini and Robert Kjellander to lobby the state government on behalf of the dental plan. He told the jury he was involved in politics much of his life and was a key supporter of former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, a classmate at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Cellini, Kjellander and Jim Ryan are accused of no wrongdoing. But the embarrassment of finding their names tied to Levine's underlines the explosive potential of the trial. Kjellander is a former treasurer of the Republican National Committee.
Levine estimated he contributed $500,000 to Jim Ryan's campaign for governor in 2002 in which he was defeated by Blagojevich.
Former House Speaker Lee Daniels and George Ryan were also among the beneficiaries of his political contributions, Levine testified.
Earlier, teachers union official Molly Phelan testified that in serving with Levine on the state teachers pension fund board she found him arrogant and condescending. She said he "railroaded" through the appointment of his candidate, Jon Bauman, as the fund executive director.
Under cross examination by defense attorney William Ziegelmueller, though, Phelan testified she considered Bauman an "adequate" executive director and acknowledged that she herself voted to extend his contract and give him at least two raises. She said Bauman did a good job in bringing key investment experts and others onto the staff.
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