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Chicago Businessman Pleads Guilty of Defrauding GE Capital of Millions

December 23, 2011, 06:30 AM
Filed Under: Industry News

Imprisoned former fundraiser  for Rod Blagojevich, Antoin (Tony) Rezko was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to a wire fraud scheme unrelated to the former Illinois governor, but will not face additional time behind bars.

Rezko was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for running a scheme that fraudulently netted more than $13 million in business loans. U.S. District Judge James Zagel said the sentence would run at the same time as the 10 1/2-year sentence Rezko already is serving for fraud and money laundering.

According to the indictment, Rezko tried to defraud lender GE Capital by appearing to sell some of his fast-food restaurants, including Papa John's Pizza franchises, to employees. Rezko needed to pay off existing loans on the pizza restaurants and when told by GE capital that he needed to sell some of his restaurants, Rezko devised a scheme to keep control of the businesses by using his employees as false owners. Rezko also provided GE Capital falsified documents making the restaurants appear more profitable than actuall perfomance.

Rezko has made some restitution payments. He was ordered Friday to pay the remaining $4 million.







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