Businessman files suit, claims Rezko 'betrayed' him

A son of the late Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad has filed a lawsuit against Antoin "Tony" Rezko, claiming the indicted political fundraiser swindled him out of a home.

Businessman Jabir Herbert Muhammad filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on Friday against Rezko, calling him a longtime friend and business associate.

According to the suit, Rezko persuaded Muhammad, 78, and his wife Antonia Muhammad, 75, to make him the trustee of their South Side home, adjoining property and business affairs in the early 1990s because Jabir Herbert Muhammad's health was failing.

The suit alleges that Rezko used the home, business and property for his own means, selling some of it and using it as collateral to build his own business.

The residence, where the couple has lived since 1974, was the former home of Muhammad's father Elijah Muhammad. It is valued at more than $1.5 million, according to Muhammad attorney Joseph A. Morris.

"I totally trusted Tony Rezko and he betrayed me. He worked for me for years and I gave him his start in business," Muhammad said in a statement. "I believe that he used my name, my credit, and my property to start his empire. ... He has given me no choice but to go to court to protect my family and my home. "

A message left Saturday for Rezko attorney Joseph J. Duffy was not immediately returned.

Muhammad, a one-time manager for former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, said he hired Rezko into his fast-food and concession management business in the 1980s. Rezko also became a family friend.

"(Rezko) became so close, he was a virtual son," Morris said Saturday. "He was around all the time."

The Muhammads "always acceded to Rezko's requests that they sign documents and, in so doing, rarely or never read such documents and did not retain copies of such documents, but trusted Rezko fully and relied entirely upon Rezko's representations as to the purposes of such documents," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also names Paul S. Ray, chairman of the Department of Urology at Cook County's Stroger Hospital. The suit alleges he worked with Rezko in managing the Muhammads' affairs.

Messages left Saturday at home and work telephone listings for Ray were not immediately returned.

The lawsuit is asking for control of the Muhammads' home and injunctive relief to keep the couple in the house in the future.

Rezko, a former top adviser to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is on trial in federal court in Chicago. The 52-year-old is charged with scheming with millionaire campaign contributor Stuart Levine to split a $1 million bribe for pushing approval of an $81 million hospital for Crystal Lake in McHenry County through the planning board. Rezko also is charged with scheming with Levine to pressure kickbacks out of money management firms seeking to invest assets of the $30 billion fund that pays the pensions of downstate and suburban school teachers.

Rezko has denied any wrongdoing.

Muhammad's company, Crucial Inc., came under scrutiny in 2005 when Chicago officials alleged that it was a front for a firm run by Rezko. The company had been certified as a minority-owned company since 1998 and held an agreement to operate Panda Express restaurants at O'Hare International Airport.

Muhammad, who is black, was listed as the company's president, but city officials alleged Rezko, who is white, was using Crucial as a minority front. The company eventually agreed not to seek certification as a minority-owned business but did not admit fault.