Witness says he was offered a finder's fee

An associate of Antoin "Tony" Rezko was offered an $80,000 finder's fee at a time Rezko owed the man's wife several million dollars, according to testimony Thursday in Rezko's corruption trial.

Charles Hannon told jurors that in 2004, Stuart Levine offered him the money, a share of a total $800,000 finder's fee. In return, Hannon said, Levine asked only that he have a valid Illinois corporation in place, ensuring a spot to place the money.

Prosecutors allege Rezko, using Levine's spot on two state boards, schemed with Levine to rig state contract and investment allocations in order to extort more than $8 million from various firms.

Although a Rezko attorney later challenged his memory, Hannon said Rezko, a long-time business and social associate, asked him after Rod Blagojevich's 2002 election as governor whether he would be interested in a state government post.

When he said yes, Rezko said Levine would contact him. When Levine called, Hannon testified, he offered a consulting contract for which he would essentially do no work.

Levine told him, Hannon said, that an investment firm would pay a 1 percent finder's fee in exchange for an allocation of $80 million from a state pension fund. The fee fell through when the investment firm, Virginia-based JER, became suspicious. By then Hannon had re-formed a corporation to accept the money and consulted with offshore attorneys he knew.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Joseph Duffy went after Hannon's credibility. He established that Hannon, 72, had consulted a neurologist concerning memory loss at the time federal agents first quizzed him about his Rezko dealings. Hannon, who has been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, also acknowledged he had at one point taken a drug sometimes prescribed for Alzheimer's patients.

Hannon also acknowledged that the attorney who helped him prepare for interviews with federal agents about Rezko also represents his wife, wealthy podiatrist Fortunee Massuda, in a civil suit aimed at collecting the money Rezko owes her.

Duffy tried to show that Hannon had ongoing business dealings with Levine that did not include Rezko. He also suggested that Hannon had approached Rezko seeking state consulting fees, not the other way around. He characterized Hannon as a man looking for an income source that did not flow from his wealthy wife's resources and implied that Hannon used offshore attorneys to avoid reporting the JER income on a joint tax return with his wife.

"Did you not say, 'Please do not share any of this with my wife?" Duffy asked of Hannon's talks with Rezko about consulting work.

"I did say that; yes." Hannon replied.

Hannon said Rezko has long owed his wife several million dollars, $3.5 million when last officially tabulated in 2005. The loans, Hannon said, were intended for Rezko's real estate and restaurant businesses. At one point, he said, his wife wrote a $77,000 check to cover past-due property taxes on a Lake Geneva condominium Rezko owned.

One other intriguing point of testimony Thursday came when Hannon told jurors that Rezko twice spoke to him about secure phone conversations. He said Rezko told him that he hired professionals to sweep his office phones periodically to detect wiretaps. On another occasion, Hannon said, Rezko asked whether he realized one-on-one conversations can be heard through a cell phone even if it is turned off. Rezko said his safeguard against such eavesdropping, Hannon testified, was to remove his phone's battery.