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UPDATE:

The mystery of William Miceli is solved.

According to documents posted on the Obama-Biden website, Barack and Michelle Obama entered into a “Land Trust” Agreement, with William Miceli acting as their agent. All bills are to be forwarded to Miceli, including the property tax.

We’re still confused as to why Miceli is listed as the “owner” on the Cook County Tax Assessment.

The blog, Strata-Sphere, has turned up some interesting information relating to Obama’s Chicago home.

Listed in the Cook County Records Property Tax Assessments as “owner” of Obama’s home isn’t the President-elect, nor his wife, but attorney William Miceli. The same attorney cited as a source by the Washington Post and Chicago Sun-Times regarding Obama’s ties to Tony Rezko. Miceli was Obama’s former supervisor at the Davis Law firm that represented Rezko.

5046 South Greenwood, Chicago Illinois

The Cook County property tax assessment information lists William Miceli as the “owner” of 5046 South Greenwood, the recording date, 6/21/2005, in the amount of $1,650,000. The borrower is listed as Northern Trust Company.

William Miceli is a partner at the Chicago law firm, Miner, Barnhill, and Galland, formerly Davis, Miner, Barnhill, and Galland, when Allison S. Davis headed the firm. Miceli’s website lists his current areas of expertise: “not-for-profit corporations, urban renewal transactions, federally qualified health centers, and social service organizations”. Obama was employed by the firm from 1993-2002 with Miceli as his supervisor.

In April, 2007, the Chicago Sun-Times interviewed Obama’s campaign about his relationship with Tony Rezko and Rezko’s company, Rezmar Corp.

According to the Sun-Times, Tony Rezko was a client of Obama’s firm and a “close personal friend” and “business partner” of Allison S. Davis. According to Obama and his campaign, Rezko was a longtime friend and campaign donor during Obama’s Congressional and Senate campaigns.

Central Woodlawn Project

The Sun-Times interview centered on a specific deal made by Rezmar, the Central Woodlawn Project, with Obama’s law firm handling the legal issues. The Sun-Times wanted to know who Obama reported to in his firm while working on the deal:

Sun-Times question: Please explain what legal work the senator performed on each of those Rezmar projects. I have a copy of a legal bill showing Sen. Obama worked on the Central Woodlawn project. Please include the number of hours he spent on each Rezmar deal, the dates he worked on those deals, and to whom he reported at the firm, whether that was Allison Davis and/or William Micelli.

Obama campaign answer: Senator Obama worked on several projects in which the firm’s principal client was a not-for-profit corporation. The projects entailed negotiations between the firm’s primary not-for-profit client and the Rezmar-related entity that served as co-general partner or co-venturer of the not-for-profit.

Once the negotiations between the not-for-profit and Rezmar-related entity were completed, the firm represented the combined entity, usually an Illinois limited partnership or Illinois limited-liability company.

The Senator, relatively inexperienced in this kind of work, was assigned to tasks appropriate for a junior lawyer. These tasks would have included reviewing documents, collecting corporate organizational documents, and drafting corporate resolutions. The Senator reported primarily to former partner Allison Davis and occasionally to William Miceli.

Allison Davis’ company, American Housing Partners, invested $25,000 in the Central Woodlawn Project. The Obama Campaign stated that Obama had no knowledge of a business relationship between Davis and Rezko’s firm, Rezmar.

On January 23, 2008, the Washington Post published an article on the Obama-Rezko ties, and cited Miceli as a source:

During the same period, Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, attended Harvard Law School and then moved back to Chicago. In 1993, he became an associate lawyer with a small Chicago firm, Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Galland. It was during this time that he first became involved with a real estate developer named Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who was subsequently indicted on charges of fraud, extortion and money laundering and will go on trial on Feb. 25.

William Miceli, Obama’s supervisor at the law firm, said the firm represented the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a nonprofit group that redeveloped a run-down property on Chicago’s South Side with Rezko. He called Clinton’s assertion that Obama represented Rezko in a slum landlord business “categorically untrue.”

“He was a very junior lawyer at the time, who was given responsibility for basic due diligence, document review,” said Miceli, adding that Obama did what he was told by the firm. According to Miceli, that was the only time Obama worked on a Rezko-related project while at the law firm.

What’s interesting to note is that the person the Washington Post interviewed regarding the Rezko-Obama ties, William Miceli, is the same person who is listed as the “owner” of Obama’s Chicago Greenwood home.

The Obama-Biden campaign lifted part of the Wa-Po piece and posted it in the “Fact Check” portion of their website:

Washington Post Fact Check: “Investigations By Chicago Newspapers Have Not Produced Evidence That [Obama] Represented Rezko In A Slum Landlord Business.” The Washington Post reported, “William Miceli, Obama’s supervisor at the law firm, said the firm represented the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a nonprofit group that redeveloped a run-down property on Chicago’s South Side with Rezko. He called Clinton’s assertion that Obama represented Rezko in a slum landlord business ‘categorically untrue. He was a very junior lawyer at the time, who was given responsibility for basic due diligence, document review,’ said Miceli, adding that Obama did what he was told by the firm. According to Miceli, that was the only time Obama worked on a Rezko-related project while at the law firm…But investigations by Chicago newspapers have not produced evidence that he represented Rezko in a slum landlord business. What has been demonstrated so far is that he did some due diligence legal work for a joint venture between Rezko and a Chicago nonprofit. Two Pinocchios for Clinton.” [Washington Post, 1/22/08]

Miceli claimed that Obama was a “very junior lawyer”, who was only responsible for “basic due diligence” and “document review”. Yet in 1994, Obama, representing his firm, defended Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation against a lawsuit filed by the city of Chicago.

On January 23, a second Sun-Times Obama-Rezko ties story appeared regarding Obama’s ties to Rezko, once again citing Miceli as a source:

One of the firm’s not-for-profit clients — the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., co-founded by Obama’s then-boss Allison Davis — was partners with Rezko’s company in a 1995 deal to convert an abandoned nursing home at 61st and Drexel into low-income apartments. Altogether, Obama spent 32 hours on the project, according to the firm. Only five hours of that came after Rezko and WPIC became partners, the firm says. The rest of the future senator’s time was helping WPIC strike the deal with Rezko. Rezko’s company, Rezmar Corp., also partnered with the firm’s clients in four later deals — none of which involved Obama, according to the firm. In each deal, Rezmar “made the decisions for the joint venture,” says William Miceli, an attorney with the firm.

On November 15, Obama picked Valerie Jarrett as his White House Senior Advisor. Jarret was “outed” by Judicial Watch as “member of the board of directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents linking Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to Barack Obama and the co-chairman of the President-Elect’s transition team, to a series of real estate scandals, including several housing projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin “Tony” Rezko.

According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Illinois Secretary of State, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers Rezko and Allison Davis. (Davis is also Obama’s former boss.) Jarrett was a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis.
–Chicago Sun Times

While Miceli is listed by the Cook County Clerk’s Office as “owner” of Obama’s Greenwood home, Miceli was used as a source by both the Chicago Sun-Times and Washington Post where Miceli claimed Obama had a limited role in representing Rezko at the Davis Law Firm.

Obama has repeatedly asserted his only ties to Rezko were a long standing friendship. Rezko and his wife Rita were involved in the Obama’s successful attempt to buy the Greenwood property.

On the same day that Obama closed on the Greenwood property in 2005, the lot next door sold to Tony Rezko’s wife in the amount of $625,000. Six months later Obama paid $104,500 for a portion of the lot.

According to the Washington Times, the 9,090-square-foot vacant parcel was initially appraised at $625,000 by Adams Appraisal. When Obama and his wife signed an agreement to buy a 10 X 150 ft. strip of land from the Rezko vacant parcel, a reappraisal was ordered by Mutual Bank Corp.

A reappraisal done by Kenneth J. Connor, a real estate and commercial credit analyst at the Mutual Bank Corp, found the property should not have been valued higher than $500,000. When a grand jury issued a subpeona to Mutual Bank for Rezko’s wife’s records, Connor discovered that the bank had switched his reappraisal with the higher appraisal of $625,000. Connor now claims that he was fired when he “blew the whistle”:

“Connor’s internal whistle-blowing activity at Mutual Bank implicates Mutual Bank and the potentially guilty officers thereof to prosecution under federal and Illinois statutes,” said the complaint, filed by attorney Glenn R. Gaffney.

The complaint said Mutual Bank officials could be guilty of making false statements, willfully overvaluing property, bank fraud, witness retaliation, willful violation of a lawful subpoena, FDIC violations, and state banking regulations.

Rita Rezko sold the lot in 2007 for $575,000.

It’s a mystery as to why William Miceli is listed by the Cook County Clerk’s office as the owner of Obama’s Chicago Greenwood home. Miceli, as “owner” is directly responsible for paying the assessed property taxes. In 2006, the property tax was assessed at $22,162.47.

By LBG

Image - Obama Chicago Home