Barack Obama and Tony Rezko

UPDATE, January 28, 2008: Bond for Tony Rezko revoked

A federal judge Monday revoked the bond of Antoin "Tony" Rezko at least until a court hearing tomorrow.

The action by U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve came after Rezko was arrested at daybreak at his Wilmette home and prosecutors raised concern about a $3.5 million wire transfer to Rezko from Lebanon.

Some of the money went to certain property owners who had posted their homes to secure Rezko's release, a move that removed their financial risk if Rezko fled, prosecutors argued.

St. Eve said she was most disturbed to learn that Rezko had access to funds from overseas after she was told just the opposite last year.

"I feel that the financial picture that was presented to the court in January '07 is obviously far from an accurate financial picture," she said in court.

The judge suggested she would not have released Rezko, a Syrian native, if she had known he had access overseas to that kind of money.

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Saturday was not a good day for Barack Obama.

He lost to Hillary Clinton in Nevada.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Obama's campaign announced that he was returning money from the shady Tony Rezko.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama is giving charity more than $40,000 in past political contributions linked to Chicago real estate developer and fast food magnate Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who is facing federal corruption charges, his campaign said Saturday.

The contributions are from seven individuals who contributed to Obama's House and Senate campaigns. None of the money was for his current presidential bid.

"Recent public information has called into question contributions to the Obama campaign from a donor and fundraiser," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement Saturday. "It is the policy and practice of the campaign to review all such new information and dispose of questionable funds such as the potential illegal 'straw donations' that campaigns, like other presidential campaigns this cycle, must address as new facts emerge.

"Our consistent practice in these circumstances is to give the funds to charity out of an abundance of caution," Burton said.

The decision to dispose of the money came after the Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday that Obama is the unnamed "political candidate" mentioned in one paragraph of a 78-page prosecution document that outlines the case against Rezko.

Rezko, a longtime fundraiser for Obama, is charged with fraud, attempted extortion and money laundering. Prosecutors say he conspired to get campaign money and payoffs from firms seeking to do business before two state boards.

Read the Sun-Times exclusive.

Obama is not accused of any wrongdoing.

However, there still is that stench of corruption.

Rezko is one of Obama’s earliest political patrons. Long known as a prolific fund-raiser, the Syrian-born businessman helped raise money for Obama’s political campaigns beginning in 1995, when Obama was running for the Illinois Senate.

In 13 years in politics, Obama has gotten at least $168,000 in campaign donations from Rezko, his family and business associates. The Sun-Times reported that figure last June. Obama’s “best estimate” seven months earlier had been that Rezko had raised no more than $60,000 for him.

When Obama ran for the U.S. Senate, Rezko held a June 27, 2003, cocktail party in Rezko’s Wilmette mansion, picking up the tab for the lavish event. Obama’s campaign staff has said it has no records to show who attended that party, or how much it cost.

Obama’s relationship with Rezko dates to 1990, when Obama, then a Harvard law student, interviewed for a job with Rezko’s development company, Rezmar Corp. Obama turned down the job, instead going to work for a small Chicago law firm — Davis Miner Barnhill. That firm did work on more than a dozen low-income housing projects Rezmar rehabbed with government funds.

Eleven Rezmar buildings were in the state Senate district Obama represented between 1996 and 2004. Many of the buildings ended up in foreclosure, with tenants living in squalid conditions, the Sun-Times reported last year. In one instance, Rezko’s company left tenants without heat for five weeks. Obama said he was unaware of problems with the buildings and minimized the legal work he’d done.

Obama’s relationship with Rezko grew closer in June 2005, when Obama and Rezko’s wife bought adjoining real estate parcels from a doctor in the South Side Kenwood neighborhood. Obama paid $1.65 million for the doctor’s mansion, while Rezko’s wife paid $625,000 for the vacant lot next door. Obama’s purchase price was $300,000 below the asking price; Rezko’s wife paid full price.

Six months later, Obama paid Rita Rezko $104,500 for one-sixth of the vacant lot, which he bought to expand his yard. In November 2006, he expressed regret about the transaction.

“It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else,” Obama said, “to believe that he had done me a favor.”

I don't know.

Obama claims to be the candidate of change.

But this Rezko stuff doesn't make him seem like he's the one to usher in a new brand of politics.