• London Times: Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born billionaire living in London, loaned Mr. Rezko $3.5 million three weeks before the day the sale of the house and lot closed in June 2005.
  
  
• Mr. Auchi's office notes he was a business partner of Rezko but says he had "no involvement in or knowledge of" the property sale.
  
  
• In April 2004 Auchi and Obama attended a dinner party at Rezko's Chicago home. According to one guest, Obama toasted Mr. Auchi.
  
  
• Mr. Auchi later came under criminal investigation as part of a U.S. probe of the corrupt issuance of cell-phone licenses in Iraq.
  
  
• Pentagon cited "significant and credible evidence" of involvement by Mr. Auchi's companies in the Oil for Food scandal, and in illicit smuggling of weapons to Saddam Hussein's regime.
  
  
• Mr. Auchi's visa was revoked. According to prosecutors, Rezko was able to get two government officials from Illinois to appeal to the State Department to get the visa restored. Asked if anyone in his office was involved in such an appeal, Mr. Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times, "not that I know of." Requests to the State Department for documents remain unanswered.
  
  
• Obama had no recollection of ever meeting Mr. Auchi. He also said he didn't understand a lot about house buying, and gave vague answers to other questions. Since then, he has avoided any further discussion of the Rezko matter.

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