Odd Connections

So this was reported way back in April:

• A high-profile lobbyist who is a former top aide to Gov. JB Pritzker is cooperating with investigators, her lawyer says, in a case involving a man facing federal charges that accuse him of extorting a Lincoln Park restaurant owner.

  Will County treasurer’s office records show Lisa Duarte, the former Pritzker aide, had paid $19,947 in property taxes for a Lemont estate that comprised three adjacent properties that were raided by the FBI in connection with the federal investigation of Jawad Fakroune, records show.

  The tax bills for the $2.5 million estate, where Fakroune lived, went to Duarte at her Lincoln Park condo. They covered one year of property taxes on each of the three properties, which are owned by a trust whose beneficiaries aren’t public.

  She said in a brief interview that she did nothing wrong and that she was a victim of Fakroune, declining to explain more, including how she knows Fakroune or why she was paying the property taxes on the Lemont home, saying of the taxes: “I can’t talk to you about that.

Not only was Duarte connected to Fata$$ (first assistant deputy governor - which is obviously a totally made up ghost payrolling spot), she was an aide to the ol' 9.5 Digit Midget. Her lobbying history includes the Bears, White Sox, Wirtz Corp., United Center and CTA.

But the truly interesting part is who she was paying the property taxes for - Jawad Fakroune - and his connection to a CPD member:

• A Chicago cop is under investigation by police officials over his ties to accused extortionist Jawad Fakroune, a convicted felon and Moroccan national who authorities say posed as a relative of the drug lord Pablo Escobar.

  Fakroune was arrested in January, charged with using threats and violence to shake down the owner of a Lincoln Park restaurant for $1.5 million he said he was owed.

  This month, the officer’s connection to Fakroune surfaced in a court filing in which federal prosecutors asked a judge to keep Fakroune in jail until his trial because they say he’s dangerous and a flight risk.

  According to prosecutors, the officer told the FBI he left guns at a home of Fakroune in the Chicago area. The officer said Fakroune failed to return the guns, which prosecutors said were later seized on Dec. 18 in an FBI raid of a home where Fakroune was staying in Manhattan.

  They said the officer reported the guns stolen, but some information in his report was false.

"False" meaning he lied in an official report and probably to the fbi, too. He hasn't been charged yet, but it certainly looks like the hook is set deep and he'll likely be "un-indicted co-conspirator X" at some point.

If we were cynical observers of Chicago politics, we'd wonder about gun-running, CPD corruption, lobbyists working for Fata$$, Rahm, Chicago spots teams and Moroccan extortionists all being connected somehow, but we're sure it's just a strange set of a dozen coincidences.

It looks like the Slum Times has discovered some long neglected investigative reporter skills.