This afternoon, Tony Rezko was convicted on 16 counts of corruption. He was convicted of working with Stuart Levine to extort millions of dollars from companies that wanted to do business with the state or that needed regulatory approval.

The convictions include 12 counts of wire and mail fraud, 2 counts of money laundering, and 2 counts of aiding and abetting bribery. He was acquitted on charges of attempted extortion. Rezko will be sentenced on September 3rd, and has been taken into federal custody. He said he wanted to start serving his sentence immediately, according to his lawyer (who of course is rushing to file an appeal).

Stuart Levine was a key witness in this case, testifying that Resko rigged state board decisions in return for kickbacks. Rezko said Levine was a drug addict and con man who made this stuff up in order to reduce his own prison sentence.

Also during the trial, former state official Ali Ata said that he got his position by bribing Rezko and making campaign contributions to Governor Rod Blagojevich. He also testified that Rezko attempted to stop the criminal investigation of himself by tryign to get U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzerald fired via his White House connections.

Barack Obama was once closely connected to Rezko, a friend and a fundraiser for Obama. Obviously, Obama will try to downplay their connection, but it was apparently material.