The star witness at political fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko’s corruption trial said Monday that he took time off from scheming to get millions of dollars in bribes to take part in marathon drug parties, including some held at a suburban rendezvous known as “the purple hotel.”Stuart P. Levine also testified that Rezko packed the board of trustees of a $40 billion state pension fund with two men willing to follow orders to make sure a small group of insiders controlled the money.

And he told how he invited Rezko to dinner in a private dining room in an exclusive downtown club and outlined a scheme to squeeze $7 million in kickbacks out of money management firms wanting to invest pension assets.

“I said there was an opportunity for a lot of money to be made,” Levine said in describing how he launched what federal prosecutors say was a wide-ranging extortion scheme.

Read the Rest…