Democrat culture of corruption

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Banking On Corruption In The Windy City

Politics: Another bank failure is nothing new these days — except if the bank is run by the family of a U.S. Senate candidate who profited handsomely and lent millions to a convicted felon. But then, that's the Chicago way.
'I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," President Obama said in a recent interview with "60 Minutes." Speaking to those bankers, he said: "You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in — in decades, and you guys caused the problem."
Not all those fat cats, apparently, are on Wall Street. Some are on Main Street in the president's hometown. One of those "guys" recently won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat once held by Obama.
He's an Obama protege and fundraiser. His name is Alexi Giannoulias, and his family runs the Broadway Bank in Chicago, a financially troubled institution that the feds appear ready to seize and shut down. He is running for U.S. Senate from Illinois.
Last Friday, Crain's Chicago Business reported that the Giannoulias family stood to collect more than $10 million in federal tax refunds even if the bank does fail. "It's quite likely the bank will fail," the Chicago Tribune reported Giannoulias as saying last Wednesday, unless "they can raise the capital to keep the bank going," an amount estimated at $85 million.
As sole owner of a Subchapter S corporation that controls $1.2 billion-in-assets Broadway, the family pays the taxes on the bank's income and reaps tax deductions on its losses. Giannoulias did not say if the family would put the $10 million back into the bank as a start.
Giannoulias was senior lender at Broadway between 2002 and 2006, before winning election as Illinois treasurer in 2006. He stepped down from operational duties after deciding to run for public office. The expected tax refund comes on top of $70 million in dividends the family, including Giannoulias himself, took in 2007 and 2008.
As Chicago Tribune political writer Rick Pearson has reported, Alexi Giannoulias was very much an integral player in helping Barack Obama get seed money for his 2004 U.S. Senate race. He provided entree to Chicago's Greek community. In return, Obama in 2006 warmly endorsed Giannoulias: "He's one of the most outstanding young men that I could ever hope to meet. He's somebody who cares deeply about people."
One of the people Giannoulias cared about, apparently, was Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a Chicagoan with multiple convictions for bookmaking and promoting prostitution. As Ed Morrissey reported when he ran his Captain's Quarters blog, Giannoulias approved some $11.8 million in loans to Giorango and associates after Giorango was convicted in 2004 for running a prostitution ring.
In answering questions about Broadway's loans to Giorango during a 70-minute meeting with the Tribune editorial board, Giannoulias, the newspaper reported, "at first contended he was unaware of Giorango's criminal history. That contradicted Giannoulias' comments in 2006 to the Tribune, in which he acknowledged knowing Giorango had a criminal background."
The White House and most of the national media have oddly ignored the Giannoulias story, which one would think would matter as much as the AIG bonuses. If Giannoulias had been a Republican protege of George W. Bush, maybe coverage would be different.
Maybe it's because he comes out of the same corrupt Illinois system that produced such stellar leaders as the impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell Obama's former seat, and the human cipher who got it, Roland Burris. Dog bites man is not news.
Illinois is still a very blue state, and the Chicago machine still has clout. Giannoulias may still pull it out. Heck, he may even wind up on the Senate Banking Committee.