No shady banking buddy left behind
Chicago birds of a feather
No shady banking buddy left behind
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
First Lady Michelle Obama’s latest overseas jaunt is getting all the headlines. But President Obama’s money-grubbing junket to Chicago may cost taxpayers far more in the long run. With his Gaultier-clad wife sashaying around the Spanish seaside, the lonely fundraiser-in-chief returned to Illinois to take care of some birthday-week business. Job One: Filling the Senate campaign coffers of his corruption-tainted political protege Alexi Giannoulias.
Mission accomplished. Obama’s Thursday afternoon campaign event for Giannoulias, the beleaguered state treasurer of Illinois, reportedly raked in $1 million. Lagging behind his GOP opponent, liberal Republican Rep. Mark Kirk, Giannoulias has coveted one-on-one, grip-and-grin time with Obama for months. In addition to the cash, photo-ops and video of the Obama fundraising event that Giannoulias will milk from now until Election Day, the White House has dispatched Vice President Joe Biden, White House senior adviser David Axelrod and White House campaign management guru David Plouffe to boost Giannoulias’ bid. Plouffe proclaimed Democrats “all in” for Giannoulias, whom he described as “a great progressive champion.”
Obama gave his own personal seal of ethical approval, telling deep-pocketed donors this week: “I appreciate his strong sense of advocacy for ordinary Americans. You can trust him — you can count on him.” Uh-huh. And I’ve got a bridge to Hope and Change to sell you.
.
What would Giannoulias know about “ordinary Americans”? Giannoulias, 34, befriended Obama during pickup basketball games with an elite group that also included Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig; Chicago edu-crat Arne Duncan (now Education Secretary); and hedge fund manager John Rogers (the ex-husband of the Obamas’ ex-White House social secretary, Desiree Rogers). He spread his wealth and influence around early and often to support Obama’s fledgling political career. He pitched in $7,000 in 2003-2004 to Obama’s Illinois State Senate bids. He hosted fundraisers for Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign in 2004 and for his presidential campaign in 2007.
Where’d the cash come from? Giannoulias’ Greek immigrant family founded Chicago-based Broadway Bank, a now-defunct financial institution that loaned tens of millions of dollars to convicted mafia felons and faced bankruptcy after decades of engaging in risky, high-flying behavior. It’s the place where Obama parked his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign funds. And it’s the same place where a mutual friend of Obama and Giannoulias — convicted Obama fundraiser/slum lord Tony Rezko — used to bounce nearly $500,000 in bad checks written to Las Vegas casinos. This week, the Chicago Sun-Times revealed an additional $22.75 million Broadway Bank loan to a Rezko-owned business in 2006. Giannoulias held an ownership stake in the bank at the time.
Giannoulias served as Broadway Bank vice president and senior loan officer for four years. According to the Chicago Tribune, during Giannoulias’ tenure, some $27 million of Broadway Bank’s funny money went to mob crooks Michael “Jaws” Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos. Giorango is a hustler who fronted a nationwide prostitution ring and was sentenced to six months in prison; Stavropoulos is behind bars for operating a multistate bookmaking ring. Giorango ran the $400-an-hour call girl operation out of high-rise luxury apartments in Chicago with the infamous “Gold Coast Madam,” Rose Laws. Giorango and Stavropoulos used their Broadway Bank loans to start their own risky lending business for nontraditional borrowers unable to secure traditional bank financing.
Despite Giorango’s criminal record exposed by the Tribune in 2004, Broadway Bank approved massive mortgages for him. Giannoulias’ brother, Demetris, explained that as a “relationship bank,” Broadway wouldn’t just throw someone under the bus because of a “bad article.” Instead, the bank went ahead and rubber-stamped a September 2005 loan for $3.4 million to buy a 32-unit Los Angeles apartment complex. The application falsely stated that the borrower, Giorango, had “not been convicted of a felony.” Giannoulias oversaw the servicing of such shady loans totaling $11 million. Remember: He was no low-level staffer. He was, as he reminded supporters when he needed to deflect attention away from his youth, top management at Broadway Bank.
In January 2010, the bank entered a consent decree with federal and Illinois state regulators. It required Broadway Bank “to raise tens of millions in capital, stop paying dividends to the family without regulatory approval, and hire an outside party to evaluate the bank’s senior management.” The city’s former inspector general blasted Giannoulias and his family for tapping $70 million worth of dividends in 2007 and 2008 as the real estate crash loomed. Broadway Bank was sitting on an estimated $250 million in bad loans. In late April, federal regulators shut it down. Cost to taxpayers: an estimated $390 million. Giannoulias refused to drop out of the race — and instead used the company failure to argue that it made him more qualified to serve in office: “I have a renewed vigor and a new perspective on just how horrible it is out there for so many people.”
President Obama agrees: Abysmal failure should be rewarded with promotion. He’s leaving no shady banking buddy behind.
Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies, out in paperback on Aug. 9.
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Why is it that Barry Soetoro seems to be a magnet for everyone and everything that is pure evil?
Given the President’s track record in regards to campaigning for candidates, I could not be more pleased with his apperance at this event.
Obama’s endorsement could be the final nail in the coffin that locks up the Illionis Senate seat for the GOP.
Thanks Barry.
We can arrange for you to have an even greater vigor and perspective.
Ft Leavenworth has some cells with a perspective of the Missouri River and you will be invigorated by the task of making little rocks out of big rocks.
And besides, the monthly vigorish is more than reasonable!
g = 9.81 m/s2 = 32.2 ft/s2
It happens when you have the largest mass like bodies within your space.
It just never ends….
Have y’all seen the picture on Drudge of this bho shaking hands with someone while in Chicago? I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it! It looks like he is about the kiss the guy also.
L
Why does he keep getting away with this stuff? He’s so obviously shady and corrupt. I hate our President. I really do. It feels terrible, but I can’t help it.
It’s symptomatic of how out of touch with reality the American electorate is.
Hard jail time for all now, please. These crooks are not that hard to investigate. Develop an overwhelming force of public support and political courage and it will be doable. They must be prosecuted, not just the minor criminals but the egregious ones still residing in Congress.
You know the economy is bad when the mob can’t keep a business afloat.
He is also corrupt. He just lies about it and keeps it out of sight mostly. And the liberal media is complicit, so you won’t hear a peep out of them.
I may be a little thick here, but wouldn’t we common folks call that “loansharking”?
Yeah, The One is a great judge of character. He picked Rev. Wright for his spiritual journey. And for help in his political earthly work, he picked Kwame Kilpatrick:
Amen to that, it’s unbelievable to me people with 1/2 brain people couldn’t see this guy was/is an empty suite and a crooked one at that. Some people are so dense they actually believe campaign rhetoric…signs, posters, commercials. They must talk to unicorns to believe this usurper and he’s not the only one. There is also the vast majority of government leaders on all levels, city, county, state and federal.
I’m sure he’d fit right in at GITMO…
Illinois, do you really want as your senator someone who could fritter away so easily and carelessly a business that took his family years of hard work to build? And for what – self-serving political connections?
You’re better than that, and you can do better in choosing a senator.
Works for Fiorina, too.
As long as there is a D after his name, they’ll vote for him.
Outside Chicago, the rest of the state is indeed better than that. This candidate’s unofficial nickname in Chicago is “Sexy Alexi”. PLUS the ACORN residue in the city (as well as the Chicaago Board of Elections) will be stuffing the ballot boxes again this year.
PLUS- the Dems plan to gay bait Mark Kirk in the Fall. They support gays, as long as they vote Democrat.
It never feels terrible to oppose evil.
and what are we in the US going to do about frivolous spending of our $$$- –government take-over of our FREEDOM–elitist attitudes of our elected ‘servants’?
carol-CS
Obama does love failures, but what is more important, he loves people with no moral standards. Or worse.
From bombers to criminals, no low-life is too low to be intimate with Obama. The “inner circle” is more like “the infestation”.
And he is President.
I’m sorry, I was watching the news to see what Lindsey Lohan was wearing to prison – did you say something?
Having my money in a mattress rather than a bank looks better and better each day.
Why, why, why is MM the only investigative reporter to report this crap? Surely there must be another honest reporter out there somewhere. Bueller? Bueller?
New nickname for Teh Won! Wacky Soebacky! (Soebarkah)
Peter principle!
Also, Weinbreg’s Sewage Treatment Plant Postulate on Professional Advancement”
“The really big chunks always rise to the top.”
Yep. Not for the faint of heart pic HERE.
Don’t worry, you are NOT ALONE.
Do these people do anything besides take trips and vacations (other than trying to socialize the U.S.)? It seems they are either planning one, on one, or coming home from one. If it was Bush, the MSM would be screaming. It must be a cushy job being on the WH staff. Boss is never home.
I Want Your Money
the movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wty7974IKg
You got that right, back during the presidential campaign when some people were talking about his beautiful smile, etc., I was thinking when I look at his eyes I see pure evil. He was hiding nothing from me.
Michelle, you really showed some remarkable restraint with this sentence!
Lending business? We used to call that loansharking, I believe!
Excellent column.
Just pre-ordered the paperback edition of Culture of Corruption using the link; back to school gift for a nephew.