* Correct me if I’m seeing this wrong (and I’m sure you will), but unless there is some proof that Broadway Bank knew that this guy was kiting checks, I just don’t see how this story is a huge deal for the Giannoulias campaign other than the campaign contributions, which will soon be donated to charity…
A father and son who operated the Boston Blackie’s burger restaurants were charged Thursday with ripping off nearly $1.9 million from two banks in a check-cashing scheme, and authorities said they arrested the father on the U.S. border as he was trying to enter Canada.
The allegations caused a new round of political embarrassment for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose family owns Broadway Bank and has long known the father and son.
The Blackie’s operators are accused of writing bad checks from their accounts at Broadway to other banks as part of their alleged scheme. Longtime Blackie’s operator Nick Giannis gave Giannoulias more than $114,000 in campaign contributions for his treasurer and Senate campaigns.
Giannoulias was in a state of “shock and disbelief” at the news, according to his campaign, which announced he would donate an equivalent amount to local charities.
Again, unless there’s some collusion, it looks like Broadway was a victim here.
The Kirk campaign tried to connect the dots. From a press release…
In 1996, Nick Giannis was convicted of 4th degree felony possession of a firearm. Giannis was sentenced to 2 years in prison but given probation. (Illinois Court Records, Case Number: 1996C22008201)
Despite his felony conviction, between August 2000 and December 2002, Broadway Bank loaned Nick Giannis roughly $6 million in mortgages – at least $1.22 million during the time Alexi Giannoulias served as the bank’s Chief Loan Officer. (Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Document No.: 0021330151)
Since when do banks check low-level felony gun conviction records that resulted in no prison time before loaning money to a successful restauranteur?
* And this story puts Broadway’s troubles into a bit more perspective…
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is putting at least a half-dozen struggling Chicago-area banks out for bid to healthy institutions that might want to buy their deposits and assets.
The fact that so many banks are being peddled simultaneously shows that the crisis for many small and midsize institutions continues and could be getting worse.
“What we have seen in terms of bank failures so far in the market cycle is, unfortunately, only the tip of the iceberg,” said Justin Barr, managing principal at Loan Workout Advisers LLC., a Northfield-based bank-turnaround consulting firm. “The real bloodbath will shortly begin to unfold and will likely drag on for some time to come.”
Loan Workout said that of more than 200 banks headquartered in the Chicago area, 119 were in the red in 2009, while 86 turned a profit.
One of the banks reportedly on the FDIC’s list is Broadway.
* Giannoulias tried to change the subject yesterday…
Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias tried today to change the focus of his campaign from talk about his family’s troubled bank to what he says is his history of standing up to big banks and his Republican opponent’s history of “cozying up” to Wall Street banks.
“He voted five times against reining in bonuses for Wall Street executives,” the state treasurer said of Mark Kirk. Ticking off every consumer-protection bill he said Kirk has voted against, Giannoulias said: “That is who he listens to — he listens to his Wall Street cronies, and, not coincidentally, his Wall Street pals have given him over $2 million in campaign contributions.”
Giannoulias spoke at a locksmith business near Greektown, where owner Tom Glavin said he hoped Giannoulias’ policies might help fill up Downtown’s partially empty office buildings and help his key-making business. Giannoulias donned protective eyegear as he cut a key.
* As we’ve seen time and time again, some of these allegedly corrupt operators have fooled a whole lot of people. So, try to keep that in mind when reading these stories…
Testimony in the federal corruption trial of a Chicago developer on Thursday revealed that U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez met with the developer and Mayor Richard Daley to push for the city’s approval of a controversial real estate venture.
Gutierrez’s involvement in lobbying Daley to support the project goes a step beyond what the congressman has previously told the Tribune in stories documenting his political and financial relationship with the developer, Calvin Boender, and his unusual role in backing a project outside his congressional district.
The Tribune previously has reported that Gutierrez wrote a letter to Daley on Boender’s behalf after receiving a $200,000 loan from Boender. The newspaper reported Sunday that relatives of Gutierrez and two other Chicago politicians who supported Boender landed jobs tied to the project known as Galewood Yards.
The situation is quite odd, though. It’s definitely worth a closer look.
* Related…
* Witness: Rep. Gutierrez in on pitch for rezoning - Bribery trial witness notes presence of rep. who got $200K loan
* Reputed mobster charged with rigging bids at McCormick Place