* 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
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:21 am:
“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.”
If that statement was coming from US Senate nominee Hoffman, it would be a killer!
From Giannoulais - nah, not so much. Wow, see what having dirty hands does when you make charges against your opponent’s dirty laundry?
- Frustrated Dem - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:28 am:
The point here, Rich, is that this is NOT an isolated incident with Alexi. He KEEPS finding himself involved with these characters. This is NOT a simple $2400 individual gift either…It’s apparently over $100,000 in donations.
If you lie with dogs, you wake up with fleas.
Why in the world did the Democratic leadership all rally around Alexi so early? It makes me so angry. They are going to give away this Senate seat.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:29 am:
== Since when do banks check low-level felony gun conviction records that resulted in no prison time before loaning money to a successful restauranteur? ==
Not only does the law not only require criminal background checks before lending someone money, I believe federal lending laws prohibit it.
Imagine the red-lining if suddenly banks were allowed to deny someone a loan because of Class IV felonies, which include possession of cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, or prescription drugs.
In fact, as far as I know the only time that a low-level conviction can be used to deny a loan is for student loans, and then ONLY for drugs.
- Fed up - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:31 am:
Funny how Kass keeps going after deleo and Ald Banks for mob connections and calling their bank mobbed up. When Broadway seems to be the favored bank of a lot of criminals.
- wordslinger - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:32 am:
Is the suggestion that he was trying to make a run for it to Canada? They would extradite him in a minute.
There would be a lot of happy gang-bangers in Detroit if slipping over to Windsor put you out of reach of the federales.
- The Doc - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:34 am:
No bank - and I state this without equivocation - would ever allow, moreover abet, a customer to engage in check kiting. The financial risk is simply too great.
As for criminal convictions, the banks are only looking for previous financial crimes and anti-money laundering violations. A years-old weapons charge is immaterial.
- shore - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:38 am:
Alexi-just like everyone else. You are smarter than this and if the news media buys his spin I am going to vomit. Let’s remember this is the same chicago press corps that thought blago was a reformer.
Alexi, who knows about as much about public policy as your average high school student, has one thing on his resume-this bank. It’s now failed and either he did nothing there and lied about his resume and therefore has nothing on his cv to make him suitable to run for senate, or he was a hitter there and is going to leave the taxpayers on the hook.
This poor me b.s. that the media is buying is pathetic. congressman Kirk actually has a record of public service and achievement. While he was serving overseas alexi was getting drunk living la viva playboy in greece shooting hoops. Alexi’s only government work overseas was a junket with dirty dick durbin to guess where? Greece which some in the msm called a serious foreign policy credential despite the fact that it doesn’t even rank as the most important issue in that region,much less the hemisphere.
For the record, Peter Fitzgerald, an honorable man, whose bank didn’t fail and who did nothing wrong, was treated by the media as a spoiled rich kid despite the fact that he had an actual record of personal achievement. Then again he was a conservative republican and didn’t fit the ideal profile for the media.
- Brennan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:40 am:
It’s just awful timing. Giannoulias goes to Washington. Secures some White House quotes. He picks up a new campaign finance director. He picks up the NARAL endorsement. He gets some good press.
Then one of his former clients and 100K donors is picked up trying to flee to Canada holding their Greek passports.
It sucks the wind out of his sails. Giannoulias can’t seem to get up to speed. He continues to land on Chance and draws “go back 3 spaces”.
- Cosmic Charlie - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:43 am:
The Giannis story is a non-story. My guess though is the RSCC/Kirk folks are disecting every loan made from Broadway to Giannis and see if there is anything there.
Honestly though, I really think the Broadway Bank situation, while a serious nuisance and distraaction for Alexi, will not make or break him on E-day.
- Responsa - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:50 am:
I don’t for a minute believe that Broadway was involved in the illegal kiting. But,the millions in mortgage loans from Broadway to the Giannis family (whose Burger chain recently quite publicly declared bankruptcy) may well be included in the non performing loan portfolio which is sinking the Broadway Bank. There is apparently a longtime friendship between the sons of the two “G” families which *may* have clouded judgment with respect to approving the loans in the first place. And, with the sexiness of Daddy Giannis’ attempted bolt to Canada this is all playing out in the news. I agree with Frustrated Dem. This bank is an albatross around Alexi’s neck. And Alexi is an albatross around the neck of the Democratic party in Illinois and nationally.
- Roz - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:51 am:
Alexi is a wiley happy go lucky basketball player/Family Bank Loan Officer/State Treasurer/Candidate for the Senate that always has and always will lead a charmed life. I don’t care what he does he will win. Everyone gives him a smile, wink and a nod. Awww Ok its Alexi.
- ABCBoy - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:52 am:
1) Re: Alexi: I do think in this case it’s a tenuous connection. Broadway Bank seems to be the victim in this scenario. What shocks me is that Giannis would have the gall to first donate to Alexi’s campaign–and then turn around and victimize Alexi’s bank! It’s like putting money in his front pocket while taking other money out the back pocket. Strange…
I do think Rep. Gutierrez is in hot water here. I thought this last year when the story originally broke, and now it’s getting even more intense.
- truthman - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 11:02 am:
Big bonuses for Bank Execs?
Alexi ought to know, he and his family have made millions off of Broadway Bank……….just in time to see it go under and pass the bad debt’s onto American taxpayers….
- Third Generation Chicago Native - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 11:14 am:
Alexi came out and said he is donating the campaign donations from Nick Giannis/Blackies.
Also Broadway bank is one of many banks involved in Nick/Blackies ordeal. So unless all the other banks, and only one emphazied because of Alexi’s affiliation, would be just as guilty. But this I am sure goes on to lesser degree (as in dollar amounts) more often than the public realizes in many banks. This is just being blown up because of Alexi/Broadway bank.
- D.P. Gumby - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 11:14 am:
Kirk has lost any integrity he ever had when he drank the RSCC/RNC kool-aid in order to be the Sen.Rep. Candidate…backing off his previous positions, etc. Now, he’s just a mouthpiece for meaningless talking points. Boston Blackie has as much to do w/ the Senate race as the question of boxers or briefs. But RSCC would try to make some car w/ a parking ticket parked in front of Broadway Bank an issue if they could.
- Conservative Republican - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 11:16 am:
I don’t think you need to be “corrected” and it isn’t that you are “seeing this wrong”, but to take the position that “it’s just the bank” and “the bank’s a victim” ignores the unanswered questions, which is still very much in play:
Just how bad is Broadway Bank? Aren’t all the reports to date on Broadway Bank and Alexi merely the outer layers of a continuing peeling onion? Or the tip of the iceberg?
Assume the Bank knew nothing about this check kiting scheme. The common thread here is the decades long relationship between this smaller bank and a growing list of unsavory characters.
Permit me on last cliche, but the question is, how many more shoes are there to drop?
This blog won’t countenance extreme rumors, but I have already heard legitimate sounding anecdotal evidence that this is indeed the tip of the iceberg as to how bad Broadway Bank is.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 11:20 am:
This is not a good year electorally to be painted as the entitled rich kid. Giannoulais had to have used his time in office to demonstrate a common man touch. Being the “treasurer” didn’t help that. He needed to build up a “regular guy” routine for these kinds of election years.
I just can’t imagine how struggling voters are going to relate to this spoiled rich kid if he keeps looking like he never had to do a day’s work in his life.
Worse, he keeps getting more millions even as his family bank fails and we get stuck with his bank’s bills!
Although that is how the system works, that isn’t how politics works when voters see that they keep getting the shaft while this rich kid keeps climbing the political ladder.
So it isn’t just the fact that it is a failing bank - it is the fact that Giannoulais is a rich banker’s kid from a failing bank who keeps getting more millions and accolades for showing up at Democratic Party events.
This is just not a good year for this kind of candidate.
- MikeMacD - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 11:29 am:
How is it, in this age of computerization and telecommunications, that Washington Mutual and Charter One would allow funds to be withdrawn from their accounts when the deposits haven’t cleared?
- "Old Timer Dem" - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 11:31 am:
Alexi is toxic. Not quite in the same league as “Blago” but getting there. Here is a question for the group. What current elected public official has opposed and openly fought both the toxic Alexi and Blago?
- Brennan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 11:58 am:
=How is it, in this age of computerization and telecommunications, that Washington Mutual and Charter One would allow funds to be withdrawn from their accounts when the deposits haven’t cleared?=
Overdraft accounts. It’s common banking practice today. It’s also a healthy cash cow for banks once they add on the fees per overdraft transaction.
However, the customers have to eventually pay the fees and supply the funds to cover the overdraft. On the other hand, the bank also has to try to collect the funds needed to cover the overdrafts.
New Lehman report says they reported 50 billion in capital that was never there. JP Morgan blew the whistle. Days later Lehman is a pile of rubble. The report was led by the chairman of Jenner & Block.
- 10th Indy - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 12:32 pm:
A key tactic of the Alexi campaign seemed to be hitting Kirk on his donors. With the Giannis donations to Alexi that tactic becomes problematic.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 12:52 pm:
Slipping away to Greece via Canada? Once in Greece, you can’t be returned through the extradition process for financial misdeeds. The link is not the bank, it is the $100,000+ donated to the Giannoulias campaigns.
Giannoulias has tried to make an issue of who is donating to Kirk’s campaign. From Kirk’s tax returns the past 10 years, it’s clear he isn’t any where close to the Giannoulias family when it comes to personal wealth. Now suddenly Giannoulias is faced with unloading over $100,000 received from a donor who tried to flee to Greece.
And still putting out statements about Wall Street Banker bonuses? Give me a break Alexi! Try looking in the mirror!
- Anonymous - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:30 pm:
Mike Madigan looks good one more time.
- Brennan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:33 pm:
=Now suddenly Giannoulias is faced with unloading over $100,000 received from a donor who tried to flee to Greece.=
That’s pretty harsh. It was Greek Independence Day. Giannis may have just been in a festive mood.
- Cousin Ralph - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:18 pm:
Raising 100k in fed. campaign funds to pay off the Giannis contrib.s will painful. That is the equivelent of the budget for some downstate media markets or a couple direct mail pieces. The problem for Alexi is that this story plays to the corrupt and unflattering narrative about Alexi that Kirk would like to see resonate with the electorate. It is resonating and Alexi does not look like an agent of change but as just another connected pol. All and all, quite a dreary Friday for Alexi.
- Bubs - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:19 pm:
One gets the feeling that there is a rope on the ground leading to Broadway Bank and Alexi, and the more the media keeps pulling on that rope, the more that interesting stories, and cheezy characters, will continue to move into the spotlight, kicking and screaming all the way.
- Brennan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:27 pm:
The Sun-Times walks back the latest Kirk charge.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/2099122,kirk-giannoulias-loan-criminals-031210.article
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:48 pm:
As Monsignor McDermott used to say, it’s only a few steps from Park Place to the park bench.
I agree that blaming Giannoulias for any wrong doing is a stretch. Up until a couple weeks ago, Boston Blackies was considered a very successful business and a good investment, right?
It’s a bad economy that is causing all sorts of folks to take desperate measures. These dogs didn’t always have fleas.
- sucka free - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 4:08 pm:
Wow, lot’s of misinfo above on Broadway.
First, no taxpayer money is at stake, FDIC is wholly funded by BANK FEES paid BY THE BANK. Broadway has paid millions such fees.
Second, no outside shareholders are out (as in the case of big bank failures) since the only shareholders of the back are the G family.
Third, no TARP money is at stake, Broadway could have, but never did, apply for these funds
Finally, no depositors are effected since they are convered by FDIC (with the aforementioned bank fees)
No allegation that Alexi did anything illegal, wrong, or even remotely unethical. It is humourous for Kirk to attack Alexi’s business experience when Kirk has never even so much as run a lemonade stand. It is also humorous that he attacks Alexi for somehow being a bid bad banker that brought down the economy when Kirk voted 96% with Bush’s economic policies.
- Anonymous - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 4:12 pm:
OLD TIMER
The answer is Speaker Madigan. The Speaker is always a step ahead of the rest of the pack.