John Kass, the intrepid Chicago Tribune reporter, spoke with Illinois state treasurer and current Democrat nominee for the U.S. Senate, Alexi Giannoulias, about his decision when he was chief loan officer at his family's bank - soon-to collapse Broadway Bank - to approve millions of dollars in loans to, among others, crime boss Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a convicted mob bookie and protector of a national prostitution circuit.
Kass found that Giannoulias wasn't nearly as good a liar as another Chicago politician he interviewed, Barak Obama.
MORE ON GIANNOULIAS who got the bank deeply involved in "sharply ramping up its exposure to oft-risky real estate loans to nearly half of its portfolio, and relying for deposits not on local savings accounts but brokered, relatively high-interest deposits from all over the county."
From Open Congress, quoting Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times,
"Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links that several top Illinois Dems, including the state's speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama's help."ABC7 Chicago acknowledges the refusal of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to endorse Giannoulias. And goes one better.
The rest of the Democratic party is supporting Giannoulias, including Senator Barack Obama, the political superstar whose campaign commercial helped Giannoulias defeat the Madigan-backed candidate in the Democratic primary, and state representative John Fritchey says Madigan should meet with Giannoulias to clear the air.IN THE MEANTIME, the Illinois state Treasurer, his mother and two brothers stand to gain between $12 million and $15 million in tax refunds for the $75 million the bank last year while the FDIC’s insurance fund absorbs what likely would be hundreds of millions in losses. (The family also took $70 million in dividends from Broadway’s holding company in 2007 and 2008.)
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