Giannoulias Bank Ties Could Hurt Campaign
Bloomberg reported on Friday that Chicago’s Broadway Bank must raise no less than $75 million in capital by sometime in late April to meet the terms of a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Why do you care? Because this is the bank owned by the family of none other than Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias and the reason they owe so much money is that the bank made a sizeable number of ill-advised commercial real-estate loans. The article points out that even if they successfully raise the capital, the family could still lose control of the bank before Illinois voters cast their ballots in November.
The article quotes pollster -- and a former guest on the FF podcast -- Stuart Rothenberg as saying: “The one thing you don’t want to spend in a campaign is a lot of time defending yourself.” And yet this is exactly what Giannoulias will have to do. Giannoulias already had the misfortune of being one of Rod Blagojevich’s friends and colleagues. Even worse: Blago’s trial is set to begin right dead in the middle of campaign season. Blagojevich has already promised to testify on his own behalf and surely will put on quite a show. Giannoulias’ other huge blunder, which adds gas to the “sketchy Chicago politician” charge, is that Giannoulias’ bank loaned convicted felon Tony Rezko a sizeable sum of change prior to his heading to the big house. And now this...
Giannoulias’ ties to the family bank are not insignificant. He has worked as a senior loan officer there and Giannoulias is among the banks owners. This was when he made the ill-fated Rezko loan. The news that Giannoulais’ bank, the one that provided capital to a gangster, might be seized by the FDIC in the middle of the election if it doesn’t get its act together in a hurry is just one more disaster for Giannoulias and one more opening for Kirk.