Senate candidate (Alexi Giannoulias) faces bank seizure

In 2004, the Republican nominee for the open Illinois Senate seat, Jack Ryan, had to withdraw after having his divorce records exposed over the summer, revealing some rather exotic lifestyle choices. That left the Illinois GOP with only Alan Keyes in a carpetbagging bid to beat a junior state Senator making his second run at Capitol Hill for the Democrats … and we all know how that turned out for Illinois, and the nation. Now the shoe may be on the other foot, as the Democratic nominee admits that the feds may have to seize his family bank due to bad business decisions (via Big Gov’t):

Giannoulias’ family bank, Broadway Bank, once one of the most profitable banks in Illinois, is now on the verge takeover by the FDIC. On January 26, 2010, Broadway Bank entered into a consent decree with the FDIC that orders Broadway to raise at least $50 million in capital and imposes strict controls on how the bank operates.

Broadway bank’s poor financial situation is due to hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that went bad. In addition to the bad loans, the Giannoulias family withdrew $70 million from the bank in 2007 and 2008, more than twice the bank’s profits in those years.

Giannoulias served as the chief loan officer of Broadway Bank from 2002 to 2006. During that time, Broadway’s lending in risky construction and development loans increased sixfold, to $356 million. During Giannoulias’ tenure, Broadway also sharply increased its brokered deposits or “hot money”, which generally command much higher interest rates, and thus are more expensive for the bank. When Giannoulias left the bank in 2006, brokered deposits made up 80% of all deposits at Broadway.

Giannoulias made millions of dollars in loans to Tony Rezko, a political fundraiser for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich who has been convicted of fraud and money laundering. He also loaned money to Michael “Jaws” Giorango, a suspected mob figure who has convicted for prostitution and bookmaking.

Giannoulias also expanded on his previous explanation for $69 million in dividend payouts that he has said were part of settling his father’s estate after his death in June 2006.

Giannoulias said $40 million was used to pay income taxes for him and his family, the bank’s sole shareholders. The remaining $29 million was paid out to the family as part of his father’s wishes to diversify their assets beyond the bank, he said.

Reiterating previous statements that only 9 percent of the non-performing loans now on Broadway’s books were initiated during his tenure, Giannoulias at first said the 9 percent was based on the number of loans, not their value. His campaign later clarified the figure represented the value of troubled loans.

In answering questions about Broadway’s loans to convicted bookmaker Michael Giorango, Giannoulias said Giorango had a relationship at the bank before he worked there full time in 2002. Giannoulias told the editorial board he was unaware of Giorango’s criminal history at the time of the loans, although he acknowledged in a 2006 Tribune story that he was aware of Giorango’s problems.

A campaign spokeswoman said later Wednesday that Giannoulias wasn’t aware of the full extent of Giorango’s criminal problems when Broadway approved the loans.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-alexi-giannoulias-0304-20100303,0,7903350.story

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