Stolen for the chicago crime thread.... Where corruption is linked and linked and linked......
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2469634/posts
Boston Blackie’s owners arrested in check-kiting scheme (Illinois Senate Race)
Chicago Breaking News ^ | 3.12.10
Posted on Friday, March 12, 2010 12:24:48 PM by Thebaddog
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.
Giannis, 62, his son, Chris, 38, and restaurant manager Andy Bakopoulos, 38, were charged with defrauding Charter One and Washington Mutual banks. Chris Giannis also was charged with two counts of being an organizer of a continuing financial crimes enterprise. Nick Giannis was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Detroit while attempting to enter Canada after he failed to surrender to authorities and investigators sent out a nationwide alert.
Prosecutors said the men participated in a so-called check-kiting scheme in which they wrote checks from bank accounts that didn’t have enough money and deposited those checks at Charter One and Washington Mutual. They then withdrew money from their Charter One and Washington Mutual accounts before the checks actually cleared, or in some cases stopped payments on the checks.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagobreakingnews.com ...
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2469973/posts?page=5
Broadway Bank, owned by U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias’ family, was defrauded in an alleged check-kiting scheme by the owners of a popular Chicago restaurant, Boston Blackies.
Nick Giannis and his son, Chris, are charged with stealing nearly $2 million.
Chris posted bond and was released Friday from Cook County Jail. His father Nick remains jailed in Detroit.
Alexi Giannoulias said Friday in a statement he was “shocked and appalled” at the arrests Thursday of principals in the Boston Blackies restaurant chain.
Thirty-eight year-old suspects Chris Giannis and Andy Bakopoulos were picked up in Chicago while Blackies founder 62-year-old Nick Giannis was detained in Detroit allegedly trying to leave the country.
Giannoulias reportedly has known the elder Giannis and son for decades. Not only has Nick Giannis donated $119,000 to Giannoulias’ campaigns for treasurer and the U.S. Senate, the Giannoulias family’s troubled Broadway Bank has made business loans to the Boston Blackies chain.
(Excerpt) Read more at abclocal.go.com ...