Broadway Bank’s Failure A Twin Blow For Giannoulias

Broadway Bank, the family-owned lender that helped launch U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias' political career, was seized by government regulators Friday night, one of seven Illinois institutions taken over and sold to healthier companies.

The failure of Chicago-based Broadway, which was unable to raise the $85 million it needed to remain independent, was anticipated, and its worsening health has weighed on Giannoulias' Democratic bid for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. The bank had been struggling in recent years with real estate loans gone bad, losing $75 million last year.

Giannoulias worked for his father at Broadway before entering politics, and during his successful run for state treasurer in 2006 he used his banking experience as one of his chief qualifications. But in the Senate race, he has tried to distance himself from the bank's troubles.

$$$$

AG FOUNDATION INC
5948 N BROADWAY ST
CHICAGO, IL 60660
EIN: 61737590

Contact Person: ALEXANDER GIANNOULIAS

(A not-for-profit charity that donates money to treat child-related illnesses, curb poverty and assist disaster relief organizations. The foundation has benefited many charities, including those assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina.)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2467531/posts

(HT: rator22)

Last Friday, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the Giannoulias family stood to collect more than $10 million in federal tax refunds even if the bank does fail. “It’s quite likely the bank will fail,” the Chicago Tribune reported Giannoulias as saying last Wednesday, unless “they can raise the capital to keep the bank going,” an amount estimated at $85 million.

As sole owner of a Subchapter S corporation that controls $1.2 billion-in-assets Broadway, the family pays the taxes on the bank’s income and reaps tax deductions on its losses. Giannoulias did not say if the family would put the $10 million back into the bank as a start.

Giannoulias was senior lender at Broadway between 2002 and 2006, before winning election as Illinois treasurer in 2006. He stepped down from operational duties after deciding to run for public office. The expected tax refund comes on top of $70 million in dividends the family, including Giannoulias himself, took in 2007 and 2008.

As Chicago Tribune political writer Rick Pearson has reported, Alexi Giannoulias was very much an integral player in helping Barack Obama get seed money for his 2004 U.S. Senate race. He provided entree to Chicago’s Greek community. In return, Obama in 2006 warmly endorsed Giannoulias: “He’s one of the most outstanding young men that I could ever hope to meet. He’s somebody who cares deeply about people.”

(no links)

Banker vies for treasurer
State Journal-Register, The (Springfield, IL) - Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Author: MARY MASSINGALE STATE CAPITOL BUREAU

EXCERPT

Giannoulias has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama , D-Ill.; U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago; Chicago Ald. Richard Mell, Blagojevich’s father-in-law; and state Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, who recently pondered running for the treasurer’s post.

Giannoulias said he stood unswayed by the lack of support from Madigan and Blagojevich.

Davis lends support
Melrose Park Herald (IL) - Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Alexi Giannoulias , Democratic candidate for state treasurer, has been endorsed by U.S. Congressman Danny Davis, D-7th.

(snip)

Congressman Davis joins U.S. Sen. Barack Obama , Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and a host of other elected officials, including state Sens. Kwame Raoul and Ricky Hendon; state Reps. Will Davis, Robin Kelly, David Miller, Marlow Colvin and Ken Dunkin; and Aldermen Emma Mitts, Howard Brookins, Toni Preckwinkle, Leslie Hairston and Anthony Beale, who have already endorsed Giannoulias ‘ campaign for state treasurer.

Davis said he thinks Giannoulias would be the best state treasurer when it comes to investing in neighborhoods that are in dire need of attention. Specially, Davis said, he will work with Giannoulias to invest in banks that will give loans to minority and women-owned businesses.

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) - Friday, February 10, 2006
Author: Erin Calandriello Daily Herald Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD - Of the millions donated to Illinois politicians, it’s a mere $5,000.

But this cash donated to a Democrat hoping to become Illinois’ treasurer comes with the makings of a TV murder mystery: It’s from a Florida casino fleet owner whose uncle was gunned down in an execution-style slaying after selling the gambling fleet to a group that included indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

What’s more, the candidate, Alexi Giannoulias of Chicago, happens to own a stake in a Chicago bank where the donor owes $4.8 million.

Giannoulias says there’s nothing wrong with the donation - it’s simply a gift from a fellow Greek.

The donation came from Spiros Naos in December. Naos owns SunCruz Casinos, which operates several gambling cruise ships, mostly in Florida.

Naos became owner after his uncle was gunned down in 2001, in what authorities called an execution-style slaying that remains unsolved. The murder occurred shortly after the fleet was sold to a business group that included Abramoff, who has set Washington politics asunder since pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion and agreeing to cooperate with authorities.

But the Abramoff group fell on hard times quickly and SunCruz filed for bankruptcy within months. Abramoff and his business partner since have been charged with defrauding lenders who backed the casino purchase. Enter Naos, who in 2004 led an investment group that paid $36 million for the casinos.

(snip)

Machine’s shadow creeps over Obama
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Sunday, November 5, 2006
Author: Carol Marin, The Chicago Sun-Times
It would have been one thing if Barack Obama had given Todd Stroger a one-armed hug. But a wet sloppy kiss?

This past week Senators Obama and Dick Durbin signed a letter endorsing the candidacy of young Todd so that he might follow in his father’s footsteps and become the next president of the Cook County Board.

This has been one of the sadder sagas in Chicago political history. And Obama , America’s audacious knight in shining armor, deprives us of the very hope he likes to talk about in his speeches and his books.

(snip)

YOUNG TODD?

He was, by most Springfield accounts, often missing in action, uninterested when he was around, and about as passionate about his legislative duties as he now seems to be about this current race. Not.

Obama actively ran for the state Senate in 1996 while Stroger was appointed to the House in 1992 in a deal engineered by his father, John. Obama took some real chances in his pursuit of higher office, including a disastrous run for Congress against incumbent Bobby Rush in 2000.

Stroger didn’t take chances, just orders from his dad and other ward bosses. In 2001 he was appointed by Mayor Daley as 8th Ward alderman and has been in City Council ever since. His record there is as undistinguished as it was in the Legislature.

And the shame, the absolute shame of this election, is that it was stolen from the voters by those same ward bosses who kept the public in the dark about John Stroger’s health until it was too late for any independent, like County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, to file for the November election. That sleight of hand guaranteed that young Todd could be appointed to take his dad’s place on the ballot. A legal but totally lousy move.

If Obama wants to endorse Todd Stroger in the race against Republican Tony Peraica, he should be a lot more candid about why. It’s not because of Stroger’s “progressive” politics. It’s not because the Stroger family supported his past primary races for Congress or U.S. Senate. They didn’t. It’s because Obama isn’t going to cross Daley Democrats or the African-American community that handed him his lunch in his loss against Rush six years ago.

But Obama is not audacious enough to tell us that.

JUDGING FAMILY TIES

Jill Cerone Marisie, the granddaughter of the late convicted mobster Jackie “The Lackey” Cerone, is about to be elected a Cook County judge from the 13th Subcircuit. A Republican from Inverness, she has no opposition in next week’s election and will proceed directly to the bench.

Although the Chicago Council of Lawyers found her “not qualified” and the Chicago Bar Association, citing insufficient legal experience, said she was “not recommended,” Marisie won the primary anyway against four other male opponents.

Her grandfather was a major mob henchman for the late Anthony “Big Tuna” Accardo and an associate of mobster Donald “The Wizard of Odds” Angelini. No one suggests Marisie or her father, Jack P. Cerone, is an operative of organized crime. There is, however, a certain family pride in the patriarch. Photos of Jackie the Lackey are prominently featured at his son’s suburban restaurants.

Mob connections have been an issue in the November election. Alexi Giannoulias, Democratic candidate for state treasurer, has been grilled about loans his family’s Broadway Bank has given to convicted mob associates though the loans were not illegal. Giannoulias’ brother George is a donor to the Marisie campaign.

State Sen. Wendell Jones (R-Palatine) also supports Marisie, saying he checked her out and found her “outstanding.”

Being a judge in Illinois is virtually a job for life. Not one judge in 10 years has lost a bid for retention, so Marisie could have a long career. Though I never succeeded in reaching her, I was curious about a couple of things. Among her campaign donors are individuals with familiar last names. One of them is “Accardo.” Another is “Angelini.”

(snip)

Ut, oh--Alexi's got a foundation? A politician w/ a foundation has a license to steal.

AG FOUNDATION INC---Contact Person: ALEXANDER GIANNOULIAS
(A not-for-profit charity that donates money to treat child-related illnesses, curb poverty and assist disaster relief organizations. The foundation has benefited many charities, including those assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina.)
5948 N BROADWAY ST
CHICAGO, IL 60660
EIN: 61737590

Can the charities the AG Foundation benefited WRT child-related illnesses, poverty, disaster relief, victims of Hurricane Katrina show where they spent the AG Foundation money? Oh never mind, the GAO, SEC, DOJ, FBI, IRS and FEC can find out.

====================================

The IRS has pinpointed tax-exempt non-profits as the locus classicus for money laundering and tax evasion (stolen money is taxable). The biggest frauds are tax-exempts writing checks to other tax-exempts---the way these "altruistic do-gooders" siphon off, then launder, tax-free monies for themselves.

Charges might include: fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy and concealment, and criminal civil rights violations. It is also possible that federal offenses have also been committed, including, but not limited to;

Title 18 U.S.C. §1341, Mail Fraud,
18 U.S.C.§1001, Presenting a False Document to the an Agent of the United States Government;
18 U.S.C.§1027 False statements and concealment of facts in relation to documents required by the 1974 ERISA and other possible offenses including civiland/or criminal RICO violations.
18 U.S.C. §§1961-68 (RICO Act), and,
18 U.S.C. §241 (Conspiracy Against Civil Rights).

A full investigation of a RICO conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. §1962(c) is warranted because (1) the defendant persons (2) were employed by or associated with an enterprise (3) could have been engaged in, or affected, interstate commerce and that (4) the defendant persons operated a non-profit (5) perhaps through a pattern (6) of racketeering activity, and (7) others could have been injured in business or property by reason of the pattern of racketeering activity. Thus, a formal RICO investigation is warranted.

Could be a violation of Title 18 U.S.C. §241 – Conspiracy Against Constitutional Rights – which prohibits in relevant part, “two or more persons (from conspiring) to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory,Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same . . .” See, Criminal Code 18 U.S.C. §241.

========================================

EMAIL enforcement@SEC.gov

IRS should be made aware of tax fraud and tax law violations (stolen money is taxable).
IRS TOLL-FREE 1-800-829-0433 ----You may remain anonymous.

FBI TIP PAGE http://tips.fbi.gov/ (you may remain anonymous)

http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Butt_Fawad_-214233.aspx

Fawad Butt is the chief executive officer of Zeus Capital Advisers (ZCA), a company he founded to help create and manage businesses by offering Shariah-compliant alternatives to traditional investment vehicles.ZCA is currently developing the first national retail banking institution to focus on the needs of the more than seven million Muslims living in the United States.Prior to founding ZCA, Butt was chief operating officer at Chicago-based Sunrise Equities.There, he created strategic alliances with regional financial institutions including MB Financial, Cole Taylor Bank, Broadway Bank, and Mutual Bank to facilitate more than $100 million in transactions using Shariah-compliant financial products.Butt holds a postgraduate diploma in Islamic Finance from the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance, London.

(no link)

Sunrise plans to bring Lagrange to Uptown
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Author: David Roeder, The Chicago Sun-Times
Fawad Butt , chief operating officer of Sunrise Development Group, admits that it didn’t take a lot of brains to make money in real estate the last few years. If you built it, the buyers came. But now he believes product niches and unique approaches will be needed to succeed, so that’s the course he’s charted for his young, Rogers Park-based company.

Butt has three residential deals in the works, including one that will bring highly regarded architect Lucien Lagrange to Uptown. Sunrise is finalizing a zoning deal with the city that will permit it to build 179 units in a Lagrange-designed complex in the 4700 block of North Clarendon, across the street from Weiss Memorial Hospital. The project includes an 18-story building, plus low-rise segments.

Lagrange, known for both modern and classical buildings, has been hired to take the modern approach, Butt said.

Sunrise’s other deals, further in the planning stages, are a 13-story condo building due up at 24 S. Morgan, and a five-story complex planned at 2215 W. Madison. For the Morgan Street building, which will have 75 units, Butt is putting a little dash in the marketing.

He’s promising a building with the feel of a boutique hotel, including a lounge reserved for residents, complete with big-screen TVs and billiards. How that will work for the condo association destined to take over the building, and decide whether to employ bartenders, remains to be seen. Butt said buyers crave “a central point of interaction” in new buildings, a place to hang out when they don’t want to head out.

Working with architects Weiss & Associates, Butt is offering a contemporary design, an L-shaped structure he said is meant to contrast with the “brick boxes” of the West Loop. The building, marketed as Pure, is expected to have prices ranging from $240,000 to $525,000.

Butt hopes the Madison Street building, with 52 units, will have a similar cutting-edge appeal. That would fit for the neighborhood, which is on the fringe of what many buyers consider safe and respectable. Other projects are under way nearby, however, so a turnaround is gaining momentum. In time, the neighborhood construction will take away some of those United Center parking lots, which have a deadening effect along Madison. Game parking could become harder, though.

Marketing for Sunrise’s West Side projects is expected to begin early next year.

(snip)

Crescent Bancshares retains Zeus Capital Advisers (ZCA) to help develop a multi-ethnic bank in Chicago

01.11.2010 – Zeus capital advisers (ZCA) announces an ongoing agreement with Crescent Bancshares Corp. to develop a multi ethnic banking network in the Chicago market.

Headquartered in Chicago, ZCA is a full-service strategic consulting firm, helping clients deliver on complex financial services institutions and products. Services include, mergers and acquisitions, de novo bank (new bank formation), management recruiting, product development and overall program management.

ZCA is currently the only organization in the U.S. providing end-to-end Islamic financial solutions. The firm helps develop, consult and manage businesses offering Shariah-compliant alternatives to traditional investment vehicles.

“Crescent Bancshares is very excited to be working with the ZCA team” said Jeff Kulenovic, the bank president for the Crescent project. “ZCA has led the effort to define and deliver the overall initiative for the investor group.” Continued Mr. Kulenovic.

The ZCA team began the initial research in August 2008, and quickly assembled a team of fourteen initial contributors with over 300 years of combined professional experience.

“ZCA consultants, helped the bank group in charting out a project plan with aggressive timelines and deliverables” said Mark Whitney, one of the fourteen initial contributors. “We hired a management team, finalized the business plan, engaged the banking regulators, identified acquisition targets, conducted due diligence and are on our way to raising capital without a hitch. ZCA led the effort and kept the team engaged on all major decisions” continued Whitney.

“The Crescent group represents a highly experienced set of individuals with diverse professional backgrounds. Many come from fortune 100 companies, and are accustomed to a very methodical project delivery approach.” Said Fawad Butt, the managing partner at Zeus Capital Advisers. “It was critical for the ZCA team to deliver a client experience commensurate with the group expectations” continued Mr. Butt.

Under the terms of the current agreement, the two companies will collaborate on a multi ethnic institution development, in the Chicago area. ZCA will provide ongoing support to the Crescent Bancshares Corporation, and will be tasked with delivering a set of Islamic banking products for the new bank.

Zeus Capital Advisers
5600 N River Rd Suite 800
Des Plaines, IL 60018
(847) 260-5355
http://www.zeuscapitaladvisers.com/

http://www.openpr.com/news/40012/Inaugural-Islamic-Finance-Seminar-in-Chicago-Attracts-Key-Industry-Leaders.html

Inaugural Islamic Finance Seminar in Chicago Attracts Key Industry Leaders
Business, Economy, Finances, Banking & Insurance
Press release from: Zeus Capital Advisers
PR Agency: Talbott PR
(openPR) - Industry experts, academic scholars and members of the general public attended Chicago’s first conference on Islamic finance, held on Thursday, March 13. Hosted by DePaul University’s College of Commerce, “The Islamic Finance Seminar: Opportunities for Growth in the Modern Financial Age” explored a variety of topics including Sharia-compliant financial and investment vehicles for both consumers and institutions.

“Chicago has quickly become a focal point in the Islamic finance sector,” said Fawad Butt, founder and managing partner at Zeus Capital Advisers. “The seminar was an outstanding opportunity to gather many of principle players in the industry, and discuss the successes, challenges and opportunities in Islamic finance”

Organized by Zeus Capital Advisers and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), the seminar helped fund ISPU’s “Muslim Wealth Project.” The study will provide further information and insight on Muslim finances by examining the type of purchases they make, charitable donations, financial investments, retirement planning, and property ownership. The study will also attempt to measure the demand and adoption of Sharia-compliant financial products. Participants will be asked to specify the most needed and desirable Sharia compliant products and services unavailable in the U.S market place today.

“The ‘Muslim Wealth Project’ will help members of our community, as well as the businesses that serve them,” said Fakhia Rashid, director of development for ISPU. “This information is critical the Islamic finance community to understand their consumers, and ultimately, provide better and better products and services for them.”

According to Karen Hunt, professor and founder of the Islamic finance class at DePaul University, the Islamic finance industry currently has assets in the range of $500 to $800 billion. Hunt expects this number to triple by 2015, and reach nearly $3 trillion.

Panelists at the seminar included: Fawad Butt, Zeus Capital Advisers; Fakhia Rashid, ISPU; Karen Hunt; DePaul University; Salman Ibrahim, SunRise Development; Omer Ahmed; Abaris Capital Advisers; Amjad Quadri, University Bank; David Loundry, Devon Bank; Nasser Nubani, Zayan Finance; Junaid Afeef, Zayan Finance; Tariq Al-Rifai, UIB Capital, Inc.; Bradley P. Summers, Merrill Lynch; Mushtaq Hussain, Saturna Capital Corp.; and Yusuf Hai, CIG Corp.

For more information on ISPU and sponsorship opportunities for the “Muslim Wealth Project,” please contact Fakhia Rashid at frashid@ispu.org or by phone at (847) 962-9077. You can visit ISPU on the Internet at www.ispu.org. For more information on Zeus Capital Advisers, visit www.zeuscapitaladvisers.com or e-mail Fawad Butt at fawad@zeuscapitaladvisers.com.

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