LA Times: Bank at center of Rep. Waters inquiry has checkered past

View? Hell....the homes in the Colony are only 20 feet from the water.

I got to spend a weekend in a friends house there years ago. Just open the french doors, and go to sleep by the sound of the surf. Heaven on earth for those of us that love the ocean. The homes run from 12 to 30 million at about 2500 to 3500 sq. feet ;-)

HHHmmmm Is that the part that’s going to fall into the ocean when the “BIG” one comes? ;~)

Liz, pointing out that there was such abuse as this by a ‘minority bank’ is just “racist”! (/sarcasm)

I wonder how much of this information is actually going to be reported?

I did the hard part-——I put it all out there.

The rest is up to L/E.

If it does, a lot of rich liberals are going to meet their maker early ;-)

OneUnited Bank
100 Franklin St.
Boston MA 02110

2009 Employees: 130
2009 Revenues: $41M

The largest African-American owned and run bank in the US, OneUnited Bank was formed by the 2001 merger of Boston Bank of Commerce, Founders National Bank of Los Angeles, and People's National Bank of Commerce in Miami. After acquisition of Los Angeles' Family Savings Bank in 2002, OneUnited Bank operates about 10 offices that serve urban communities in California, Massachusetts, and Florida.

Since 2003, the bank has financed more than $500 million in loans, with about half that amount devoted to the development of low- to moderate-income communities. Loans for multi-family residential properties account for almost two-thirds of the bank's portfolio.

OneUnited Bank opened the first black-owned Internet bank in the country in 2006, to expand its presence beyond the brick and mortar branches in communities in which it operates.

Board Members

Title	Name	Add'l Info
Chairman and CEO	Kevin Cohee	JD, Harvard Law School MBA, University of Wisconsin Member Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Board Member, Boston Bank Of Commerce fmr. with Salomon Bros, Inc.
President and Director	Teri Williams	MBA., Harvard University Board Member, Greater Deliverance Ministries Inc. Board Member, The First Black-Owned Internet Bank fmr. with Blacks in Government
Director	J. Alan Rosen	MBA, NYU School of Business. Chairman and Treasurer, Century City Chamber of Commerce Treasurer, Beyond Shelter Board Member, Foundation for the Preservation of Film Music
Director	George A. Russell Jr.	MBA, NYU Stern School of Business Board of Advisors, Boston University State Street Corp. fmr. with City of Boston fmr. with Urban League stepped out from OneUnited board - March 2010
Director	Richard D. Carr	D.D.S. Board Member, Urban League Boston University School of Dental Medicine fmr. with Roxbury Medical and Dental Group
Director	John L. Sims
Director	Walter B. Prince
Director	Melvin B. Miller
Director	Leander J. Foley

State Street official left OneUnited. Resigned from board despite firm’s stake - BG, 2010 August 13, by Beth Healy

..... State Street spokeswoman Carolyn Cichon said the company had been surprised by the recent string of controversies surrounding OneUnited. “We had absolutely no knowledge of any of the allegations when we gave our investment,’’ she said. She was referring both to the ethics charges against US Representative Maxine Waters for helping OneUnited gain access to Treasury officials while her husband owned stock in the bank — and to media reports yesterday that OneUnited’s chief executive, Kevin Cohee, had faced drug and assault arrests in California.
State Street declined to comment on OneUnited or Cohee but said its support for the institution had not changed. None of the other OneUnited directors contacted yesterday returned calls seeking interviews.
Cohee, who has been on vacation and generally unavailable for the past two weeks as his bank was making national headlines, yesterday agreed to a lengthy interview, in which he defended his personal behavior and his bank’s reputation. He said the charges were dropped in the two arrests in a Santa Monica mansion the bank used to lease for him and insisted that he did nothing wrong.
According to the police reports, Cohee was arrested in April 2007 for sexual assault after an encounter with a woman other than his wife, who is president of OneUnited and serves on its board. A few weeks later, 17 police officers and detectives with a search warrant went to the mansion to investigate the assault claim. After a maid let them in, they found Cohee in the master bedroom, and a desk drawer full of cocaine, pipes, and other drugs.
Prosecutors dropped the assault allegations but not the drug charges. Cohee agreed to attend 12 of what he called “drug classes’’ in exchange for the charges being dismissed. He thought the deal would resolve the arrest quietly.
“That’s not what happened here,’’ Cohee said. “We made the decision as an expedient that I would go to these classes, ironically to avoid going to a trial. We certainly believe that we would have won the trial,’’ he said, but he had hoped to avoid the publicity. “I handled a difficult situation in the best way that I thought I could handle it at the time.’’ .....
No sooner did Cohee finish dealing with his legal problems, his bank was flailing. In August 2008, the bank lost $50 million when the federal government took over the sputtering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage agencies.
That September, the bank was asking Representative Waters for a meeting with the Treasury to ask for bailout money. By October, the bank was slapped with a cease-and-desist order by federal and state banking regulators for poor loan documentation and high pay and perks for executives.
Still, State Street came through with the $17 million. And in December, OneUnited got $12 million from the Treasury, as part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Waters and US Representative Barney Frank both say they did not know about Cohee’s arrests in California. .....
Frank, a Newton Democrat who runs the House Financial Services Committee, helped author the bill that enabled OneUnited and banks like it to get bailout funds. But yesterday he appeared to distance himself from the troubled bank. “I never told any regulator I wanted OneUnited or any other bank to get TARP money,’’ he said, adding, “At no point have I ever suggested any withholding of full regulatory scrutiny.’’
Meanwhile, OneUnited has made only one quarterly dividend payment on its TARP funds, because it’s still struggling financially. The bank lost $283,000 in the second quarter and set no money aside for loan losses, even though its nonperforming loans continue to grow. .....

I hear that, these days, Cohee has the affirmative action office of Harvard Law School on speed-dial.

OneUnited Bank Chairman and CEO, Kevin Cohee
JD, Harvard Law School
Board Member, Boston Bank Of Commerce
Formerly with Salomon Bros, Inc.

Thanks to Cong Maxine Waters, OneUnited Bank was bailed out with our tax dollars which helped finance a luxurious lifestyle for chairman and CEO Cohee, including a Porsche and a mansion on the exclusive Pacific Coast Highway.

Cohee's high-flying perks came despite his having been charged in 2007 with felonies after his arrest on suspicion of possessing cocaine, crack cocaine and concentrated cannabis, according to the LA County DA's office. The case was dismissed the next year after Cohee completed a drug diversion program.

Cohee was also arrested in 2007 after a woman filed a complaint alleging that Cohee had forcibly sodomized her, according to public records. Prosecutors did not pursue the assault charge. The Boston Herald quoted Cohee as saying that the arrest was "utter and complete nonsense that went nowhere."

US Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass),House Financial Services Committee chair, helped author the bill that enabled OneUnited Bank and low-performing banks like it to get taxpayers bailout funds. But yesterday he appeared to distance himself from the troubled bank. “I never told any regulator I wanted OneUnited or any other bank to get TARP money," he said, adding, “At no point have I ever suggested any withholding of full regulatory scrutiny."

EASY QUESTION FOR BWANEY If there was no withholding of full regulatory scrutiny, which of these regs screwed-over taxpayers?

TITLE I—TROUBLED ASSETS RELIEF PROGRAM (required 'Congressional Oversight' sections listed)
Sec. 101. Purchases of troubled assets.
Sec. 102. Insurance of troubled assets.
Sec. 103. Considerations.
Sec. 104. Financial Stability Oversight Board.
Sec. 105. Reports.
Sec. 107. Contracting procedures.
Sec. 108. Conflicts of interest.
Sec. 111. Executive compensation and corporate governance.
Sec. 116. Oversight and audits.
Sec. 118. Funding.
Sec. 119. Judicial review and related matters.
Sec. 121. Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Sec. 125. Congressional Oversight Panel.
Sec. 127. Cooperation with the FBI.
Sec. 129. Disclosures on exercise of loan authority.

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NOTEWORTHY OneUnited has made only one quarterly dividend payment on its TARP funds, because it’s still struggling financially. The bank lost $283,000 in the second quarter and set no money aside for loan losses, even though its nonperforming loans continue to grow.

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NOW HEAR THIS FWANKIE In HR 1424, there are enough rules, regs and CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT REQUIRED that not one Thin Dime should have been 'misspent.'

The $700B TARP Bailout is now being called, "A MASTERFUL DECEIT." Congress' phony outrage is a puzzlement. The fact is you people flagrantly violated the law by throwing tax dollars at this abominable bank....that had connections. You people screwed-over the taxpayers.

Ergo, by extorting tax dollars for OneUnited Bank, Bwaney and Waters can be charged with several felonies.

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

Democrat Culture of Corruption...(and drugs,sodomy,sexual assault and rape).

I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!

Thanks for the ping; post. Thanks to every researcher/educator/linker. OUTSTANDING thread! BTTT!

Ergo, by extorting tax dollars for OneUnited Bank, Bwaney and Waters can be charged with several felonies.

Thanks, Liz. BTTT!

Thanks for the post it looks like Cohee and his clan of felons may walk away from the new charge,po old black folk never get a break.No wonder the race card is dead.