Democratic Culture of Corruption: Illinois Democrats Run Alleged Mobster’s Banker for State Treasurer

The Illinois Democrats found themselves a real winner to run for State Treasurer. As a VP with his family’s bank he serviced the loans that they made to an alleged mob partnership, one guy had been convicted of bookmaking (twice) and prostitution (once). The candidate, thirty year old Alexi Giannoulias stated that one of the alleged mobsters, Michael “Jaws” Giorango “is a nice person.” Mr. Giannoulias has repeatedly lied to the press concerning his involvement with the seemingly mobbed-up real estate venture. He also states that he knew nothing about the men except that their collateral was “good.” Giannoulias, like so many Democrats, must think that the public is just a bunch of idiots. For decades Federal bank regulations have demanded that bankers “know their customers.” Those “know your customer” laws were beefed up in the wake of 9/11, meaning that Mr. Giannoulias may have broken the law and he may in fact be a complete ignoramus. I suspect that the Giannoulias family knew the character of the alleged mobsters pretty well; every time that I have gotten a mortgage the bankers pored over my firm’s books looking for inconsistencies, they also looked into my background. So yeh, these Democrats likely knew that who they were lending to; even if the family didn’t know, their kid has no business being in any business except the family business. He should lose their money. The obnoxious guy in me has to ask; if we elect this kid State Treasurer and the State gets into financial difficulty, what will he do, burn down the capital building in an insurance fraud? The Sun Times page 6 article can be found here. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Flying Debris has commented on the Democratic Culture of Corruption here and here. I must again note that corruption is a human frailty not necessarily specific to any American political party (Hello Ms. Pelosi).