Obama Still Allied With Granny Grifter - Part 1
Illinois Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama (D-IL) has continued his alliance with Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who recently testified in an outrageous lawsuit that centers on his actions while working at his family's business, the Broadway Bank here in Chicago. Mr. Giannoulias represented the bank five years ago as they made a $1 million loan to a woman in her 80s who could not fill out the loan agreement, in Mr. Giannoulias' own words she could not afford the loan that was co-signed by felons with convictions for bookmaking, prostitution and get this, bank fraud. This case was known during both the 2006 regular election and the primary election, despite knowledge of this outrage Senator Obama chose to put his own "rock star" name behind the candidacy of Mr. Giannoulias and frankly that endorsement is why Alexi was elected.
Mr. Giannoulias' family bank the Broadway Bank in Chicago made a $1 million loan to an 83 year-old woman who could not fill out the loan form and who was brought to the bank by two felons and another person. One of those men had twice been convicted of bank fraud. Mr. Giannoulias admits that he knew that the felons were involved and that in his own words "I'm not sure it would be a prudent loan." Well sure, the loan payments were $9,845 per month while the bank's own loan documents show that Ms. Billings had an income of about $10,000 per month.
This is an outrage because Mr. Giannoulias helped to facilitate the fleecing of an older woman and now his family bank is suing to take the woman's home. Additionally Mr. Giannoulias testified in court that he did not remember many of the issues surrounding the loan. So he doesn't remember anything about two felons and an elderly woman who couldn't fill out the loan forms who borrowed $1 million from his family bank. His testimony begs the question, is the guy incompetent or did he perjure himself? It also begs the question, what the heck kind of Community Banking is his family involved in? This case has been publicly known and the local media has largely ignored the issue and they have also ignored the involvement of Barack Obama in this man's career. What the heck is Senator Obama doing? Just this week the Obama campaign has continued to align itself with a man involved in that mortgage scam by featuring Mr. Giannoulias at the hometown Chicago campaign headquarters ("Chicago Volunteer Headquarters") in what the Chicagoist ironically described as "celebrity phonebanking" for the next few evenings.
The Granny-Grifter will be at Obama's "Chicago Volunteer Headquarters" Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and in another ironic use of the term "celebrity Phonebanking" Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) will join Giannoulias on Wednesday evening. The irony comes from the fact that during the months preceding Ms. Schakowsky's initial primary run to replace retiring twenty-four term congressman Sidney Yates her husband, Bob Creamer committed a massive check-kiting fraud that used multiple banks in three states in order to keep his salary as the head of a charity intact. Anne at the Backyard Conservative summed up Rep. Schakowsky pretty well just the other day.
This should be outrageous to anybody who has dealt with elderly family members, imagine if your mother or your grandmother was the victim of this scam involving mobsters and a politician. Barack Obama is just another part of the crooked Democratic scam politics that is Chicago.
Obama Still Allied With Granny Grifter Part II.
Obama Still Allied With Granny Grifter Part II.
Labels: Alexi Giannoulias, Barack Obama, Broadway Bank, Democratic Corruption, Democratic Party
posted by El Rider at 8:45 AM
1 Comments:
For me, this is the most serious issue concerning Alexi Giannoulias whom I enthusiastically supported for State Treasurer in 2006. Had I been aware of this situation at the time I would not have. I do not believe that Barack Obama was aware of this tragic situation either.
My support for Alexi was based on only one thing: the fact that he had been mentored and was being supported by Barack Obama. Alexi and his family had been very supportive of Obama in 2004 (at which time I was for another very substantial candidate). The official party choice for State Treasurer was a downstater.
I chose to go with Obama's pick solely for that reason --- the longterm strategic implications of Obama being able to exercise real political strength and influence.
Had I known about the Granny grifter case (Loren Billings is her name) I would have not supported Alexi and would have urged Obama to pull back his support.
Interestingly, this was a very good loan for the Broadway Bank to make, or any other bank for that matter. While it was obvious that Mrs. Billings had no real need for the money, nor could she pay it back, the loan was extremely well collaterlalized. While the building was indeed her 'home' it was much more than that. It was a large old commercial building which also housed the Museum of Holography and was within blocks of the Oprah Winfrey Harpo complex.
Even in today's market, the building is worth at least 2.5 million dollars.
Alexi acted in a very appropriate bankerly way, but did not exhibit the human qualities we have a right to expect in a public official. My support had been predicated on the basis that he was a bright, progressive,honest, fair knowledgeable and compassionate person. I was deluded and have become disilliusioned.
Interestingly,but not surprisingly, litigation occurred over this loan and Broadway Bank won, as they probably should have. The evidence aginst them was either hearsay or irrelevant. The evil grifters who were fleecing Mrs. Billings (by conniving her out of the loan proceeds) acted in a vacuum left by the inattention of close family relatives.
I knew Loren Billings' late husband. He was not a close friend at all, but had been a very close friend of one of my better if not best friends. I knew that Loren Billings was suffering from some kind of dementia or Azheimer's firsthand prior to her husband's death, but that could not be proven retroactively by hearsay.
In any event, I am sure that had Barack known of this specific incicdent he would not have supported Alexi, and those of us who did so because he had, would not have done so either.
There is an aspect of Obama that few people have noticed or mentioned. He uses but does not abuse people. He extracts what he needs and moves on.
Wright, Rezko, Ayers and others were never as important as they thought they were and Obama dealt with each carefully and appropriately. He does not throw people under the bus for light or transient causes; for example, read his speech on race in Philadelphia and then his remarks on Rev. Wright after the latter's press conference at the National Press Club.
Tom Roeser, my dear and longtime friend, thinks Obama is the worst President we've ever had. (How anybody could compete with George W., Bush #43, including Buchanan, Johnson or Fillmore is beyod my conprehension.)
In terms of what he confronted when he was elected both domestically and internationally, what he has done since, including his errors, I think he is the best President we have had since Lincoln, and before that only Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison are in his league (or he in theirs).
Alexi Giannoulias is Obama's most important mistake, but even so, in the long term scheme of things it does not rise above the radar.
This is not an anonymous comment. PHIL KRONE
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