Obama Shilled For Granny Grifter

As Flying Debris pointed out earlier today the Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias was involved in an alleged mortgage fraud five years ago. 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. So thats great, when he was working at the family bank he saw the collateral of property in the 1100 block of West Washington St., just west of the traditional Greektown. However when on the witness stand Mr. Giannoulias had a revelation, hey maybe $165 per month is not reasonable for an 83 year-old woman to live on.

Mr. Giannoulias is currently the State Treasurer here in Illinois thanks to the effort of one Barack Hussein Obama, yep that guy who's running for President. Senator Obama (D-IL), spent considerable energy helping the campaign of Mr. Giannoulias, both during the primaries and the general election. This scandal was known during that time. The commenter on this post, an alleged North Side Serf pretty much summed it up nineteen months ago:

Mr. G is the personal pet, sorry, "candidate", of rock star senator Barak Obama. You know, Mr. Clean, voice of a new generation, blah, blah. There is NO WAY Obama, scion of Ricahrd II's Chicago dynasty and beloved of the patroage army that toils there, is clean of the filth of Chicago and Illinois politics, among the most corrupt in the nation. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Chicago Tribune had an interesting observation of Mr. Giannoulias, "(h)e appeared largely unruffled during about three hours of questioning, though he frequently could not remember details, often repeating, "Again, that was five years ago." Let me get this straight, the guy is in his first month of a new job at the family bank, he has a strong academic and athletic background (Boston U Cum Laude, Basketball), one would hope that this loan was an unusual loan, what with the bank fraud convictions, and the size of the loan at a bank that descries itself as a "Community Bank". Add to all of that, the public has known about this for some time so Mr Giannoulias has known about this brewing scandal for years and he still can't remember. I just don't buy the whole "I Know Nothing!" line that Mr. Giannoulias has been using in court, the guy isn't an idiot. Think about your first months or even years in different jobs, it's the odd things that stand out, like felons and 83 year-old ladies.

So what did Sen.Obama see in Mr Giannoulias? Well they both play basketball and they both excelled at universities in Boston. I will confess that I always figured that it was money, and that likely played a part. Fair or unfair that is the life of a politician. I will also state that during the 2006 election I found those Obama/Giannoulias commercials to be odd, after all we knew a lot about Giannoulias' Granny-Gate by that time; so what the heck was our Senator doing pushing this guy?

Welcome MyDD readers, this post from early January has a list of Obama posts on Flying Debris. Ms. Hu is correct, there is more out there, my list of posts is long and misses at least two subsequent posts and I'm not a professional.

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.

In this post I wrote:

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's Friend the "Granny Grifter" Will Speak in Denver

Obama's strange association with Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias will likely be ignored by the media but it is worth reviewing as Giannoulias will speak in front of the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Monday night. After grad school and a stint in the Greek professional basketball league Giannoulias went to work at his family bank, the Broadway Bank of Chicago, during his first few months at the bank he oversaw a $1 million loan to an 83 year-old woman who did not understand the documents but was aided in her understanding by her co-signers, one was a Michael “Jaws” Giorango, twice convicted of bookmaking and later charged with running a nationwide prostitution ring (financed by millions in loans from the Broadway Bank, there isn't any evidence that the bank knew that their previously convicted mobster client was back in business) another co-signer was a more run of the mill local mobster. The $1 million disappeared within days and the bank soon went after the collateral, the 80-something Grandmother's home.

I kid you not, a banker whose family bank had a relationship with a convicted mobster made a $1million loan to that man, another mobster and an 83 year-old woman who could not understand the documents, whose home was used as collateral and the bank went to court to take that home. This being Chicago, a local judge ruled that every "i" had been dotted and that every "t" had been crossed so Giannoulias' bank got the now 89 year-old Grandmother's home. During the court proceedings Giannoulias repeatedly plead ignorance, he claimed to have no memory of the transaction. He claimed that he had no memory of the transaction because he had just started on he job but that statement really begs the question, if you don't remember the transaction in which two convicted mobsters and a woman come into your office with an 83 year-old woman who couldn't understand the documents that pledge her home for the loan, what are you going to remember? If that had been your Grandmother imagine how you would feel about the guy whose actions were then helping to defraud your Grandmother out of her home as he runs for state wide office with the help of your "rock star" Senator (Obama was the major reason that the guy got elected to state wide office) and now that kid will speak in front of the Democratic National Convention. Imagine if that had been your Mother or your Grandmother.

Giannoulias is where he is because of the "rock star" support of Barack Obama:





We should all ask, is Obama where he is because of people like Giannoulias?


See more here and here.

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).

Obama Still Allied With Granny Grifter - Part II

According to Michael Sneed's Friday Chicago Sun Times column Barack Obama is continuing to use Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Gianoulias in his Presidential campaign. As Flying Debris has pointed out here, here, here, here, here, here and here, that as a private citizen Mr. Gianoulias was involved as a bank loan officer in a $1 million scam that could ultimately defraud an 87 year-old woman of her home near the edge of Chicago's Greek Town. Mr. Gianoulias was working for his family bank, the Broadway Bank of Chicago when the bank made the $1 million loan to a woman who could not afford to repay the loan (as Alexi admitted under cross examination), could not fill out the loan forms and who had felons as co-signers, including one convicted of bank fraud. The felons ended up taking the money and now the Gianoulias family bank is suing the woman to take her home.

Apparently the Gianoulias family bank had a previous relationship with one of the co-signers, Michael "Jaws" Giorango, including the mortgage they held on the Miami hotel that he used as part of a nation wide prostitution ring. Here's what the Sun Times found last year:

Earlier, Giannoulias also had tried to distance himself from the loans, saying they occurred in the 1990s, when he was not a full- time employee at the bank. But subsequent reports revealed that Giannoulias had overseen $11.8 million in loans to a firm run by Giorango and Stavropoulos last year when Giannoulias was senior loan officer. Some of that money was used to buy a riverboat casino marina in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

When the Broadway Bank sued the victim of the mortgage fraud and tried to take her home Alexi Gianoulias claimed in court that he did not remember most of the specifics of the loan in question. That is despite the fact that the loan involved an 83 year-old woman who could not fill out the forms and a couple of felons including a man convicted of bank fraud, one would hope that an arrangement like that is unusual enough to remember. Considering the millions of dollars involved it strikes me that there is a lot more here than we currently know.

Last month Alexi spent the better part of a week at the Obama Chicago Volunteer Headquarters doing some "phonebanking". Well Alexi has been trying to find a gym in Las Vegas so that he and Barack can play basketball before the Caucus Saturday morning. Here is what Sneed wrote Friday:

$$$: State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias was last spotted trying to set up a Saturday morning basketball game in Las Vegas so Barack Obama could loosen up on primary day.

Of course Alexi should help Barack, they're friends and Alexi owes his current position to Obama and his very strong "rock star" support for the Gianoulias candidacy while many of the specifics surrounding the fraudulent bank loan were publicly known. Flying Debris featured an Obama/Gianoulias commercial from 2006 in this post. This is another example of the caliber of the people around Obama, it is also an example of poor reporting by the press.

Obama Still Allied With Granny Grifter Part I.

Democratic Culture of Corruption: Illinois Dem Part of Mortgage Scam

The Illinois State Treasurer, Alexi Giannoulias testified in a mortgage fraud suit yesterday and he pulled the Sgt. Schultz Defense, "I know nothing, I see nothing, I say nothing!" Flying Debris wrote about Alexi the, ahem, banker here more than nineteen months ago. Alexi (if I may call him that) was once a loan officer at his family's bank, the Broadway Bank here in Chicago. While there he approved a loan that anybody with half of a functioning brain would have recognized as fraudulent. Mr. Giannoulias is a man who has supported and has received support from Democratic Presidential primary candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). Mr. Obama has received money from the Giannoulias' and he helped raise funds for this disgraceful man's State Treasury run.

Alexi agreed that his family bank would write a mortgage for get this, an 83 year-old woman who could not fill out the forms, who did not have the means to repay the loan and the loan was cosigned by people with a history of bank fraud, prostitution charges and bookmaking. One of the men in question is named Michael “Jaws” Giorango he is a man Alexi described as "a good person." Well the money is gone and somehow I doubt that the octogenarian went on a million dollar spending spree, rather I suspect that the mobsters who Alexi thought were good co-signers (especially the one with a record of multiple bank frauds) probably spent the funds.

To paraphrase Paul Simon (the musician not the late Senator) on the subject of Alexi Giannoulias - "still pimping, after all these years, still pimping after all these years," to the tune of Still Crazy After All These Years.

It is also notable that the blue-state Chicago Sun Times consigned the linked article that makes a local Democrat look terrible to page 8 while featuring Dennis Quaid, his lovely wife and the terrible story of his children on the front page.

Suburban Democrat Wants You - Dead

I try not to wander over to the pit of ignorance that is Ellen's Tenth... due to the fact that like petulant, spoiled third-graders they bring nothing to the table. Well the head dip Ellen Beth Gill has another in what must be an unending string of boring posts that blame Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) for everything bad that has ever happened to anybody Ellen has ever met, and her psoriasis. Only joking about the possible psoriasis, that may be the one thing that Ellen has not blamed on Congressman Kirk.

In this post from Wednesday I asked:

How many people should die in order for some of our fellow countrymen to not feel any discomfort? Would the allegedly virtuous among us trade the lives of the murdered Cantor Fitzgerald employees in order to make themselves feel better about themselves? How about the murdered employees of Marsh McLennan? How about the murdered employees of AON Insurance? How about the lives of the WTC janitors and support staff? How about the lives of all of those courageous firemen? How about the lives of the murdered Pentagon employees?


In that post I stated that the strange Democratic leader Harry Reid supported protecting those who would murder Americans in order to make himself and his fellow travelers feel more righteous about themselves. I guess that Ellen and her crew have been feeling a wee bit down about themselves lately (well, not just lately) and they need to buck themselves up by supporting terrorists. Lovely people.

While reading the drivel that passes for insight up in Ellen's hell it struck me that those folks have absolutely no clue concerning strategy of any sort. Not really a shock but notable. What are those people willing to do to protect Americans? Well, if we catch the culprits after they kill Americans the Democrats may be willing to make you pay for the terrorist's lawyers. Are they willing to make a terrorist uncomfortable for 35 seconds? No. Screw you. And screw yours.


Last week I wrote a few posts on the disgraceful Democratic Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias who ripped off an 83 year-old woman who did not qualify financially for the $1 million mortgage (as he admitted under cross examination), could not fill out a mortgage application while using a mortgage scam run through his family bank with the help of convicted mobsters. The mobsters have felony records including bookmaking, prostitution and one of them had been convicted twice of bank fraud. Mr. Giannoulias claimed "I know nothing" repeatedly in court. That strains credibility unless the Broadway Bank of Chicago is in the business of making loans to 83 year-old ladies and their mobbed-up associates in order to perpetrate frauds. Additionally the pompous Mr. Giannoulias was elected with the help of "squeaky clean" Barack Obama. Where is Ellen when her friends, with the help of their mob associates are ripping off senior citizens with mortgage scams and getting elected to public office with the help of Barack Obama? The last linked post even includes a Barack Obama commercial for the mortgage scam artist. Where is Ellen? Nowhere, that's where she is, nowhere.

She's a real nowhere girl
Living in her nowhere world
Making all her nowhere plans
For nobody

But I digress. This is the Democratic world in a nutshell: they will endanger your life and the lives of your friends and relatives so that they don't have to accept the world as it is. That might shatter their carefully crafted world of delusion. They live in a fantasy world where everything is wonderful except for that evil Bush (Kirk) who brought all of this Islamo-fascism to the world. If it weren't for Bush (Kirk) those jihadists would be making beautiful rugs for orphanages around this wonderful world of ours. Additionally the mortgage problems that we have been experiencing during the last year are the fault of Bush (Kirk). You know, he (they) own(s) property so it must be his (their) fault. The mortgage problems really, really, really have nothing to do with mortgage scams and frauds run by Democratic leaders. Heaven Forbid.

Barack Obama Supporter Involved in Mortgage Fraud

Not only has Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and his family supported Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) financially but Senator Obama returned the favor by helping Alexi, a banker to mobsters, get himself elected as State Treasurer. The Giannoulias family must have been ecstatic to get this sap off of the family payroll. Where does it stop with Obama's bad judgement?

See Flying Debris take on these two here, here, here and here.

Democratic “Star” Barack Obama Helped Mobster’s Banker

As commenter North Side Serf reminded me last night, Democratic star Barack Obama supported the alleged banker for mobsters Alexi Giannoulias to the extent that Sen. Obama appeared in TV ads that ran constantly during the weeks running up the election. In an editorial the Chicago Tribune comments that Barack received financial help from the Giannoulias family. Squeaky clean the guy is not; as North Side Serf rightly pointed out Mr. Obama came from the cesspool of the Illinois legislature. North Side Serf also beat the Tribune by several hours with that observation. I wonder, is it hard to be a pimp for mobsters?

Obama Brags About Past in Corrupt Legislature

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has been bragging about his time in the Illinois legislature, one of the most corrupt legislative bodies in the land. In a campaign speech Obama bragged that "I've been in elected office longer than John Edwards or Hillary Clinton," said Obama. "I've passed more bills I'm sure than either of them --certainly in the state legislative level."

No word yet from the Obama camp concerning the Senator's background with Tony Rezko. Just last night Obama was at a fund raiser thrown by another unsavory charachter, a former banker to some Chicago mobsters Alex Giannoulias.