Nov 08 2010

More On Pending White House Scandals

Published by at 8:36 am under All General Discussions

Major Update Below!

In this previous post I discovered FBI testimony by Valerie Jarrett and SEIU’s Tom Balanoff that confirmed then candidate and president-elect Obama’s efforts to seat Valerie Jarrett in Obama’s soon to be vacated Senate Seat. Thanks to some coincidence in timing (the latest installment from the White House Insider saga) and reader comments, I ran across what might be some more of the ice berg that is hitting the administration.

It seems there is another Obama-Jarrett issue about ready to burst – and it revolves around some very shady dealings regarding the now failed Shorebank and TARP money:

The demise of the politically connected ShoreBank has sparked yet another investigation — one that could spell trouble for FDIC chief Sheila Bair.

… including the role played by Bair in prodding Wall Street’s biggest firms, from Goldman Sachs (GS: 170.95 ,0.00 ,0.00%) to JPMorgan (JPM: 40.99 ,0.00 ,0.00%) to Morgan Stanley (MS: 27.27 ,0.00 ,0.00%), in donating tens of millions of dollars to prevent the bank, with close ties to the Obama administration, from failing.

ShoreBank did fail in August, with the FDIC taking over $2.16 billion in faulty assets, including risky investments in urban real estate, from the bank.

Officials on Wall Street have told the FOX Business Network that they felt political pressure from the Obama administration to contribute a total of about $150 million to recapitalize ShoreBank and the new institution. Valerie Jarrett, the president’s senior economic adviser has close ties to the bank, and the president himself has singled out the bank for praise for its community lending and for financing environmentally friendly green jobs. Jarrett has adamantly denied any involvement in the matter.

But now the FDIC’s IG is looking at what, if any, improper political pressure was put on Wall Street executives in trying to bail out ShoreBank, and in funding the Urban Partnership Bank, which could mean big trouble not just for senior administration officials but also for Bair, since she was on the front line in trying to convince top banking executives to cough up the money for the bailout during summer.

The fact we tax payers are now saddled with $2.6 billion in toxic assets while some at the bank are moving on to this new Urban Partnership Bank stinks. Why would the government award financial screw ups with a federally funded second chance? What would cause civil servants to risk their necks for this mess? Or did they even question why they were risking their necks? Was this young and inexperienced administration so naive and full of themselves they never once wondered if they were breaking serious laws?

There is a lot more back story about Shorebank here. The basic story is of a community bank trying (and succeeding) to help the community. It was a very laudable goal for many years. But with success comes unsavory opportunists, who can take a good thing and taint it with greed and impatience. Two of the later personalities involved with this bank closer to its demise are Barack Obama and George Soros.

Updates coming if I see something new. Keep an eye on the comments, our readers are quite knowledgeable!

Major Update: OK, this Janaury article really ties a lot of the Shorebank story together:

Why is Rep. Jan Schakowsky trying to use Illinois taxpayers’ money to bail out ShoreBank?

Rep. Schakowsky and fellow Illinois Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin, have pressured state officials to meet with the bank to discuss a $100 million bailout.

This would apparently be the first bank bailout by a state government–not just in Illinois, but in any state.

Why is Rep. Schakowsky only helping ShoreBank? After all, when the Bank of Lincolnwood failed last year, Rep. Schakowsky did not save it–and that bank, unlike ShoreBank, was in her own district.

Now that those are really good questions. Why is this bank so historic to get all this state-wide and national focus? Could the answer be:

Federal Election Commission records reveal that ShoreBank executives and employees gave thousands of dollars to Rep. Schakowsky and Sen. Durbin.

They also gave heavily to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Indeed, Crain’s Chicago Business reports that “President Obama and the first lady are former neighbors of ShoreBank executives.”

Other ShoreBank-related contributions include Democrats across the country and left-wing organizations such as MoveOn.org.

The ShoreBank bailout would seem to be more of the same Blagojevich-style, pay-to-play politics that Illinois has suffered under for too long.

Hmm. What would be a really good, stealthy kickback to get in return for massive donations, etc? Are there international investments that could turn $100K into $1 million dollars in less than 12 months?? How did this bank become so special as to get a federally backed second chance as the Urban Partnership Bank? Many more good questions here.

32 responses so far

32 Responses to “More On Pending White House Scandals”

  1. lurker9876 says:

    All of this was supposed to make lots of money for these guys…

    I think Glenn Beck also connected General Electric as part of this network.

    Time to buy those heatballs from China….and I do not want to buy General Electric. And I refuse to buy GM.

  2. Sabastian says:

    RE: Sebastian sadly represents one of the biggest problems we have – apathy. He has given up and quit. He has let the bad people win.

    I have not given up and I want to nail the bastards who have planned this Progressive Coupe for the last 40 years.

    My point is that selling a Senate seat for political contribution and future favors will not generate enough moral outrage to unseat a President. The Watergate break-in did not bring Nixon down; he crashed because he used the government to organized a cover up. Another example are the Birther nutcases. What if they found his Kenyan birth certificate? So what? Would anyone try to remove BHO now for a piece of paper? Look at the stink created by the Supreme Court saying that if Florida wanted to do a recount they had to recount all of the ballots. The Court decision was correct but Progressives and MSM have created an alternate mythology.

    If BHO is going to get caught up in a scandal it has to be big, include him personally and have a large “yuck factor”.

    It is my guess is ShoreBank is one of the keys. Why was there so much effort to keep it afloat? Why are ShoreBank Principals running another bank (Personally I wouldn’t let any of the Bankrupt Banksters use a ATM card.) The obvious answer is they know where the bodies are buried and have dirt and documentation on somebody important.

  3. stan25 says:

    The obvious answer is they know where the bodies are buried and have dirt and documentation on somebody important.

    Could that someone, quite possibility be George Soros? I know there has been things coming out about him being the power and financier behind Obama and his run for the Presidency. I have asked this question on other blogs in the past: How the Hell could a convicted felon have so much power in the United States? Even more troubling, is how he managed to get legal immigration status, with the same circumstances. Most people that immigrate here legally, are scrutinized to the day they were born and anyone that even has a traffic conviction are rejected. Soros has a major felony conviction for securities fraud and money laundering in France and the Feds let him in. Doesn’t make sense.

  4. AJStrata says:

    stan25,

    Off the top of my head and without any evidence I can think of an easy way for Soros to gain access – intelligence. That community lays down with fleas, and usually gets bitten. If Soros was providing key and rare intel, he could get lots of paperwork waived.

    Then later he could go rogue and no one could stop him given the dirt he had. A common spider web our leaders fall into.

  5. Redteam says:

    stan25, also the big factor in Soros case is MONEY. He has plenty and is using it to cause enough crisis’ to make even more.

    a few comments here:
    Sabastian: “The Watergate break-in did not bring Nixon down; he crashed because he used the government to organized a cover up.” Actually it was John Dean and Al Haig that used the government to organize the cover up to cover their (not Nixon’s) issues. (Dean was just trying to hide the fact his girl friend was a prostitute servicing the Dems) Nixon is guilty of not seeing what they were doing and allowed it to happen.
    Just trying to set the record straight.

    and: “Another example are the Birther nutcases. What if they found his Kenyan birth certificate? So what? Would anyone try to remove BHO now for a piece of paper?” True, who cares if Obama is a citizen of this country or not? Just because the constitution requires it doesn’t matter. Just a technicality.

    AJ, I’m really enjoying this series. I too am reading all I can and will certainly post any links of genuine interest.

    In the case of the bank failure, it appears that the owners of the new bank were just the owners of the old one that were allowed to write off 2 billion dollars on the tax payers only to have the government give it back to them for free. That’s the way most foreclosures work. when a property is foreclosed, it is usually snapped up for pennies on the dollar by whoever has first choice at getting it. Usually the rich owner of the bank. While the bank itself might lose a few dollars (which the government will pay back with mortgage insurance) the owner will benefit greatly. I have personally attempted to buy property being foreclosed to find it was actually ‘already sold’ prior to the actual auction at a ridiculously low price. (Therefore it didn’t even get brought up at the auction.)

  6. Sabastian says:

    Redteam: True, who cares if Obama is a citizen of this country or not? Just because the constitution requires it doesn’t matter. Just a technicality.

    His mother was an American citizen; so is he. John McCain was born in Panama. His father was a citizen and so is he. The Birther thing is pointless.

  7. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Cary D Conover, AJ Strata. AJ Strata said: new: More On Pending White House Scandals http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/15334 […]

  8. Redteam says:

    Sabastian, the constitution requires that the person be a natural born citizen. You clearly don’t know what that means.

    but as I said, who cares if we live by the constitution.

  9. AJStrata says:

    Redteam,

    It’s actually birthers who do not understand what a natural born citizen means. Simply put, if your biological mother is a US citizen, you are a US citizen.

    Please don’t go down that stupid rabbit hole again. It is a perfect way to let the Dems back in power by repulsing common sense centrists – who have no patience for that stuff.

  10. […] she is a slum lord with and across from the Olympic site in Chicago). There’s the issues of Shorebank and another Obama candidate for his senate seat – Congresswoman Schakowsky. And then there is the mother load trough from which to skim […]

  11. Redteam says:

    “Simply put, if your biological mother is a US citizen, you are a US citizen.”

    probably, but not necessarily.( depends on her age, and where she is at the time and maybe even if she is or is not married) But that certainly has nothing to do with being a “natural born citizen”

    For the record, I’m not a birther. I could not care less where Obama was born and\or who his mother or father are.

    I can’t believe all this hullabaloo about Rubio and\or Jindal being potential presidential candidates. Neither are natural born citizens.

    but who cares, it’s just a technicality.

  12. […] posts for a while, and they seemed to be legit – if not stubbornly useless (see here, here and here). One reason I was starting to believe the yarn being spun by the niche web author and a […]