Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Alvin Boutte, Jr., the adviser who encouraged the state to invest in Democrats’ beloved ShoreBank as it was failing, has agreed to pay a fine, to have his securities license suspended, and to work under “heightened supervision” in the securities industry for the next year.

The ShoreBank scandal erupted in 2010 as Chicago Democrats, particularly Rep. Jan Schakowsky, tried to bail out the bank using any means necessary–whether federal, state, or private money. The bank’s closure was delayed several times–evidence, critics charged, of preferential treatment from the Obama administration.

Eventually, under pressure from the Tea Party and the media, a bailout was averted and federal regulators moved in.

Curiously, the bank’s management was permitted to buy ShoreBank’s serviceable assets and reconstitute the failed institution as Urban Partnership Bank, while taxpayers were obliged to carry the cost of dispensing with the rest.

Boutte’s involvement occurred during the tenure of former Illinois state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the Chicago Democrat and alleged “mob banker” who lost to Mark Kirk in the race for U.S. Senate in 2010, who was also blamed for losing hundreds of millions of dollars in parents’ tuition savings in a fund that invested in sub-prime mortgages. Boutte had donated to Giannoulias’s Senate campaign.

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The retrial of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich has been delayed until April, which will put it after the February 22 mayoral election in which a certain White House former Chief of Staff will be running.

It’s almost certain that Blagojevich’s lawyers will seek to subpoena Rahm Emanuel or at the very least depose him over certain conversations involving the ”negotiations’ over the appointment to Barack Obama’s old senate seat, which the president was reportedly seeking for presidential adviser and long time Chicago crony Valerie Jarrett. Rahm was subpoenaed as a defense witnesses by the defense at Blago’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury, but he was never called.

Of course, by April both the midterms and the mayoral election will both be over, which ought to give a little relief to another prominent Democrat, Alexi Gianoullias whose family owned Broadway Bank was just closed by the Feds amid what can only be called massive ‘irregularities’. And who’s now running for the same senate seat in a hotly contested election.

The feds have Blagojevich’s ex-chief of staff John Harris on tape telling Blagojevich in November, 2008 right after the presidential election that “Alexi called me.” Harris told Blago that Giannoulias “wants to meet with me a few minutes this afternoon. He says it’s . . . I said what’s it about? He says the (Senate) seat, ‘but not for me, for someone else’.”

While Harris claims he never met with Giannoulias, who is a long time friend, fundraiser and supporter of Obama (and along with Obama, a mutual pal of convicted financier Tony Rezco) right after the phone call a meeting was set up between between Valerie Jarrett and Illinois labor leader and Blagojevich supporter and confidant Tom Balanoff, to discuss the vacant senate spot.

That could mean that Jarrett went to the White House afterwards – which would have meant getting Rahm Emanuel involved – and asked them to ‘bid’ for her if this is the way things went down.That could make for some interesting testimony if Emanuel is grilled by Blago’s lawyers this time around.Especially since the feds have Emanuel on tape in various conversations with Blagojevitch and Harris.

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From 1998 to 1999, Alexi Giannoulias played professional basketball in Panionios B.C. Greece. That part we already knew.

But one thing we still don’t know is how an American with Greek citizenship was able to live in Greece without being drafted into the Greek military.

Under Greek law, all citizens must serve in the military once they turn 18. Much like in Israel, Greek citizens will perform a period of military service after high school.

Alexi Giannoulias was a college graduate when he came to Greece – an age meeting the requirement for military service. So how did he get around the requirement?

With many Americans holding dual Greek citizenship travelling to Greece, U.S. Embassy, Athens details the Greek government’s requirements for military service on its website.

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As the August 6th bailout deadline approaches, when the federal government must either give ShoreBank $75 million or take it over entirely, new evidence is emerging about ShoreBank’s connections to Chicago politicians.

The latest revelations raise new questions about the possible role of Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is also the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in the upcoming November election.

Alexi Giannoulias (D) - Source: Crain's Chicago Business

Shortly after Giannoulias took office in 2007, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), a state-run college fund, invested $12.7 million in ShoreBank. Some of ISAC’s funds came from parents who invested in Bright Start, a program to help them save for their children’s college tuition.

As of this week, according to Crain’s Chicago Business, ISAC’s ShoreBank stake has lost over 80% of its value–which not even a bailout will restore.

The $12.7 million investment was ISAC’s “first and only direct investment in a privately held company,” according to Daniels. Furthermore, ISAC’s investment made the tuition program the single largest shareholder in ShoreBank.

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More rough tactics were on display last night in Washington DC as a hotheaded campaign workerfor the Alexi Giannoulias campaign for Senator of Illinois confronted a man with a video camera at a fundraising event.

The event took place on the rooftop of an apartment building in Washington DC which is a public space for residents of the building and their guests.  The unidentified camera man has stated that he was, in fact, the guest of a friend of his who lives in the building.  Even if one stipulates that the campaign had the right to the section of the roof that was set aside for the event, the way in which the situation was handled certainly calls into question the judgement and temperment of the people candidate Giannoulias surrounds himself with.

As seen earlier this week in the outrageous response by Rep. Bob Etheridge to two college students with cameras who asked him if he supported “The Obama Agenda”, Democrats seem more and more reactionary when they see a person with a video camera near by.  In the words of a seasoned DC insider:  ”The heat is on.”

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It takes a special ad to get a candidate for Senate so upset they hire lawyers to censor it. But that is what is happening in Illinois as the Alexi Giannoulias campaign has unleashed its lawyers on television stations who have been carrying this ad:

The facts of the ad are indisputable but not to Alexi Giannoulias and his trial lawyer buddies. They sent this letter to the stations demanding censorship because they claim the FDIC bailout of the Giannoulias family owned bank was not a “bailout.”

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Despite its deep blue hues, Illinois is poised for a Republican pick up this November as Democrat Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias is neck deep in scandal. This remarkable ad is running statewide in Illinois and in 30 seconds shows why the Democrat party has destroyed this great state over the past 30 years.

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Reporting on politics, “The Chicago Way.”

The Illinois Senate race is shaping up to be a high-profile and influential campaign that will have national implications. Not only because Illinois is the most populated state in the mid-west, but also because the seat up for grabs is President Obama’s former seat. If Republican candidate Rep. Mark Kirk, were to win the seat it would be seen as an enormous PR loss for the White House.

The Democratic nominee, Alexi Giannoulias has been under fire because of the failiure of Broadway Bank and his direct connection to it. Believe it or not, there are suspicions of corruption, incompetence and graft with regard to a Democrat in Chicago. Go figure! (more…)

From the Associated Press:

Regulators shut down the bank owned by Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ family on Friday, setting up an expected but daunting challenge in his bid to keep President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat in Democratic hands.

Broadway Bank, which was heavy into real estate loans and lost $75 million last year, had been given until Monday to raise about $85 million in new capital, but the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced at the close of business Friday that Broadway was among four banks, all in Illinois, that had failed.

Giannoulias, 34, worked at the bank as a senior loan officer until he ran for treasurer four years ago. He has tried to take some of the political and public relations sting out of a collapse, acknowledging the bank was likely to fail but blaming the bad economy. He also said it was financially healthy when he left four years ago.

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