Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A Top Obama Fund-Raiser Had Ties to Failed Bank
WSJ ^ | JULY 21, 2008 | By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER

Posted on 09/19/2008 8:50:38 PM PDT by Perdogg

For the Pritzker family of Chicago, the 2001 collapse of subprime-mortgage lender Superior Bank was an embarrassing failure in a corner of their giant business empire.

Billionaire Penny Pritzker helped run Hinsdale, Ill.-based Superior, overseeing her family's 50% ownership stake. She now serves as Barack Obama's national campaign-finance chairwoman, which means her banking past could prove to be an embarrassment to her -- and perhaps to the campaign.

Superior was seized in 2001 and later closed by federal regulators. Government investigators and consumer advocates have contended that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices. Ms. Pritzker, a longtime friend and supporter of Sen. Obama, served for a time as Superior's chairman, and later sat on the board of its holding company.

Sen. Obama has long criticized predatory subprime mortgage lenders and urged strong actions against them.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: 2001; banks; chicago; climateexchange; corruption; corzine; donors; fundraiser; goldmansachs; hankpaulson; hinsdale; hyatt; hyatthotel; joncorzine; mauricestrong; mortgage; mortgagecrisis; obama; obamabiden; obamastaff; obamastaffers; paulson; pennypritzker; pritzker; strong; subprime; subprimelending; superiorbank; superiorbankfsb
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 next last
To: Perdogg

My mortgage broker friend in Chicago says you can’t turn around without hearing Pritzker’s name. He’s known she was bad news for the last 25 years.

I’m glad this is finally starting to hit the “service roads”, at least. Maybe the MSM will have to report on the reporting, if not carry the story themselves.

Maybe if they accompany it with pictures of Britney Spears’ latest shoes, it’ll get some attention.


21 posted on 09/19/2008 9:14:13 PM PDT by SlowBoat407 (Obama will give us enough hope to hang ourselves.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vaudine

Mars is still unoccupied. LOL


22 posted on 09/19/2008 9:16:02 PM PDT by RockinRight (Obama who?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Perdogg

So lets review.

CRA started the ACORN / unsecured Fannie Mae deal.

Fannie Mae was lead by an AA baby that ran it aground.

We now have another AA baby running for president that is using the AA baby head of the failed Fannie Mae as an adviser and this chick too?


23 posted on 09/19/2008 10:19:03 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac - are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' Barney Frank 9-10-03)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Perdogg

With this gal and Raines so strongly connected to Obama...no wonder BHO is not talking much about the problems with Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac nowadays. We have all observed that he has been strangely silent most of the time on this. Still waters run deep...and the deep pockets of the Obama strategists and fund raisers are all suspect now. Obama can’t point fingers. They have probably ordered him to keep quiet as much as possible while they try to figure a way to shovel their frauds and criminal acts under cover.


24 posted on 09/19/2008 10:43:17 PM PDT by CitizenM ("An excuse is worse than an lie, because an excuse is a lie hidden." Pope John Paul, II)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: penelopesire

Subprime Pritzker pure gold for Obama
Mar 15, 2008

If the first woman doesn’t become president of the United States, isn’t it ironic that it may be due to the billionaire white woman who serves as the mastermind for the Obama fund-raising operation?

Penny Pritzker, a Chicago-based scion of the Hyatt Hotel fortune worth more than $2 billion, has helped Obama raise $188 million. That’s reported to be the largest ever for a primary race.

A weekend Wall Street Journal article is an informative piece, but reveals itself to be a “puff piece” by the way it buries the real news. Toward the end of the article is this mention about Pritzker:

Her business career hit a bump in 2001, with the costly failure of Superior Bank FSB, a Chicago-area thrift that was seized by federal regulators after it ran into problems with subprime lending.

The Pritzker family held a 50% stake, and Ms. Pritzker had been on the board of the bank’s holding company.

Anxious to avoid further embarrassment and liability, the Pritzkers and their co-owner settled with federal officials by agreeing to pay $460 million over 15 years. Nearly all of the funds came from the Pritzkers. Ms. Pritzker says she regrets what happened.

Some critics of Sen. Obama have cited Ms. Pritzker’s role in the bank failure, arguing that it undermines the candidate’s criticisms of subprime lenders who target low-income borrowers.

You bet it does. Read an earlier entry on this blog linking to Dennis Bernstein’s excellent piece on Pritzker. The mainstream press hasn’t really addressed it.

Now that the Pritzker connection comes up as it has in the Journal, she gets a free pass from the financial world’s paper of record with a glowing piece headlined “Money Maven.”

The real news is buried after the jump at the end of the story, well off the front page which coincidentally blares away about the rescue of Bear Stearns.

Isn’t the subprime mess related to what got Bear into its mess in the first place? Sure it is. Pritzker’s past shouldn’t be excused as old news. And when subprime is driving the economic distress in the U.S. , how can it not be addressed by either the paper or the Obama?

If the Journal wasn’t trying to sugar coat Pritzker, it would have more prominently connected Bear’s rescue with the bailout and seizure of the Pritzker’s Superior Bank FSB.

But why connect all the dots? We’ll do it for you.

Of course, you won’t see Obama react to Pritzker’s past either.

Aides and confidants can call Hillary a monster (Samantha Power), or say politically incorrect things about race and 9/11( Rev. Jeremiah Wright) and can be expected to get publicly dumped by the candidate. But subprime Pritzker? She’s pure gold to Obama.

An untouchable.

As they say, campaign donations’ are the mother’s milk of politics.

http://amok.asianweek.com/2008/03/15/subprime-pritzker-pure-gold-for-obama/


25 posted on 09/19/2008 11:47:44 PM PDT by STARWISE (They (Dims) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL author)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Perdogg

Surprise. NOT!


26 posted on 09/19/2008 11:56:03 PM PDT by screaming eagle2 (No matter what you call it,a pre-owned vehicle is still a USED CAR!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: STARWISE; DAVEY CROCKETT; Fred Nerks; milford421; Calpernia

Ping. #25 post.

Thanks to Starwise for posting this.


27 posted on 09/20/2008 2:04:31 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts?page=451 SURVIVAL, RECIPES, GARDENS, & INFO)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: NoLibZone; ex-Texan; nw_arizona_granny; LucyT; Liz

Add on to:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2086352/posts?page=23#23

A NJ reporter was on the our local radio last night. He was reporting on a meeting Gov. Jon Corzine was in. Corzine is working Obama’s campaign. Word is Corzine is promised a high level position in the Treasury in an Obama Presidency. Corzine was former CEO of Goldman Sachs. The reporter said that Corzine told his Wall Street buddies that this financial crash will be fixed in an Obama admnistration. No details on how though.

I DO know that Maurice Strong is involved with Chicago’s Climate Exchange. Al Gore is chairman of a private equity firm called Generation Investment Management. That firm invests money from institutions and wealthy investors in companies that are going green. Generation Investment Management purchases carbon dioxide offsets. The co-founder of Generation Investment Management is former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson, who is currently the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Goldman Sachs bought 10% of Chicago’s Climate Exchange shares for $23 million. Chicago’s Climate Exchange owns half of the European Climate Exchange, Europe’s largest carbon trading company.


28 posted on 09/20/2008 3:32:39 AM PDT by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: STARWISE

Lots of good links at that link. Thanks!

This was interesting: (in the comments section at one of the links)

” The Pritzkers philanthropy comes at the expense of Superior Bank depositors and the loan shark interest rates Superior Bank charged for subprime mortgage and auto loans. One year after stiffing 1,406 depositors of Superior Bank for $42 million, the Pritzker family donated $30 million to the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago Directors having full knowledge of the Superior Bank theft unethically accepted the money.”

Wonder if some of it went into the Annenberg Challenge/ Bill Ayers?

Of other interest concerning Ponzi Penny. The Pritzker’s also own TRANSUNION CREDIT BUREAU, which she chairs.

Sounds like the perfect set-up, doesn’t it?

A sub-prime mortgage banking company and a credit bureau!

(eye roll)

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?article_id=27738&seenIt=1

(snip)

“She has access to resources and all of a sudden, you have access to the same resources.”

(end)

Ya....I bet she does.....lol


29 posted on 09/20/2008 5:55:47 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: All

30 posted on 09/20/2008 6:06:56 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: STARWISE; All

Earlier I asked what monies from Pritzker might have gone to the Annenberg Challenge. Well, here it is:

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:QE7aXHG6OhMJ:globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/08/obamaayers-update-annenberg-mystery.html+%22The+Chicago+Public+Education+Fund+%2B+Bill+Ayers%2B+William+Ayers&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

(sorry for the long URL, but you cannot get into the page unless you subscribe..hence the long URL of the cache)

(snip)

4) The role of the Chicago Public Education Fund led by Susan Crown and Penny Pritzker, among others, should be explained.

A final possible explanation of the mystery donor is that the legal successor to the CAC, the Chicago Public Education Fund, was contacted, again inappropriately, as the donor. If that was the case then it raises a concern about the potential role of Penny Pritzker, who serves on the board of the CPEF. Pritzker is the Finance Chair of the Obama campaign. Susan Crown is also on the board of the CPEF, was a board member of the CAC, and is a donor to the Obama campaign.”

I am sure Kurtz and others have already written about this extensively...but it is time to refresh the memories of the American people.


31 posted on 09/20/2008 7:11:45 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: penelopesire

I can’t subscribe ...! Did you? Says it’s by invitation only. How did you get to see that?

NOTE:

I always use tinyurl.com for long link htmls .. i.e.,

this link would convert to:

http://tinyurl.com/4sl96d

You just copy and paste the long link into
their blank space, and it gives you the new
short link.

~~~~

That diagram of the connections is WOW! Great digging!


32 posted on 09/20/2008 11:38:19 AM PDT by STARWISE (They (Dims) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL author)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: penelopesire; SE Mom; Bahbah; pissant; piasa; NormsRevenge; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fishtalk; ...

"She oversees the Pritzker family's non-hotel real estate interests and chairs its TransUnion LLC credit bureau."

~~~~

CAN YOU IMAGINE THE HELL SHE COULD RAKE OVER THEIR 'ENEMIES' WITH CONTROL OVER THEIR TRANS UNION CREDIT RATING ... ESPECIALLY IN THE MONSTROUS VOLATILITY AND INSTABILITY OF THE CURRENT ECONOMY AND FINANCIAL MATTERS ?????

And we thought only the Clintons had squads of subversives on steroids. At least I'm not aware that they had a documented domestic terrorist in their ranks. God, save us.

33 posted on 09/20/2008 11:50:20 AM PDT by STARWISE (They (Dims) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL author)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: penelopesire; SE Mom; pissant

Wealth of Obama links and connections here

****

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=800

http://www.barackbook.com/


34 posted on 09/20/2008 12:42:06 PM PDT by STARWISE (They (Dims) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL author)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Perdogg

BTTT


35 posted on 09/20/2008 12:43:13 PM PDT by Earthdweller (Socialism makes you feel better about oppressing people.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All


NEWS BUSTERS.org - blog: "WHY IS MEDIA ALLOWING JOE BIDEN TO LIE ABOUT DRUNK DRIVER KILLING HIS FIRST WIFE?" by Warmer Todd Huston (September 20, 2008, 3:48 ET)

AMERICAN THINKER - blog: "OBAMA's FOUL WEATHER FRIENDS" by Scott Swett and Roger Canfield (September 16, 2008)

HypeMove.com: "HYPE The Obama Effect"

THREATS WATCH.org: "PAWNS AND POLITICS" by Steve Schippert (September 15, 2008, 10:15 am)

Video: "Devastating Video, Obama Talks About Job Ayers Gave Him" (Added September 14, 2008)

AMERICAN THINKER - blog: "OBAMA COVERS HIS TRACKS" by Ed Lasky (September 11, 2008)

HOTAIR.com - blog: "TRIBUNE-REVIEW: THE COMPANY OBAMA KEEPS" by Ed Morrissey (August 26, 2008)

DISCOVER THE NETWORKS.org: "ACORN"

FreeRepublic.com - Discussion Forum (online.WSJ.com): "A TOP OBAMA FUND-RAISER HAD TIES TO FAILED BANK" (July 21, 2008)



[Post no. 7] - ARCHIVES - Topic: BIDEN & OBAMA (aka B & O) (September 13, 2008 -- Click Here.)

36 posted on 09/20/2008 1:11:53 PM PDT by Cindy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: STARWISE

Thanks for the ping STARWISE.


37 posted on 09/20/2008 1:12:36 PM PDT by Cindy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: STARWISE

Yes, as soon as I heard about Pritzker, I thought of The Marmon Group. They have access to some of the biggest private-sector databases on the planet. They know everyone’s secrets.


38 posted on 09/20/2008 2:30:09 PM PDT by HAL9000 ("No one made you run for president, girl."- Bill Clinton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: STARWISE

I’ve nicknamed her Ponzi Penny ;)


39 posted on 09/20/2008 2:37:47 PM PDT by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet-McCain/Palin 08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: STARWISE

WOW..thanks!

You always post such great resources!!


40 posted on 09/20/2008 3:24:24 PM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson