$$$$
AG FOUNDATION INC
5948 N BROADWAY ST
CHICAGO, IL 60660
EIN: 61737590
Contact Person: ALEXANDER GIANNOULIAS
(A not-for-profit charity that donates money to treat child-related illnesses, curb poverty and assist disaster relief organizations. The foundation has benefited many charities, including those assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina.)
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2467531/posts
(HT: rator22)
Last Friday, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the Giannoulias family stood to collect more than $10 million in federal tax refunds even if the bank does fail. “It’s quite likely the bank will fail,” the Chicago Tribune reported Giannoulias as saying last Wednesday, unless “they can raise the capital to keep the bank going,” an amount estimated at $85 million.
As sole owner of a Subchapter S corporation that controls $1.2 billion-in-assets Broadway, the family pays the taxes on the bank’s income and reaps tax deductions on its losses. Giannoulias did not say if the family would put the $10 million back into the bank as a start.
Giannoulias was senior lender at Broadway between 2002 and 2006, before winning election as Illinois treasurer in 2006. He stepped down from operational duties after deciding to run for public office. The expected tax refund comes on top of $70 million in dividends the family, including Giannoulias himself, took in 2007 and 2008.
As Chicago Tribune political writer Rick Pearson has reported, Alexi Giannoulias was very much an integral player in helping Barack Obama get seed money for his 2004 U.S. Senate race. He provided entree to Chicago’s Greek community. In return, Obama in 2006 warmly endorsed Giannoulias: “He’s one of the most outstanding young men that I could ever hope to meet. He’s somebody who cares deeply about people.”
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(no links)
Banker vies for treasurer
State Journal-Register, The (Springfield, IL) - Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Author: MARY MASSINGALE STATE CAPITOL BUREAU
EXCERPT
Giannoulias has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama , D-Ill.; U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago; Chicago Ald. Richard Mell, Blagojevich’s father-in-law; and state Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, who recently pondered running for the treasurer’s post.
Giannoulias said he stood unswayed by the lack of support from Madigan and Blagojevich.
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Davis lends support
Melrose Park Herald (IL) - Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Alexi Giannoulias , Democratic candidate for state treasurer, has been endorsed by U.S. Congressman Danny Davis, D-7th.
(snip)
Congressman Davis joins U.S. Sen. Barack Obama , Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and a host of other elected officials, including state Sens. Kwame Raoul and Ricky Hendon; state Reps. Will Davis, Robin Kelly, David Miller, Marlow Colvin and Ken Dunkin; and Aldermen Emma Mitts, Howard Brookins, Toni Preckwinkle, Leslie Hairston and Anthony Beale, who have already endorsed Giannoulias ‘ campaign for state treasurer.
Davis said he thinks Giannoulias would be the best state treasurer when it comes to investing in neighborhoods that are in dire need of attention. Specially, Davis said, he will work with Giannoulias to invest in banks that will give loans to minority and women-owned businesses.
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Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) - Friday, February 10, 2006
Author: Erin Calandriello Daily Herald Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD - Of the millions donated to Illinois politicians, it’s a mere $5,000.
But this cash donated to a Democrat hoping to become Illinois’ treasurer comes with the makings of a TV murder mystery: It’s from a Florida casino fleet owner whose uncle was gunned down in an execution-style slaying after selling the gambling fleet to a group that included indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
What’s more, the candidate, Alexi Giannoulias of Chicago, happens to own a stake in a Chicago bank where the donor owes $4.8 million.
Giannoulias says there’s nothing wrong with the donation - it’s simply a gift from a fellow Greek.
The donation came from Spiros Naos in December. Naos owns SunCruz Casinos, which operates several gambling cruise ships, mostly in Florida.
Naos became owner after his uncle was gunned down in 2001, in what authorities called an execution-style slaying that remains unsolved. The murder occurred shortly after the fleet was sold to a business group that included Abramoff, who has set Washington politics asunder since pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion and agreeing to cooperate with authorities.
But the Abramoff group fell on hard times quickly and SunCruz filed for bankruptcy within months. Abramoff and his business partner since have been charged with defrauding lenders who backed the casino purchase. Enter Naos, who in 2004 led an investment group that paid $36 million for the casinos.
(snip)
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Machine’s shadow creeps over Obama
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Sunday, November 5, 2006
Author: Carol Marin, The Chicago Sun-Times
It would have been one thing if Barack Obama had given Todd Stroger a one-armed hug. But a wet sloppy kiss?
This past week Senators Obama and Dick Durbin signed a letter endorsing the candidacy of young Todd so that he might follow in his father’s footsteps and become the next president of the Cook County Board.
This has been one of the sadder sagas in Chicago political history. And Obama , America’s audacious knight in shining armor, deprives us of the very hope he likes to talk about in his speeches and his books.
(snip)
YOUNG TODD?
He was, by most Springfield accounts, often missing in action, uninterested when he was around, and about as passionate about his legislative duties as he now seems to be about this current race. Not.
Obama actively ran for the state Senate in 1996 while Stroger was appointed to the House in 1992 in a deal engineered by his father, John. Obama took some real chances in his pursuit of higher office, including a disastrous run for Congress against incumbent Bobby Rush in 2000.
Stroger didn’t take chances, just orders from his dad and other ward bosses. In 2001 he was appointed by Mayor Daley as 8th Ward alderman and has been in City Council ever since. His record there is as undistinguished as it was in the Legislature.
And the shame, the absolute shame of this election, is that it was stolen from the voters by those same ward bosses who kept the public in the dark about John Stroger’s health until it was too late for any independent, like County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, to file for the November election. That sleight of hand guaranteed that young Todd could be appointed to take his dad’s place on the ballot. A legal but totally lousy move.
If Obama wants to endorse Todd Stroger in the race against Republican Tony Peraica, he should be a lot more candid about why. It’s not because of Stroger’s “progressive” politics. It’s not because the Stroger family supported his past primary races for Congress or U.S. Senate. They didn’t. It’s because Obama isn’t going to cross Daley Democrats or the African-American community that handed him his lunch in his loss against Rush six years ago.
But Obama is not audacious enough to tell us that.
JUDGING FAMILY TIES
Jill Cerone Marisie, the granddaughter of the late convicted mobster Jackie “The Lackey” Cerone, is about to be elected a Cook County judge from the 13th Subcircuit. A Republican from Inverness, she has no opposition in next week’s election and will proceed directly to the bench.
Although the Chicago Council of Lawyers found her “not qualified” and the Chicago Bar Association, citing insufficient legal experience, said she was “not recommended,” Marisie won the primary anyway against four other male opponents.
Her grandfather was a major mob henchman for the late Anthony “Big Tuna” Accardo and an associate of mobster Donald “The Wizard of Odds” Angelini. No one suggests Marisie or her father, Jack P. Cerone, is an operative of organized crime. There is, however, a certain family pride in the patriarch. Photos of Jackie the Lackey are prominently featured at his son’s suburban restaurants.
Mob connections have been an issue in the November election. Alexi Giannoulias, Democratic candidate for state treasurer, has been grilled about loans his family’s Broadway Bank has given to convicted mob associates though the loans were not illegal. Giannoulias’ brother George is a donor to the Marisie campaign.
State Sen. Wendell Jones (R-Palatine) also supports Marisie, saying he checked her out and found her “outstanding.”
Being a judge in Illinois is virtually a job for life. Not one judge in 10 years has lost a bid for retention, so Marisie could have a long career. Though I never succeeded in reaching her, I was curious about a couple of things. Among her campaign donors are individuals with familiar last names. One of them is “Accardo.” Another is “Angelini.”
(snip)