ShoreBank is about to receive $75 million in federal taxpayers’ money for a bailout that has become the prime example of “crony socialism” under the Obama administration. It is not the first federal money ShoreBank has received. In May 2009, it was awarded $35 million in stimulus credits for “green projects” in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. The grant was part of Van Jones’s “green jobs” push, with a focus on home weatherization.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that several political notables, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Senator Richard J. Durbin, and former President Bill Clinton made appeals on behalf of Chicago-based ShoreBank, which has been suffering from capital deficiencies. And several of ShoreBank’s powerful friends, including Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), GE Capital (GE, Fortune 500), and Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), recently helped organize a $140-million private capital rescue package for the bank.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/28/news/economy/tiny_tarp_failures.fortune/