What Alexi knew- Tribune Editorial

His damning non-denial about loans to criminals

After Sunday's "Meet the Press" debate with Rep. Mark Kirk, Alexi Giannoulias' campaign put out a batch of things their candidate said, under the title, "10 Quotes, 10 Reasons to Vote for Alexi." Here's a quote that was not included: "I didn't know the extent of their activity."

Giannoulias was responding to a question from NBC's David Gregory about his bank's loans to organized crime figures back when he was a loan officer at the family business. As the Tribune reported in April, Broadway Bank had lent millions of dollars to Michael "Jaws" Giorango and his business partner Demitri Stavropoulos by the time Giannoulias arrived at the institution. During his time as a loan officer, the bank kept giving them loans — even when they were about to go to federal prison on felony convictions.

Confronted with these embarrassing facts, the candidate has squirmed to put the best face on them. "If I knew then what I know now, these are not the kind of people that we do business with," he said Sunday. But when Gregory asked, "Did you know that they were crime figures that you were loaning to?", Giannoulias couldn't fudge his way to safety. "I didn't know the extent of their activity," he said.

That is a roundabout way of saying: "Yes."

It's probably true that Giannoulias was not fully briefed on their illegal activity, which is the sort of thing felons rarely publicize even to their financial enablers. But he and his colleagues did know — or should have known — enough to show these clients the door. Not only had Giorango served prison time in the 1990s for his involvement in illegal bookmaking, but he and Stavropoulos had been convicted, in 2004, of new felonies for which they later served prison time.

Those crimes were not enough to get them a rejection from Broadway Bank. The two continued getting loans until September 2005. That was the same month that Giannoulias says he stopped his involvement in "day-to-day" operations of the bank as he got ready to run for state treasurer. In other words, it wasn't till he left to run for office that the bank cut off these customers.

Of course, there's still this question: How can Giannoulias say he left in 2005, but report to the IRS that he worked hundreds of hours in 2006, thereby qualifying for a $2.7 million tax deduction?

Giannoulias tries to minimize the significance of all this, but there is no way to deny the central fact: While he was a loan officer at the family bank, the bank chose to lend money to known felons connected to organized crime. Maybe he didn't know the "extent of their activity." But a conscientious banker wouldn't have needed to.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-senate-20101011,0,3842583.story