Category Archives: FDIC

FDIC v Amrish Mahajan et al update July 12, 2014, Obama Rezko lot Mutual bank loan, Mary Hakken-Phillips pleads fifth, Board minutes altered by Mahajan and Regas

FDIC v Amrish Mahajan et al update July 12, 2014, Obama Rezko lot Mutual bank loan, Mary Hakken-Phillips pleads fifth, Board minutes altered by Mahajan and Regas

“Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich, Governor of IL, prosecuted before Tony Rezko, a businessman?”…Citizen Wells

“Why was Tony Rezko’s sentencing delayed?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Connor after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

 

 

From a memorandum opinion and order by Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim July 9, 2014 we learn.
“Background

Previous opinions resolving Defendants’ motions to dismiss, see FDIC v.
Mahajan, No. 11 CV 7590, 2012 WL 3061852, at *1-3 (N.D. Ill. July 26, 2012), and the FDIC’s motion to strike, see FDIC v. Mahajan, 923 F. Supp. 2d 1133, 1135-36 (N.D. Ill. 2013), describe the details of this case’s background facts and procedural history. What follows are the facts and allegations most pertinent to the questions presented in the current motion.

According to the FDIC, in November 2009, FDIC representatives interviewed
Hakken-Phillips concerning her work as the secretary of the Bank’s Board of
Directors and as the administrative assistant to Bank President Amrish Mahajan.
(R. 289, Mot. ¶ 1.) In support of its current motion the FDIC submitted an affidavit from Tina Solis, one of the FDIC’s attorneys, stating that during the interview Hakken-Phillips described preparing handwritten Board minutes which she then submitted to senior officers. (R. 289-1, Mot., Ex. A ¶¶ 4-5.) According to Attorney Solis’s affidavit, Hakken-Phillips said Defendants Mahajan and James Regas altered the minutes to remove references to “certain adverse matters,” and that she signed the final minutes “feeling that she had no choice but to do so.” (Id. ¶ 4.) The affidavit goes on to say that Hakken-Phillips discussed the Bank’s lending and credit administration practices, compiling reports on the Bank’s real estate portfolio and loan deficiencies, document shredding at the Bank, and Regas’s role in Bank operations. (Id. ¶¶ 5-6.) The FDIC alleges that several weeks after the interview, Hakken-Phillips voluntarily provided the FDIC with her handwritten draft Board minutes and handwritten “diaries” describing tasks, meetings, and communications with the Bank’s senior officers. (R. 289, Mot. ¶ 3.)

On October 25, 2011, the FDIC sued Defendants, each of whom was a
director, officer, board member, or attorney for the Bank. (See R. 1, Compl.) When the FDIC deposed Hakken-Phillips on October 31, 2013, she chose to invoke the Fifth Amendment in response to every question except those asking for her name, address, and educational background. (See R. 289-7, Mot., Ex. G, Hakken-Phillips Dep.) The FDIC filed the instant motion on June 2, 2014, to compel her testimony regarding the authenticity of the draft minutes, the explication of certain passages in those minutes, and the process of preparing the Bank’s final minutes. (R. 289, Mot. ¶ 16.) Hakken-Phillips filed a response on June 19, 2014, in which she requested leave to provide the court with “additional information” regarding the basis of her Fifth Amendment privilege assertion for an in camera review. (R. 302, Opp. ¶ 2.) With the court’s leave, Hakken-Phillips submitted her “additional information” on June 24, 2014, ex parte. (R. 304.) On June 26, 2014, the FDIC filed a reply in support of the current motion. (R. 306, Reply.)”

http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/illinois/ilndce/1:2011cv07590/261603/311

 

 

From Citizen Wells December 27, 2013.

“The FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, et al is still alive.

Amrish Mahajan, the former president of Mutual Bank of Harvey, the bank that loaned Rita Rezko the money to buy the lot subsequently sold to the Obamas, has been barred from banking.

From Chicago Business July 1, 2013.

“Politically connected ex-Mutual Bank president barred from banking”

“Amrish Mahajan, former president of failed Mutual Bank of Harvey and a major fundraiser for imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has been barred from future participation in the banking industry under a newly released regulatory order.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/amrish-mahajan-obama-rezko-lot-bank-president-barred-from-banking-fdic-receiver-for-mutual-bank-v-mahajan-rita-rezko-loan-kenneth-conner-whistleblower/

Read more about the Mahajan Obama Rezko connection here.

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/obama-rezko-lot-transaction-bank-president-mahajan-fdic-lawsuit-motion-hearing-july-10-2013-judge-virginia-m-kendall-rezkos-sold-lot-to-obamas-kenneth-j-conner-whistleblower/

 

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Obama related corruption cases alive, Blagojevich appeal and FDIC v Mutual Bank Amrish Mahajan et al, Tony Rezko corruption cronies, Thursday May 29, 2014 1:11-cv-07590 FDIC case magistrate status hearing and motion hearing

Obama related corruption cases alive, Blagojevich appeal and FDIC v Mutual Bank Amrish Mahajan et al, Tony Rezko corruption cronies, Thursday May 29, 2014 1:11-cv-07590 FDIC case magistrate status hearing and motion hearing

“Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich, Governor of IL, prosecuted before Tony Rezko, a businessman?”…Citizen Wells

“Why was Tony Rezko’s sentencing delayed?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Connor after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

 

 

Two cases still alive in federal court in Northern Illinois touch Obama and Obama’s Chicago corruption ties to Tony Rezko.

The Blagojevich appeal still drags on even though the feds began investigating him late in 2003.

The FDIC case against Mutual Banks officers, president Amrish Mahajan et al is still alive.

Mahajan has been barred from banking.

From the US District Court Northern District of Illinois.

The FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, former president of Mutual Bank, et al is scheduled for a magistrate status hearing and motion hearing in the courtroom of Judge Young B. Kim  on May 29, 2014. Mutual Bank loaned Rita Rezko the money for the lot that was purchased by the Obama’s. It is also the bank that fired whistleblower Kenneth J. Conner after he questioned the appraisal of that lot.

Daily Calendar

Thursday, May 29, 2014 (As of 05/28/14 at 02:52:28 PM)

Honorable Young B. Kim Courtroom 1019 (YBK)

1:11-cv-07590 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporatio 08:30 Magistrate Status Hearing

1:11-cv-07590 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporatio 11:00 Motion Hearing

http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/home/DailyCal/0.htm

From Citizen Wells June 5, 2012.

The Obama camp, with the full cooperation of the mainstream media and US Justice Dept., has done their best to distance Obama from his numerous close corruption ties in Chicago and Illinois. The delayed and dragged out prosecution of Rod Blagojevich with his mutual ties to Tony Rezko, the failure to call Rezko as a witness and the dropping of counts against Blagojevich that are most damning for Obama, is one good example.

With the best attempts to divert attention away from Obama’s corrupt past, the Ghosts of Obama’s Christmas past continue to linger.

From an article written by truthteller and presented on NoQuarter USA on October 12, 2008.

“”Because I tend to rely on evidence and not on hearsay, I believe we should focus our attention on Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey, not on Giannoulias and the Broadway Bank, if we are to assign names to the financial institution about which Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Timeshas heard “rumblings.” Although Mahajan is not known to readers ofNo Quarter and to the national media, I imagine they will desire more information on the unscrupulous banker once they read the information I unpack below the fold. And yes, Obama is involved, deeply involved.”

My interest in Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey was picqued by this list of contributors in Rezko’s bundling network provided by the Chicago Sun-Times last March. View the second page of the document, and notice the following entry:

Last name First name Obama donations Rezko connection
Mahajan Amrish $2,500 Banker whose bank loaned money to Rezko companies. The bank also loaned Rezko’s wife money to buy a vacant lot next to Obama’s home.

The data available in the Sun-Times spreadsheet is corroborated by the following data, which is democratically available at the Federal Election Commission‘s website:

MAHAJAN, AMRISH
CHICAGO, IL 60607
MUTUAL BANK

OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR ILLINOIS INC
12/20/2003 500.00 24020030170
04/14/2004 1000.00 24020461757

Not only was Mahajan a member of Rezko’s bundling network; his bank, the Mutual Bank of Harvey, granted Rita Rezko the $500,000 mortgage she neededin order to purchase the lot on which the Obama mansion in Chicago sits. As many of you may recall, the Obamas could not have purchased the mansion they could not afford unless transactions for the mansion and the lot closed on the same day. Obama needed to locate someone who would buy the lot, and he approached Rezko, the convicted slumlord with whom Obama toured the property before they mutually agreed to the following arrangement:

The home and lot sales closed on June 15, 2005. A land trust controlled by the Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million, and the Obamas secured a $1.32 million mortgage from Northern Trust to complete that purchase. That same day, Rezko’s wife, Rita Rezko, bought the side lot for $625,000. A $37,000- a-year Cook County employee, she secured a $500,000 mortgage from Mutual Bank of Harvey.

The structure of this transaction begs the following question: What bank would lend a government employee who earns $37,000 per annum a $500,000 mortgage? What bank would assume such a risk?

The Mutual Bank of Harvey, of course, for the Mutual Bank of Harvey’s President is a man who is deeply connected to the Chicago machine that backed Barack Obama. Indeed, Amrish Mahajan was one of Mayor Daley’s first political appointments in 1989, when he was named to a seat on Chicago’s Plan Commission, where he would be joined by Obama’s former boss and Rezko’s business partner Allison Davis and by Valerie Jarrett, Daley’s Chief of Staff whochaired the Commission from 1991-1995. Mahajan, in other words, worked with those who devised and profited from Daley’s failed public housing experiment in Chicago, a public housing policy Obama helped fund as state Senator and US Senator.

Rezko, according to the Boston Globe, was one of the major beneficiaries of Obama’s legislative advocacy for funding of Daley’s public housing experiment. Other major beneficiaries are Jarrett and Allison Davis. Mahajan was also a beneficiary, for his bank had made $3.4 million dollars in loans to Tony Rezko’s slum landlord business since 2002. A banker for one of the slumlords who benefitted from the Daley housing program Obama helped bankroll, Mahajan was returning a favor when he wrote a $500,000 mortgage in 2005 for the wife of one of his clients. Although Tony’s financial problems were mounting in 2005, and although Rita earned only $35,000 per annum, Mahajan underwrote the mortgage. Favors must be reciprocated, I guess, especially when one can satisfy two parties at once: the person with whom one has a complicated relationship in real estate and the politician who helped finance that complicated relationship as state Senator and US Senator.

I doubt federal investigators are interested in the Mahajans solely for their involvement in the property deal involving Obama, Mahajan and the Rezkos. The Mahajans, I believe, are the foci of their probe for many reasons.

The real estate transaction involving Rita Rezko, the Obamas and Mutual Bank of Harvey is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the Mutual Bank of Harvey seems to be at the center of all the corruption in Chicago. To quote former Donald Perillo, Chicago insurance mogul and son of the lawyer for Al Capone, in the Chicago Tribune article I cite above:

Donald Parrillo said he isn’t surprised to see Mahajan mix it up with politics and business. “He got that attitude from the Parrillo family,” the former alderman said. “He wanted to get in the game.”

And Mahajan certainly is in the game. The banker of the Chicago machine, he is also the man who wrote the mortgage for Rita Rezko that facilitated Obama’s purchase the mansion he could not afford. This is why I believe prosecutors are interested in Harvey Mutual Bank. Not only did Rezko receive loans from this institution; this bank is heavily involved in problematic real estate dealings involving Blagojevich and Obama. And if I may quote Rezko in the 9 JUN letter he wrote to Judge Amy St. Eve:

Your Honor, the prosecutors have been overzealous in pursuing a crime that never happened. They are pressuring me to tell them the “wrong” things that I supposedly know aboutGovernor Blagojevich and Senator Obama. I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the Governor or the Senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people. I am not Levine, Loren, Mahru , or Winter.”

Rezko is now talking, and prosecutors are presently interested in a politically connected financial institution. I bet Obama now regrets paying Rita Rezko $104,500 for the strip of the land in the lot on which his house sits in January 2006. Acquired with the assistance of a questionable $500,000 mortgage from Amrish Mahajan’s Mutual Bank of Harvey, this lot and Obama’s desire to expand his yard by bit was the catalyst for all the investigative reports into Obama’s deep ties to Rezko. By the way, Rita’s lot is only accessible through the front gate of Obama’s home; it is not a separate property, and it was never intended to be a separate property.

“It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe that he had done me a favor,” Obama says of the real estate transactions with Rezko. I wonder if now he also believes it was a mistake for him to serve as the legislator who represented and bankrolled Richard Daley, Amrish Mahajan, Valerie Jarrett, Allison Davis and the Chicago Plan Commission. But at least he and Michelle have a house, a house the Mutual Bank of Harvey, the politically connected bank that wrote loans for Rezko, helped them procure in 2005. Too bad that house will be the end of Barack Obama.

obama-home.jpg

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/5382/about-the-financial-institution-mentioned-in-the-sun-times-obama-tony-rezko-amrish-mahajan-the-kenwood-mansion-rita-rezko/

From Citizen Wells November 1, 2011.

“Here is what we know about the purchase of a lot by Barack and Michelle Obama from Rita Rezko in 2006:

1. “In June, 2005, Mutual Bank President and CEO Amrish Mahajan and
other Mutual Bank officers approved a loan to Rita Malki Rezko (Rita
Rezko) which was guaranteed by Antonin Rezko so that Rita Rezko could
purchase a 9,090 square foot vacant parcel of real estate at 5050 S.
Greenwood Avenue, Chicago.” (Conner lawsuit)

2. “On or about January 4, 2006, Rita Rezko entered into an
agreement with Senator Barack and Michelle Obama (Obamas) to sell a
ten-foot strip of the 5050 S. Greenwood property to the Obamas.”
(Conner lawsuit)

3. “In late 2005 or early 2006, Conner performed an appraisal review
of the Adams Appraisal (Exhibit C) per the directive of Richard Barth
and James Murphy. Conner prepared a written Appraisal Review report
(ARR) opining that the Adams Appraisal overvalued the Greenwood lot by
a minimum of $ 125,000.00 and that a reasonable and fair valuation for
Mutual Banks’s underwriting purposes should be no greater than $
500,000.00 for the entire 5050 S. Greenwood parcel as originally
purchased by Rita Rezko.” (Conner lawsuit)

4. “On or about October 19, 2006, Mutual Bank received a Grand Jury
Subpoena (GJS) requiring Mutual Bank to produce the Rezko 5050
Greenwood loan file, as well as a Rita Rezko Riverside District
Development LLC checking account and loan file.” (Conner lawsuit)

5. “In October, 2007, Conner had various communications with Mutual
Bank’s Human Resources Department representative, Lana Schlabach. In
an email communication of October 15, 2007, Conner directly referenced
“Resentment over my mentioned discovery of the removal/replacement of
an appraisal review that I conducted. That appraisal review contained
substantial observations and suggestions. The transaction and parties
involved were high profile in the media.I am under the impression that
the FBI has since looked at the file.”” On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007 email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.” (Conner lawsuit)

6. “On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007
email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated
Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.” (Conner lawsuit)

7. The FDIC has filed a lawsuit against Mutual Bank, Amrish Mahajan, Richard Barth, et al.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/fdic-mutual-bank-lawsuit-reveals-rezko-obama-corruption-kenneth-j-conner-lawsuit-amrish-mahajan-richard-barth-where-did-rezkos-get-the-money/

From ABC News Chicago August 22, 2011.

“Anita Mahajan, a Chicago businesswoman with ties to former governor Rod Blagojevich, pleaded guilty to bilking the state of Illinois by submitting bogus bills.

“I’m sorry,” Mahajan said in court Monday while pleading guilty to felony theft for pilfering about $100,000 in taxpayer money through her drug-testing company, K.K. Bio-Science. That company is now defunct.

The 60-year-old received four years of probation, agreed to pay $200,000 in fines and perform 1,500 hours of community service.

Mahajan’s husband, Amrish, was a banker and significant fundraiser for Blagojevich. Also, Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, made more than $100,000 in commissions handling real estate deals for the Mahajans in 2006, which caused a stir in the Blagojevich re-election campaign. The following year, Mahajan was charged with cheating the state of out of $2 million for drug tests that were never performed.

“People of this state were being cheated,” Dick Devine said in 2007 when he was the state’s attorney while announcing a seven-count indictment against Mahajan. The attorney general sued to recover the state’s lost money.

Four years later, Mahajan pleaded guilty to a single, reduced charge of theft instead of the felonies that would have sent her to prison for at least six years.

“Anita Mahajan is another example of the collateral damage that’s been left in the wake of the Rod Blagojevich Tsunami,” Steve Miller, Mahajan’s attorney, said.””

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8320596&rss=rss-wls-article-8320596

From the FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, et al.

“6. The Director Defendants also wasted corporate assets and drained the Bank’s capital by…(c) authorizing $ 495,000 in “bonuses” to pay for the criminal defense costs for the Defendant Amrish Mahajan’s wife who was indicted for Medicaid fraud”

“32. The Director and Officer Defendants failed to establish procedures that would have lessened the risks of the Bank’s improvidant lending practices. The terms of transactions were not accurately documented. Status reports were missing so that records of how an asset was progressing were not available. Terms of loans were changed at closing without board or loan committee approvals or any rcord in the file. Loan guarantees were frequently missing from the files. Appraisers were retained by brokers with an interest in seeing transactions consummated, not by the bank. Appraisals were often received after the loan was funded. Loans were typically non-recourse and dependent on guarantor abilities to repay in the event that the collateral was insufficient. Yet, little or no attention was paid to whether guarantors had sufficient liquidity to protect the Bank’s interest; the officers and the Board did little or no analysis of guarantor or borrower financial strength.”

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/26/FDIC.pdf

From the Washington Times November 4, 2008.

“A former Illinois real estate specialist says FBI agents have questioned him about a Chicago property that had been bought by convicted felon Tony Rezko’s wife and later sold to the couple’s next-door neighbor, Sen. Barack Obama.

The real estate specialist, Kenneth J. Conner, said bank officials replaced an appraisal review he prepared on the property and FBI agents were investigating in late 2007 whether the Rezko-Obama deal was proper.

“Agents and I talked about payoff, bribe, kickback for a long time, though it took them only a short number of minutes of talking with me while looking at the appraisal to acknowledge what they already seemed to know: The Rezko lot was grossly overvalued,” Mr. Conner told The Washington Times Monday.

“Rezko paid the asking price on the same day Obama paid $300,000 less than the asking price to the same seller for his adjacent mansion,” he said. “This begs the question of payoff, bribe, kickback.””

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/04/fbi-asked-questions-on-rezko-land-deal/

Obama’s Rezko problem is not going away.

 

 

 

 

Obama Rezko Chicago corruption ties still in news, Mutual Bank v Mahajan update, March 20, 2014, Judge Kendall settlement conference, Obama’s ghosts of Christmas past gathering

Obama Rezko Chicago corruption ties still in news, Mutual Bank v Mahajan update, March 20, 2014, Judge Kendall settlement conference, Obama’s ghosts of Christmas past gathering

“Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich, Governor of IL, prosecuted before Tony Rezko, a businessman?”…Citizen Wells

“Why was Tony Rezko’s sentencing delayed?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Connor after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

We learn much from literature as well as history.

Beware the Ides of March.

Ghosts of Christmas past.

Has Barack Obama learned?

We have another Ghost of Christmas past returning to join the other spirits of Obama’s troubled past.

The FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, former president of Mutual Bank, et al is scheduled for a settlement conference in the courtroom of Judge Virginia M. Kendall on March 27, 2014. Mutual Bank loaned Rita Rezko the money for the lot that was purchased by the Obama’s. It is also the bank that fired whistleblower Kenneth J. Conner after he questioned the appraisal of that lot.

Daily Calendar

Thursday, March 27, 2014   (As of 03/20/14 at 05:51:58 AM )

Honorable Virginia M. Kendall               Courtroom 2319 (VMK)

1:11-cv-07590   Federal Deposit Insurance Corporatio   02:00   Settlement Conference

http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/home/DailyCal/0.htm

From Citizen Wells December 27, 2013.

“The FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, et al is still alive.

Amrish Mahajan, the former president of Mutual Bank of Harvey, the bank that loaned Rita Rezko the money to buy the lot subsequently sold to the Obamas, has been barred from banking.

From Chicago Business July 1, 2013.

“Politically connected ex-Mutual Bank president barred from banking”

“Amrish Mahajan, former president of failed Mutual Bank of Harvey and a major fundraiser for imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has been barred from future participation in the banking industry under a newly released regulatory order.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/amrish-mahajan-obama-rezko-lot-bank-president-barred-from-banking-fdic-receiver-for-mutual-bank-v-mahajan-rita-rezko-loan-kenneth-conner-whistleblower/

Read more about the Mahajan Obama Rezko connection here.

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/obama-rezko-lot-transaction-bank-president-mahajan-fdic-lawsuit-motion-hearing-july-10-2013-judge-virginia-m-kendall-rezkos-sold-lot-to-obamas-kenneth-j-conner-whistleblower/

Amrish Mahajan Obama Rezko lot bank president barred from banking, FDIC receiver for Mutual Bank v Mahajan, Rita Rezko loan, Kenneth Conner whistleblower

Amrish Mahajan Obama Rezko lot bank president barred from banking, FDIC receiver for Mutual Bank v Mahajan, Rita Rezko loan, Kenneth Conner whistleblower

“Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich, Governor of IL, prosecuted before Tony Rezko, a businessman?”…Citizen Wells

“Why was Tony Rezko’s sentencing delayed?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Conner after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

The FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, et al is still alive.

Amrish Mahajan, the former president of Mutual Bank of Harvey, the bank that loaned Rita Rezko the money to buy the lot subsequently sold to the Obamas, has been barred from banking.

From Chicago Business July 1, 2013.

“Politically connected ex-Mutual Bank president barred from banking”

“Amrish Mahajan, former president of failed Mutual Bank of Harvey and a major fundraiser for imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has been barred from future participation in the banking industry under a newly released regulatory order.

Mr. Mahajan consented, without admitting or denying unsafe or unsound banking practices, to a May 1 order by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. prohibiting him from participating “in any manner” in the conduct of the affairs of any federally insured institution.

Until early 2009, Mr. Mahajan ran Mutual Bank of Harvey, one of the most active lenders to Indian-American-owned businesses in the Chicago area and an enthusiastic commercial real estate lender in Chicago and other markets around the country. The bank, which had $1.7 billion in assets at its peak, failed spectacularly in 2009, saddling the FDIC’s insurance fund with an estimated $917 million in losses, according to the latest FDIC account. That makes it the costliest Chicago-area bank failure since the beginning of 2009.

Mr. Mahajan is a defendant in an FDIC lawsuit against former officers and directors of Mutual Bank seeking $130 million in damages. That suit, filed in October 2011, is pending and in discovery.”

“Mutual Bank briefly entered the realm of national politics after news surfaced of the bank’s role in financing the purchase of a lot next to the home of then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. The Obama family bought part of the lot from the wife of Blagojevich fundraiser Tony Rezko after Mutual Bank lent her $500,000 to purchase the property. Mr. Rezko is in prison on charges of fraud, among other things.”

Read more:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130701/NEWS01/130709985/politically-connected-ex-mutual-bank-president-barred-from-banking#

Order to bar Amrish Mahajan from banking.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/151128159/Mahajan-Order

Read more about the Mahajan Obama Rezko connection here.

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/obama-rezko-lot-transaction-bank-president-mahajan-fdic-lawsuit-motion-hearing-july-10-2013-judge-virginia-m-kendall-rezkos-sold-lot-to-obamas-kenneth-j-conner-whistleblower/

Obama Rezko lot transaction bank president Mahajan FDIC lawsuit, Motion hearing, June 12, 2013, Judge Virginia M. Kendall, Rezkos sold lot to Obamas, Ghosts of Obama’s past

Obama Rezko lot transaction bank president Mahajan FDIC lawsuit, Motion hearing, June 12, 2013, Judge Virginia M. Kendall, Rezkos sold lot to Obamas, Ghosts of Obama’s past

“Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich, Governor of IL, prosecuted before Tony Rezko, a businessman?”…Citizen Wells

“Why was Tony Rezko’s sentencing delayed?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Connor after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

Lest we forget.

The FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, former president of Mutual Bank, et al is scheduled for a motion hearing in the courtroom of Judge Virginia M. Kendall on June 12, 2013. Mutual Bank loaned Rita Rezko the money for the lot that was purchased by the Obama’s. It is also the bank that fired whistleblower Kenneth J. Conner after he questioned the appraisal of that lot.

Daily Calendar

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 (As of 06/12/13 at 05:47:26 AM)

Honorable Virginia M. Kendall               Courtroom 2319 (VMK)

1:11-cv-07590   Federal Deposit Insurance Corporatio   09:00   Notice of Motion

http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/home/DailyCal/0.htm

FDICvsMahajan130612

From Citizen Wells June 5, 2012.

The Obama camp, with the full cooperation of the mainstream media and US Justice Dept., has done their best to distance Obama from his numerous close corruption ties in Chicago and Illinois. The delayed and dragged out prosecution of Rod Blagojevich with his mutual ties to Tony Rezko, the failure to call Rezko as a witness and the dropping of counts against Blagojevich that are most damning for Obama, is one good example.

With the best attempts to divert attention away from Obama’s corrupt past, the Ghosts of Obama’s Christmas past continue to linger.

From an article written by truthteller and presented on NoQuarter USA on October 12, 2008.

“”Because I tend to rely on evidence and not on hearsay, I believe we should focus our attention on Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey, not on Giannoulias and the Broadway Bank, if we are to assign names to the financial institution about which Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Timeshas heard “rumblings.” Although Mahajan is not known to readers ofNo Quarter and to the national media, I imagine they will desire more information on the unscrupulous banker once they read the information I unpack below the fold. And yes, Obama is involved, deeply involved.”

My interest in Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey was picqued by this list of contributors in Rezko’s bundling network provided by the Chicago Sun-Times last March. View the second page of the document, and notice the following entry:

Last name First name Obama donations Rezko connection
Mahajan Amrish $2,500 Banker whose bank loaned money to Rezko companies. The bank also loaned Rezko’s wife money to buy a vacant lot next to Obama’s home.

The data available in the Sun-Times spreadsheet is corroborated by the following data, which is democratically available at the Federal Election Commission‘s website:

MAHAJAN, AMRISH
CHICAGO, IL 60607
MUTUAL BANK

OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR ILLINOIS INC
12/20/2003 500.00 24020030170
04/14/2004 1000.00 24020461757

Not only was Mahajan a member of Rezko’s bundling network; his bank, the Mutual Bank of Harvey, granted Rita Rezko the $500,000 mortgage she neededin order to purchase the lot on which the Obama mansion in Chicago sits. As many of you may recall, the Obamas could not have purchased the mansion they could not afford unless transactions for the mansion and the lot closed on the same day. Obama needed to locate someone who would buy the lot, and he approached Rezko, the convicted slumlord with whom Obama toured the property before they mutually agreed to the following arrangement:

The home and lot sales closed on June 15, 2005. A land trust controlled by the Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million, and the Obamas secured a $1.32 million mortgage from Northern Trust to complete that purchase. That same day, Rezko’s wife, Rita Rezko, bought the side lot for $625,000. A $37,000- a-year Cook County employee, she secured a $500,000 mortgage from Mutual Bank of Harvey.

The structure of this transaction begs the following question: What bank would lend a government employee who earns $37,000 per annum a $500,000 mortgage? What bank would assume such a risk?

The Mutual Bank of Harvey, of course, for the Mutual Bank of Harvey’s President is a man who is deeply connected to the Chicago machine that backed Barack Obama. Indeed, Amrish Mahajan was one of Mayor Daley’s first political appointments in 1989, when he was named to a seat on Chicago’s Plan Commission, where he would be joined by Obama’s former boss and Rezko’s business partner Allison Davis and by Valerie Jarrett, Daley’s Chief of Staff whochaired the Commission from 1991-1995. Mahajan, in other words, worked with those who devised and profited from Daley’s failed public housing experiment in Chicago, a public housing policy Obama helped fund as state Senator and US Senator.

Rezko, according to the Boston Globe, was one of the major beneficiaries of Obama’s legislative advocacy for funding of Daley’s public housing experiment. Other major beneficiaries are Jarrett and Allison Davis. Mahajan was also a beneficiary, for his bank had made $3.4 million dollars in loans to Tony Rezko’s slum landlord business since 2002. A banker for one of the slumlords who benefitted from the Daley housing program Obama helped bankroll, Mahajan was returning a favor when he wrote a $500,000 mortgage in 2005 for the wife of one of his clients. Although Tony’s financial problems were mounting in 2005, and although Rita earned only $35,000 per annum, Mahajan underwrote the mortgage. Favors must be reciprocated, I guess, especially when one can satisfy two parties at once: the person with whom one has a complicated relationship in real estate and the politician who helped finance that complicated relationship as state Senator and US Senator.

I doubt federal investigators are interested in the Mahajans solely for their involvement in the property deal involving Obama, Mahajan and the Rezkos. The Mahajans, I believe, are the foci of their probe for many reasons.

The real estate transaction involving Rita Rezko, the Obamas and Mutual Bank of Harvey is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the Mutual Bank of Harvey seems to be at the center of all the corruption in Chicago. To quote former Donald Perillo, Chicago insurance mogul and son of the lawyer for Al Capone, in the Chicago Tribune article I cite above:

Donald Parrillo said he isn’t surprised to see Mahajan mix it up with politics and business. “He got that attitude from the Parrillo family,” the former alderman said. “He wanted to get in the game.”

And Mahajan certainly is in the game. The banker of the Chicago machine, he is also the man who wrote the mortgage for Rita Rezko that facilitated Obama’s purchase the mansion he could not afford. This is why I believe prosecutors are interested in Harvey Mutual Bank. Not only did Rezko receive loans from this institution; this bank is heavily involved in problematic real estate dealings involving Blagojevich and Obama. And if I may quote Rezko in the 9 JUN letter he wrote to Judge Amy St. Eve:

Your Honor, the prosecutors have been overzealous in pursuing a crime that never happened. They are pressuring me to tell them the “wrong” things that I supposedly know aboutGovernor Blagojevich and Senator Obama. I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the Governor or the Senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people. I am not Levine, Loren, Mahru , or Winter.”

Rezko is now talking, and prosecutors are presently interested in a politically connected financial institution. I bet Obama now regrets paying Rita Rezko $104,500 for the strip of the land in the lot on which his house sits in January 2006. Acquired with the assistance of a questionable $500,000 mortgage from Amrish Mahajan’s Mutual Bank of Harvey, this lot and Obama’s desire to expand his yard by bit was the catalyst for all the investigative reports into Obama’s deep ties to Rezko. By the way, Rita’s lot is only accessible through the front gate of Obama’s home; it is not a separate property, and it was never intended to be a separate property.

“It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe that he had done me a favor,” Obama says of the real estate transactions with Rezko. I wonder if now he also believes it was a mistake for him to serve as the legislator who represented and bankrolled Richard Daley, Amrish Mahajan, Valerie Jarrett, Allison Davis and the Chicago Plan Commission. But at least he and Michelle have a house, a house the Mutual Bank of Harvey, the politically connected bank that wrote loans for Rezko, helped them procure in 2005. Too bad that house will be the end of Barack Obama.

obama-home.jpg

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/5382/about-the-financial-institution-mentioned-in-the-sun-times-obama-tony-rezko-amrish-mahajan-the-kenwood-mansion-rita-rezko/

From Citizen Wells November 1, 2011.

“Here is what we know about the purchase of a lot by Barack and Michelle Obama from Rita Rezko in 2006:

1. “In June, 2005, Mutual Bank President and CEO Amrish Mahajan and
other Mutual Bank officers approved a loan to Rita Malki Rezko (Rita
Rezko) which was guaranteed by Antonin Rezko so that Rita Rezko could
purchase a 9,090 square foot vacant parcel of real estate at 5050 S.
Greenwood Avenue, Chicago.” (Conner lawsuit)

2. “On or about January 4, 2006, Rita Rezko entered into an
agreement with Senator Barack and Michelle Obama (Obamas) to sell a
ten-foot strip of the 5050 S. Greenwood property to the Obamas.”
(Conner lawsuit)

3. “In late 2005 or early 2006, Conner performed an appraisal review
of the Adams Appraisal (Exhibit C) per the directive of Richard Barth
and James Murphy. Conner prepared a written Appraisal Review report
(ARR) opining that the Adams Appraisal overvalued the Greenwood lot by
a minimum of $ 125,000.00 and that a reasonable and fair valuation for
Mutual Banks’s underwriting purposes should be no greater than $
500,000.00 for the entire 5050 S. Greenwood parcel as originally
purchased by Rita Rezko.” (Conner lawsuit)

4. “On or about October 19, 2006, Mutual Bank received a Grand Jury
Subpoena (GJS) requiring Mutual Bank to produce the Rezko 5050
Greenwood loan file, as well as a Rita Rezko Riverside District
Development LLC checking account and loan file.” (Conner lawsuit)

5. “In October, 2007, Conner had various communications with Mutual
Bank’s Human Resources Department representative, Lana Schlabach. In
an email communication of October 15, 2007, Conner directly referenced
“Resentment over my mentioned discovery of the removal/replacement of
an appraisal review that I conducted. That appraisal review contained
substantial observations and suggestions. The transaction and parties
involved were high profile in the media.I am under the impression that
the FBI has since looked at the file.”” On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007 email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.” (Conner lawsuit)

6. “On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007
email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated
Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.” (Conner lawsuit)

7. The FDIC has filed a lawsuit against Mutual Bank, Amrish Mahajan, Richard Barth, et al.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/fdic-mutual-bank-lawsuit-reveals-rezko-obama-corruption-kenneth-j-conner-lawsuit-amrish-mahajan-richard-barth-where-did-rezkos-get-the-money/

From ABC News Chicago August 22, 2011.

“Anita Mahajan, a Chicago businesswoman with ties to former governor Rod Blagojevich, pleaded guilty to bilking the state of Illinois by submitting bogus bills.

“I’m sorry,” Mahajan said in court Monday while pleading guilty to felony theft for pilfering about $100,000 in taxpayer money through her drug-testing company, K.K. Bio-Science. That company is now defunct.

The 60-year-old received four years of probation, agreed to pay $200,000 in fines and perform 1,500 hours of community service.

Mahajan’s husband, Amrish, was a banker and significant fundraiser for Blagojevich. Also, Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, made more than $100,000 in commissions handling real estate deals for the Mahajans in 2006, which caused a stir in the Blagojevich re-election campaign. The following year, Mahajan was charged with cheating the state of out of $2 million for drug tests that were never performed.

“People of this state were being cheated,” Dick Devine said in 2007 when he was the state’s attorney while announcing a seven-count indictment against Mahajan. The attorney general sued to recover the state’s lost money.

Four years later, Mahajan pleaded guilty to a single, reduced charge of theft instead of the felonies that would have sent her to prison for at least six years.

“Anita Mahajan is another example of the collateral damage that’s been left in the wake of the Rod Blagojevich Tsunami,” Steve Miller, Mahajan’s attorney, said.””

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8320596&rss=rss-wls-article-8320596

From the FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, et al.

“6. The Director Defendants also wasted corporate assets and drained the Bank’s capital by…(c) authorizing $ 495,000 in “bonuses” to pay for the criminal defense costs for the Defendant Amrish Mahajan’s wife who was indicted for Medicaid fraud”

“32. The Director and Officer Defendants failed to establish procedures that would have lessened the risks of the Bank’s improvidant lending practices. The terms of transactions were not accurately documented. Status reports were missing so that records of how an asset was progressing were not available. Terms of loans were changed at closing without board or loan committee approvals or any rcord in the file. Loan guarantees were frequently missing from the files. Appraisers were retained by brokers with an interest in seeing transactions consummated, not by the bank. Appraisals were often received after the loan was funded. Loans were typically non-recourse and dependent on guarantor abilities to repay in the event that the collateral was insufficient. Yet, little or no attention was paid to whether guarantors had sufficient liquidity to protect the Bank’s interest; the officers and the Board did little or no analysis of guarantor or borrower financial strength.”

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/26/FDIC.pdf

From the Washington Times November 4, 2008.

“A former Illinois real estate specialist says FBI agents have questioned him about a Chicago property that had been bought by convicted felon Tony Rezko’s wife and later sold to the couple’s next-door neighbor, Sen. Barack Obama.

The real estate specialist, Kenneth J. Conner, said bank officials replaced an appraisal review he prepared on the property and FBI agents were investigating in late 2007 whether the Rezko-Obama deal was proper.

“Agents and I talked about payoff, bribe, kickback for a long time, though it took them only a short number of minutes of talking with me while looking at the appraisal to acknowledge what they already seemed to know: The Rezko lot was grossly overvalued,” Mr. Conner told The Washington Times Monday.

“Rezko paid the asking price on the same day Obama paid $300,000 less than the asking price to the same seller for his adjacent mansion,” he said. “This begs the question of payoff, bribe, kickback.””

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/04/fbi-asked-questions-on-rezko-land-deal/

Obama’s Rezko problem is not going away.

							

Obama corruption tie court cases update, February 5, 2013, Blagojevich appeal delayed, FDIC Mutual Bank lawsuit drags on, Obama Rezko ties linger, Die slowly?

Obama corruption tie court cases update, February 5, 2013, Blagojevich appeal delayed, FDIC Mutual Bank lawsuit drags on, Obama Rezko ties linger, Die slowly?

“Why did Patrick Fitzgerald and the US Justice Department wait until December 2008 to arrest Rod Blagojevich?”…Citizen Wells

“this guy is more Tony’d up than I am. …. they got the Chicago media to f…ing make me wear Rezko more. To f…ing dilute it from him.”…Rod Blagojevich wiretap November 12, 2008

“I believe I’m more pristine on Rezko than him.”…Rod Blagojevich

 

General Douglas MacArthur stated: “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

Perhaps the same sentiment could be used for court cases that tie Obama to Chicago corruption and Tony Rezko.

There are two active court cases that touch Obama and his dealings with Tony Rezko and other Chicago corruption figures.

The FDIC filed a lawsuit against Mutual Bank (Rezko lot loan bank) and it’s officers on October 25, 2011.

Here is some background information.

From Citizen Wells October 25, 2012.

“Here is what we know about the purchase of a lot by Barack and Michelle Obama from Rita Rezko in 2006:

1. “In June, 2005, Mutual Bank President and CEO Amrish Mahajan and
other Mutual Bank officers approved a loan to Rita Malki Rezko (Rita
Rezko) which was guaranteed by Antonin Rezko so that Rita Rezko could
purchase a 9,090 square foot vacant parcel of real estate at 5050 S.
Greenwood Avenue, Chicago.” (Conner lawsuit)

2. “On or about January 4, 2006, Rita Rezko entered into an
agreement with Senator Barack and Michelle Obama (Obamas) to sell a
ten-foot strip of the 5050 S. Greenwood property to the Obamas.”
(Conner lawsuit)

3. “In late 2005 or early 2006, Conner performed an appraisal review
of the Adams Appraisal (Exhibit C) per the directive of Richard Barth
and James Murphy. Conner prepared a written Appraisal Review report
(ARR) opining that the Adams Appraisal overvalued the Greenwood lot by
a minimum of $ 125,000.00 and that a reasonable and fair valuation for
Mutual Banks’s underwriting purposes should be no greater than $
500,000.00 for the entire 5050 S. Greenwood parcel as originally
purchased by Rita Rezko.” (Conner lawsuit)

4. “On or about October 19, 2006, Mutual Bank received a Grand Jury
Subpoena (GJS) requiring Mutual Bank to produce the Rezko 5050
Greenwood loan file, as well as a Rita Rezko Riverside District
Development LLC checking account and loan file.” (Conner lawsuit)

5. “In October, 2007, Conner had various communications with Mutual
Bank’s Human Resources Department representative, Lana Schlabach. In
an email communication of October 15, 2007, Conner directly referenced
“Resentment over my mentioned discovery of the removal/replacement of
an appraisal review that I conducted. That appraisal review contained
substantial observations and suggestions. The transaction and parties
involved were high profile in the media.I am under the impression that
the FBI has since looked at the file.”” On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007 email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.” (Conner lawsuit)

6. “On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007
email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated
Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.” (Conner lawsuit)

7. The FDIC has filed a lawsuit against Mutual Bank, Amrish Mahajan, Richard Barth, et al.”

From the FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, et al.

“6. The Director Defendants also wasted corporate assets and drained the Bank’s capital by…(c) authorizing $ 495,000 in “bonuses” to pay for the criminal defense costs for the Defendant Amrish Mahajan’s wife who was indicted for Medicaid fraud”

“32. The Director and Officer Defendants failed to establish procedures that would have lessened the risks of the Bank’s improvidant lending practices. The terms of transactions were not accurately documented. Status reports were missing so that records of how an asset was progressing were not available. Terms of loans were changed at closing without board or loan committee approvals or any rcord in the file. Loan guarantees were frequently missing from the files. Appraisers were retained by brokers with an interest in seeing transactions consummated, not by the bank. Appraisals were often received after the loan was funded. Loans were typically non-recourse and dependent on guarantor abilities to repay in the event that the collateral was insufficient. Yet, little or no attention was paid to whether guarantors had sufficient liquidity to protect the Bank’s interest; the officers and the Board did little or no analysis of guarantor or borrower financial strength.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/obama-rezko-lot-transaction-bank-president-mahajan-fdic-lawsuit-motion-hearing-october-25-2012-judge-virginia-m-kendall-rezkos-sold-lot-to-obamas/

The FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, former president of Mutual Bank, et al is scheduled for a status hearing in the courtroom of Judge Virginia M. Kendall on February 12, 2013. Mutual Bank loaned Rita Rezko the money for the lot that was purchased by the Obama’s. It is also the bank that fired whistleblower Kenneth J. Conner after he questioned the appraisal of that lot.

Daily Calendar

Tuesday, February 12, 2013 (As of 02/05/13 at 07:50:47 AM)

Honorable Virginia M. Kendall               Courtroom 2319 (VMK)

1:11-cv-07590   Federal Deposit Insurance Corporatio   09:00   Status Hearing

http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/home/DailyCal/0.htm

Of course the delay in prosecuting Rod Blagojevich and his subsequent appeal process is the “elephant in the room.” Some say he is awaiting a pardon from Obama.

From Citizen Wells December 5, 2012.

“The Blagojevich arrest was delayed until after the 2008 election.

The Blagojevich appeal has been delayed until after the 2012 election by the Obama Justice Department.”

“A perfect Chicago Crime?

From Citizen Wells October 26, 2012.

“The transcripts needed for the Rod Blagojevich appeal, overdue by almost a year, are still not ready and the appeals court judge is faulting Blagojevich attorney Lauren Kaeseberg, despite the fact that the appeals court has responsibility in this matter.”

“Who engineered these delays and who is responsible?

What were Obama and Blagojevich discussing in 2008?

“Just because it’s a conspiracy theory doesn’t mean it is not true.”

“It is obvious to any rational person paying attention that this delay was orchestrated by the Obama controlled US Justice Department to keep Obama corruption ties out of the election cycle news.””

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/blagojevich-appeal-delayed-until-after-2012-election-blagojevich-arrested-after-2008-election-transcripts-completed-appeal-in-federal-court-system-obama-justice-department/

Obama Rezko lot transaction bank president Mahajan FDIC lawsuit, Motion hearing, October 25, 2012, Judge Virginia M. Kendall, Rezkos sold lot to Obamas

Obama Rezko lot transaction bank president Mahajan FDIC lawsuit, Motion hearing, October 25, 2012, Judge Virginia M. Kendall, Rezkos sold lot to Obamas

“Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich, Governor of IL, prosecuted before Tony Rezko, a businessman?”…Citizen Wells

“Why was Tony Rezko’s sentencing delayed?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Connor after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

The FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, former president of Mutual Bank, et al is scheduled for a motion hearing in the courtroom of Judge Virginia M. Kendall on October 25, 2012. Mutual Bank loaned Rita Rezko the money for the lot that was purchased by the Obama’s. It is also the bank that fired whistleblower Kenneth J. Conner after he questioned the appraisal of that lot.

Daily Calendar

Thursday, October 25, 2012 (As of 10/25/12 at 06:47:09 AM)

Honorable Virginia M. Kendall               Courtroom 2319 (VMK)

1:11-cv-07590   Federal Deposit Insurance Corporatio   09:00   Notice of Motion

http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/home/DailyCal/0.htm

From Citizen Wells June 5, 2012.

The Obama camp, with the full cooperation of the mainstream media and US Justice Dept., has done their best to distance Obama from his numerous close corruption ties in Chicago and Illinois. The delayed and dragged out prosecution of Rod Blagojevich with his mutual ties to Tony Rezko, the failure to call Rezko as a witness and the dropping of counts against Blagojevich that are most damning for Obama, is one good example.

With the best attempts to divert attention away from Obama’s corrupt past, the Ghosts of Obama’s Christmas past continue to linger.

From an article written by truthteller and presented on NoQuarter USA on October 12, 2008.

“”Because I tend to rely on evidence and not on hearsay, I believe we should focus our attention on Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey, not on Giannoulias and the Broadway Bank, if we are to assign names to the financial institution about which Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Timeshas heard “rumblings.” Although Mahajan is not known to readers ofNo Quarter and to the national media, I imagine they will desire more information on the unscrupulous banker once they read the information I unpack below the fold. And yes, Obama is involved, deeply involved.”

My interest in Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey was picqued by this list of contributors in Rezko’s bundling network provided by the Chicago Sun-Times last March. View the second page of the document, and notice the following entry:

Last name First name Obama donations Rezko connection
Mahajan Amrish $2,500 Banker whose bank loaned money to Rezko companies. The bank also loaned Rezko’s wife money to buy a vacant lot next to Obama’s home.

The data available in the Sun-Times spreadsheet is corroborated by the following data, which is democratically available at the Federal Election Commission‘s website:

MAHAJAN, AMRISH
CHICAGO, IL 60607
MUTUAL BANK

OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR ILLINOIS INC
12/20/2003 500.00 24020030170
04/14/2004 1000.00 24020461757

Not only was Mahajan a member of Rezko’s bundling network; his bank, the Mutual Bank of Harvey, granted Rita Rezko the $500,000 mortgage she neededin order to purchase the lot on which the Obama mansion in Chicago sits. As many of you may recall, the Obamas could not have purchased the mansion they could not afford unless transactions for the mansion and the lot closed on the same day. Obama needed to locate someone who would buy the lot, and he approached Rezko, the convicted slumlord with whom Obama toured the property before they mutually agreed to the following arrangement:

The home and lot sales closed on June 15, 2005. A land trust controlled by the Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million, and the Obamas secured a $1.32 million mortgage from Northern Trust to complete that purchase. That same day, Rezko’s wife, Rita Rezko, bought the side lot for $625,000. A $37,000- a-year Cook County employee, she secured a $500,000 mortgage from Mutual Bank of Harvey.

The structure of this transaction begs the following question: What bank would lend a government employee who earns $37,000 per annum a $500,000 mortgage? What bank would assume such a risk?

The Mutual Bank of Harvey, of course, for the Mutual Bank of Harvey’s President is a man who is deeply connected to the Chicago machine that backed Barack Obama. Indeed, Amrish Mahajan was one of Mayor Daley’s first political appointments in 1989, when he was named to a seat on Chicago’s Plan Commission, where he would be joined by Obama’s former boss and Rezko’s business partner Allison Davis and by Valerie Jarrett, Daley’s Chief of Staff whochaired the Commission from 1991-1995. Mahajan, in other words, worked with those who devised and profited from Daley’s failed public housing experiment in Chicago, a public housing policy Obama helped fund as state Senator and US Senator.

Rezko, according to the Boston Globe, was one of the major beneficiaries of Obama’s legislative advocacy for funding of Daley’s public housing experiment. Other major beneficiaries are Jarrett and Allison Davis. Mahajan was also a beneficiary, for his bank had made $3.4 million dollars in loans to Tony Rezko’s slum landlord business since 2002. A banker for one of the slumlords who benefitted from the Daley housing program Obama helped bankroll, Mahajan was returning a favor when he wrote a $500,000 mortgage in 2005 for the wife of one of his clients. Although Tony’s financial problems were mounting in 2005, and although Rita earned only $35,000 per annum, Mahajan underwrote the mortgage. Favors must be reciprocated, I guess, especially when one can satisfy two parties at once: the person with whom one has a complicated relationship in real estate and the politician who helped finance that complicated relationship as state Senator and US Senator.

I doubt federal investigators are interested in the Mahajans solely for their involvement in the property deal involving Obama, Mahajan and the Rezkos. The Mahajans, I believe, are the foci of their probe for many reasons.

The real estate transaction involving Rita Rezko, the Obamas and Mutual Bank of Harvey is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the Mutual Bank of Harvey seems to be at the center of all the corruption in Chicago. To quote former Donald Perillo, Chicago insurance mogul and son of the lawyer for Al Capone, in the Chicago Tribune article I cite above:

Donald Parrillo said he isn’t surprised to see Mahajan mix it up with politics and business. “He got that attitude from the Parrillo family,” the former alderman said. “He wanted to get in the game.”

And Mahajan certainly is in the game. The banker of the Chicago machine, he is also the man who wrote the mortgage for Rita Rezko that facilitated Obama’s purchase the mansion he could not afford. This is why I believe prosecutors are interested in Harvey Mutual Bank. Not only did Rezko receive loans from this institution; this bank is heavily involved in problematic real estate dealings involving Blagojevich and Obama. And if I may quote Rezko in the 9 JUN letter he wrote to Judge Amy St. Eve:

Your Honor, the prosecutors have been overzealous in pursuing a crime that never happened. They are pressuring me to tell them the “wrong” things that I supposedly know aboutGovernor Blagojevich and Senator Obama. I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the Governor or the Senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people. I am not Levine, Loren, Mahru , or Winter.”

Rezko is now talking, and prosecutors are presently interested in a politically connected financial institution. I bet Obama now regrets paying Rita Rezko $104,500 for the strip of the land in the lot on which his house sits in January 2006. Acquired with the assistance of a questionable $500,000 mortgage from Amrish Mahajan’s Mutual Bank of Harvey, this lot and Obama’s desire to expand his yard by bit was the catalyst for all the investigative reports into Obama’s deep ties to Rezko. By the way, Rita’s lot is only accessible through the front gate of Obama’s home; it is not a separate property, and it was never intended to be a separate property.

“It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe that he had done me a favor,” Obama says of the real estate transactions with Rezko. I wonder if now he also believes it was a mistake for him to serve as the legislator who represented and bankrolled Richard Daley, Amrish Mahajan, Valerie Jarrett, Allison Davis and the Chicago Plan Commission. But at least he and Michelle have a house, a house the Mutual Bank of Harvey, the politically connected bank that wrote loans for Rezko, helped them procure in 2005. Too bad that house will be the end of Barack Obama.

obama-home.jpg

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/5382/about-the-financial-institution-mentioned-in-the-sun-times-obama-tony-rezko-amrish-mahajan-the-kenwood-mansion-rita-rezko/

From Citizen Wells November 1, 2011.

“Here is what we know about the purchase of a lot by Barack and Michelle Obama from Rita Rezko in 2006:

1. “In June, 2005, Mutual Bank President and CEO Amrish Mahajan and
other Mutual Bank officers approved a loan to Rita Malki Rezko (Rita
Rezko) which was guaranteed by Antonin Rezko so that Rita Rezko could
purchase a 9,090 square foot vacant parcel of real estate at 5050 S.
Greenwood Avenue, Chicago.” (Conner lawsuit)

2. “On or about January 4, 2006, Rita Rezko entered into an
agreement with Senator Barack and Michelle Obama (Obamas) to sell a
ten-foot strip of the 5050 S. Greenwood property to the Obamas.”
(Conner lawsuit)

3. “In late 2005 or early 2006, Conner performed an appraisal review
of the Adams Appraisal (Exhibit C) per the directive of Richard Barth
and James Murphy. Conner prepared a written Appraisal Review report
(ARR) opining that the Adams Appraisal overvalued the Greenwood lot by
a minimum of $ 125,000.00 and that a reasonable and fair valuation for
Mutual Banks’s underwriting purposes should be no greater than $
500,000.00 for the entire 5050 S. Greenwood parcel as originally
purchased by Rita Rezko.” (Conner lawsuit)

4. “On or about October 19, 2006, Mutual Bank received a Grand Jury
Subpoena (GJS) requiring Mutual Bank to produce the Rezko 5050
Greenwood loan file, as well as a Rita Rezko Riverside District
Development LLC checking account and loan file.” (Conner lawsuit)

5. “In October, 2007, Conner had various communications with Mutual
Bank’s Human Resources Department representative, Lana Schlabach. In
an email communication of October 15, 2007, Conner directly referenced
“Resentment over my mentioned discovery of the removal/replacement of
an appraisal review that I conducted. That appraisal review contained
substantial observations and suggestions. The transaction and parties
involved were high profile in the media.I am under the impression that
the FBI has since looked at the file.”” On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007 email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.” (Conner lawsuit)

6. “On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007
email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated
Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.” (Conner lawsuit)

7. The FDIC has filed a lawsuit against Mutual Bank, Amrish Mahajan, Richard Barth, et al.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/fdic-mutual-bank-lawsuit-reveals-rezko-obama-corruption-kenneth-j-conner-lawsuit-amrish-mahajan-richard-barth-where-did-rezkos-get-the-money/

From ABC News Chicago August 22, 2011.

“Anita Mahajan, a Chicago businesswoman with ties to former governor Rod Blagojevich, pleaded guilty to bilking the state of Illinois by submitting bogus bills.

“I’m sorry,” Mahajan said in court Monday while pleading guilty to felony theft for pilfering about $100,000 in taxpayer money through her drug-testing company, K.K. Bio-Science. That company is now defunct.

The 60-year-old received four years of probation, agreed to pay $200,000 in fines and perform 1,500 hours of community service.

Mahajan’s husband, Amrish, was a banker and significant fundraiser for Blagojevich. Also, Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, made more than $100,000 in commissions handling real estate deals for the Mahajans in 2006, which caused a stir in the Blagojevich re-election campaign. The following year, Mahajan was charged with cheating the state of out of $2 million for drug tests that were never performed.

“People of this state were being cheated,” Dick Devine said in 2007 when he was the state’s attorney while announcing a seven-count indictment against Mahajan. The attorney general sued to recover the state’s lost money.

Four years later, Mahajan pleaded guilty to a single, reduced charge of theft instead of the felonies that would have sent her to prison for at least six years.

“Anita Mahajan is another example of the collateral damage that’s been left in the wake of the Rod Blagojevich Tsunami,” Steve Miller, Mahajan’s attorney, said.””

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8320596&rss=rss-wls-article-8320596

From the FDIC lawsuit against Amrish Mahajan, et al.

“6. The Director Defendants also wasted corporate assets and drained the Bank’s capital by…(c) authorizing $ 495,000 in “bonuses” to pay for the criminal defense costs for the Defendant Amrish Mahajan’s wife who was indicted for Medicaid fraud”

“32. The Director and Officer Defendants failed to establish procedures that would have lessened the risks of the Bank’s improvidant lending practices. The terms of transactions were not accurately documented. Status reports were missing so that records of how an asset was progressing were not available. Terms of loans were changed at closing without board or loan committee approvals or any rcord in the file. Loan guarantees were frequently missing from the files. Appraisers were retained by brokers with an interest in seeing transactions consummated, not by the bank. Appraisals were often received after the loan was funded. Loans were typically non-recourse and dependent on guarantor abilities to repay in the event that the collateral was insufficient. Yet, little or no attention was paid to whether guarantors had sufficient liquidity to protect the Bank’s interest; the officers and the Board did little or no analysis of guarantor or borrower financial strength.”

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/26/FDIC.pdf

From the Washington Times November 4, 2008.

“A former Illinois real estate specialist says FBI agents have questioned him about a Chicago property that had been bought by convicted felon Tony Rezko’s wife and later sold to the couple’s next-door neighbor, Sen. Barack Obama.

The real estate specialist, Kenneth J. Conner, said bank officials replaced an appraisal review he prepared on the property and FBI agents were investigating in late 2007 whether the Rezko-Obama deal was proper.

“Agents and I talked about payoff, bribe, kickback for a long time, though it took them only a short number of minutes of talking with me while looking at the appraisal to acknowledge what they already seemed to know: The Rezko lot was grossly overvalued,” Mr. Conner told The Washington Times Monday.

“Rezko paid the asking price on the same day Obama paid $300,000 less than the asking price to the same seller for his adjacent mansion,” he said. “This begs the question of payoff, bribe, kickback.””

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/04/fbi-asked-questions-on-rezko-land-deal/

The Kenneth J. Conner lawsuit is still active.

https://w3.courtlink.lexisnexis.com/cookcounty/Finddock.asp?DocketKey=CAAI0L0ABBEHA0LD

Oh, and by the way, Kenneth J. Conner, the whistleblower, is still finishing his book, “Rezko for Radicals.” I spoke to him a few days ago.
Obama’s Rezko problem is not going away.

Obama facts September 14, 2012, Rezko for Radicals Kenneth J Conner Qui Tam lawsuit against Mutual Bank personnel, Amrish Mahajan et al

Obama facts September 14, 2012, Rezko for Radicals Kenneth J Conner Qui Tam lawsuit against Mutual Bank personnel, Amrish Mahajan et al

“Because I tend to rely on evidence and not on hearsay, I believe we should focus our attention on Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey, not on Giannoulias and the Broadway Bank, if we are to assign names to the financial institution about which Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times has heard “rumblings.” Although Mahajan is not known to readers of No Quarter and to the national media, I imagine they will desire more information on the unscrupulous banker once they read the information I unpack below the fold. And yes, Obama is involved, deeply involved.”…Truthteller, NoQuarterUSA October 12, 2008

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Connor after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did the Rezkos enter into an agreement to purchase the lot next to the Obama house and pay the asking price of $ 625,000 at a time when they were broke and heavily in debt?”…Citizen Wells

The economy is in shambles, there are numerous diversions in the Middle East and in the election campaigns, Tony Rezko is in prison, the appeal of Rod Blagojevich has been delayed by the US Justice Dept. Obama thinks he has it made.

Not on my watch.

Kenneth J. Conner has a new book coming out, “Rezko for Radicals” and has a Qui Tam Lawsuit against the officers, directors and employees of Mutual Bank of Harvey, Adams Valuation Corp., et al. Citizen Wells will continue to keep these stories alive.

I have much respect and appreciation for sites like No Quarter USA which were investigating and reporting the truth about Obama when many were asleep or doing their best to hide this information.

From No Quarter USA October 12, 2008.

“About the Financial Institution Mentioned in the Sun-Times: Obama, Tony Rezko, Amrish Mahajan, the Kenwood Mansion & Rita Rezko”

“Mike Robinson’s AP article entitled “Obama Fundraiser, Convicted of Fraud, Spills Beans,” corroborates what we at No Quarter have been writing for weeks:Antoin “Tony” Rezko is cooperating with federal prosecutors interested in Barack Obama. While the national media’s attention to this topic is long overdue, I am not prepared to state that it is too little, too late. I am, however, disappointed.

Also disappointing but somewhat predictable is the blogosphere’s bungled reception of Mike Robinson’s article. Of course those who have embraced Obamawill dismiss the story as so much yellow journalism. One blogger claims that prosecutors are interested in Blagojevich and not Obama. But looming in the blind spot of that blogger’s necessarily tendentious gaze is Rezko’s 9 JUN 2008 letter to Judge Amy St. Eve and the reference to Obama as “Individual D” in the superseding indictment and the proffer of evidence filed by Fitzgerald and his prosecutors during the Rezko trial. Obama’s name can be printed again and again on the surface of the legal documents filed during the proceedings of the Rezko trial, but these writers with all their “naked” insight will clothe the verifiable record with their blindness. Knowledge production, it seems, has been lifted from its evidentiary supports when Democrats write about Barack Obama and Antoin “Tony” Rezko.

And yes, those Democrats include some ostensible Hillary Clinton Democrats. Seizing upon the following quotation in a Chicago Sun-Times column, one blogger believes the AP story heralds the end of the political careers of Alexi Giannoulias and Barack Obama:

Sneed hears rumbles political fund-raiser/fixer Tony Rezko, who is now singing sweetly to the feds from his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, has been talking about his “dealings” with a Chicago bank, which has political connections.

Stay tuned.

While Rezko was a customer of Alexi Giannoulias’s Broadway Bank, where he amassed a debt of $450,000 after writing bad checks at Las Vegas casinos, and while Giannoulias did write loans for Rezko, I do not believe one can aver with the confidence of the blogger I cite above that federal prosecutors are now focusing on Giannoulias, even if Giannoulias was tied to Rezko by his opponent during his 2006 bid for the office of Illinois state Treasurer. Allow me to be clear: Obama bundlermobster banker and Obama protégé Giannoulias is, to be sure, embroiled in the Rezko scandal and in other aspects of Chicago politics any political observer would find unsavory, but he is not in my opinion the topic of the conservation occurring between Rezko, Rezko’s attorney and Fitzgerald’s team of prosecutors. I do admit he is grist for the mill of impetuous bloggers who desire web traffic and a controversial headline or two, however. Because I tend to rely on evidence and not on hearsay, I believe we should focus our attention on Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey, not on Giannoulias and the Broadway Bank, if we are to assign names to the financial institution about which Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Timeshas heard “rumblings.” Although Mahajan is not known to readers ofNo Quarter and to the national media, I imagine they will desire more information on the unscrupulous banker once they read the information I unpack below the fold. And yes, Obama is involved, deeply involved.

harvey.jpg

My interest in Amrish Mahajan and the Mutual Bank of Harvey was picqued by this list of contributors in Rezko’s bundling network provided by the Chicago Sun-Times last March. View the second page of the document, and notice the following entry:

Last name First name Obama donations Rezko connection
Mahajan Amrish $2,500 Banker whose bank loaned money to Rezko companies. The bank also loaned Rezko’s wife money to buy a vacant lot next to Obama’s home.

The data available in the Sun-Times spreadsheet is corroborated by the following data, which is democratically available at the Federal Election Commission‘s website:

MAHAJAN, AMRISH
CHICAGO, IL 60607
MUTUAL BANK

OBAMA, BARACK
VIA OBAMA FOR ILLINOIS INC
12/20/2003 500.00 24020030170
04/14/2004 1000.00 24020461757

Not only was Mahajan a member of Rezko’s bundling network; his bank, the Mutual Bank of Harvey, granted Rita Rezko the $500,000 mortgage she neededin order to purchase the lot on which the Obama mansion in Chicago sits. As many of you may recall, the Obamas could not have purchased the mansion they could not afford unless transactions for the mansion and the lot closed on the same day. Obama needed to locate someone who would buy the lot, and he approached Rezko, the convicted slumlord with whom Obama toured the property before they mutually agreed to the following arrangement:

The home and lot sales closed on June 15, 2005. A land trust controlled by the Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million, and the Obamas secured a $1.32 million mortgage from Northern Trust to complete that purchase. That same day, Rezko’s wife, Rita Rezko, bought the side lot for $625,000. A $37,000- a-year Cook County employee, she secured a $500,000 mortgage from Mutual Bank of Harvey.

The structure of this transaction begs the following question: What bank would lend a government employee who earns $37,000 per annum a $500,000 mortgage? What bank would assume such a risk?

The Mutual Bank of Harvey, of course, for the Mutual Bank of Harvey’s President is a man who is deeply connected to the Chicago machine that backed Barack Obama. Indeed, Amrish Mahajan was one of Mayor Daley’s first political appointments in 1989, when he was named to a seat on Chicago’s Plan Commission, where he would be joined by Obama’s former boss and Rezko’s business partner Allison Davis and by Valerie Jarrett, Daley’s Chief of Staff whochaired the Commission from 1991-1995. Mahajan, in other words, worked with those who devised and profited from Daley’s failed public housing experiment in Chicago, a public housing policy Obama helped fund as state Senator and US Senator.

Rezko, according to the Boston Globe, was one of the major beneficiaries of Obama’s legislative advocacy for funding of Daley’s public housing experiment. Other major beneficiaries are Jarrett and Allison Davis. Mahajan was also a beneficiary, for his bank had made $3.4 million dollars in loans to Tony Rezko’s slum landlord business since 2002. A banker for one of the slumlords who benefitted from the Daley housing program Obama helped bankroll, Mahajan was returning a favor when he wrote a $500,000 mortgage in 2005 for the wife of one of his clients. Although Tony’s financial problems were mounting in 2005, and although Rita earned only $35,000 per annum, Mahajan underwrote the mortgage. Favors must be reciprocated, I guess, especially when one can satisfy two parties at once: the person with whom one has a complicated relationship in real estate and the politician who helped finance that complicated relationship as state Senator and US Senator.

I doubt federal investigators are interested in the Mahajans solely for their involvement in the property deal involving Obama, Mahajan and the Rezkos. The Mahajans, I believe, are the foci of their probe for many reasons.

The real estate transaction involving Rita Rezko, the Obamas and Mutual Bank of Harvey is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the Mutual Bank of Harvey seems to be at the center of all the corruption in Chicago. To quote former Donald Perillo, Chicago insurance mogul and son of the lawyer for Al Capone, in the Chicago Tribune article I cite above:

Donald Parrillo said he isn’t surprised to see Mahajan mix it up with politics and business. “He got that attitude from the Parrillo family,” the former alderman said. “He wanted to get in the game.”

And Mahajan certainly is in the game. The banker of the Chicago machine, he is also the man who wrote the mortgage for Rita Rezko that facilitated Obama’s purchase the mansion he could not afford. This is why I believe prosecutors are interested in Harvey Mutual Bank. Not only did Rezko receive loans from this institution; this bank is heavily involved in problematic real estate dealings involving Blagojevich and Obama. And if I may quote Rezko in the 9 JUN letter he wrote to Judge Amy St. Eve:

Your Honor, the prosecutors have been overzealous in pursuing a crime that never happened. They are pressuring me to tell them the “wrong” things that I supposedly know aboutGovernor Blagojevich and Senator Obama. I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the Governor or the Senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people. I am not Levine, Loren, Mahru , or Winter.”

Rezko is now talking, and prosecutors are presently interested in a politically connected financial institution. I bet Obama now regrets paying Rita Rezko $104,500 for the strip of the land in the lot on which his house sits in January 2006. Acquired with the assistance of a questionable $500,000 mortgage from Amrish Mahajan’s Mutual Bank of Harvey, this lot and Obama’s desire to expand his yard by bit was the catalyst for all the investigative reports into Obama’s deep ties to Rezko. By the way, Rita’s lot is only accessible through the front gate of Obama’s home; it is not a separate property, and it was never intended to be a separate property.

“It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe that he had done me a favor,” Obama says of the real estate transactions with Rezko. I wonder if now he also believes it was a mistake for him to serve as the legislator who represented and bankrolled Richard Daley, Amrish Mahajan, Valerie Jarrett, Allison Davis and the Chicago Plan Commission. But at least he and Michelle have a house, a house the Mutual Bank of Harvey, the politically connected bank that wrote loans for Rezko, helped them procure in 2005. Too bad that house will be the end of Barack Obama.

obama-home.jpg

—————————————————-”

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/5382/about-the-financial-institution-mentioned-in-the-sun-times-obama-tony-rezko-amrish-mahajan-the-kenwood-mansion-rita-rezko/

Rezko for Radicals book, Kenneth J. Conner author and whistleblower in the Rezko Obama lot transactions, Qui Tam lawsuit, Mutual Bank of Harvey, Adams Valuation Corp.

Rezko for Radicals book, Kenneth J. Conner author and whistleblower in the Rezko Obama lot transactions, Qui Tam lawsuit, Mutual Bank of Harvey, Adams Valuation Corp.

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Connor after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did the Rezkos enter into an agreement to purchase the lot next to the Obama house and pay the asking price of $ 625,000 at a time when they were broke and heavily in debt?”…Citizen Wells

“I believe I’m more pristine on Rezko than him.”…Rod Blagojevich

Rezko for Radicals

A new book by Kenneth J. Conner

whistleblower in the Rezko Obama lot transactions

Kenneth J. Conner, whistleblower in the Rezko Obama lot transactions, is the author of a new book, “Rezko for Radicals.” The scheduled release date for the book is October 1, 2012. I am not at liberty to divulge the contents yet, but as soon as I am permitted, I will do so. At some point more information will be available here as well.

http://rezkoforradicals.com/

With all of the books being written about Chicago pay to play politics and corruption, why would this book be of interest? Kenneth J. Conner was there at Mutual Bank of Harvey, doing his job, asking questions about another questionable appraisal froma Adams Valuation Corp. except this time the borrower was Rita Rezko, wife of Tony Rezko. And the other party involved in these transactions was Barack Obama, an IL senator at the time. Here is why Conner’s story has credence.

  • In early 2005, the Rezkos were broke and heavily in debt.
  • In June 2005, Rita Rezko obtained a loan from Mutual Bank of Harvey in the amount of $ 500,000 for the lot next to the mansion purchased by the Obama’s at the same time.
  • The Rezkos paid the full asking price $ 625,000.
  • The sellers mandated that both properties close at the same time.
  • Rita Rezko’s salary was approx. $ 37,000.
  • Kenneth J. Conner was a real estate specialist at Mutual Bank in 2005.
  • In late 2005 to early 2006, Mr. Conner was asked to review the appraisal by Adams.
  • Mr. Conner reported to his bosses that the property was overvalued by $ 125,000 and that based on comparables  it was worth $ 500,000.
  • On November  21, 2005 Barack Obama had an appraisal of the lot done by Howard B. Richter & Associates. That appraisal was for $ 490,860.
  • The Rezkos and Obamas signed a purchase agreement on January 4, 2006 for one sixth of the lot. The Obamas paid $104,500 instead of the appraised value of $40,500.
  • Mr. Conner’s valuation was subsequently removed from the loan file.
  • On October 19, 2006 Mutual Bank received a grand jury subpoena requiring it to produce information concerning Rita Rezko’s purchase, including the bank’s files on the property.
  • On December 28, 2006 former Rezko business attorney Michael J. Sreenan purchased the Rezko lot.
  • “In 2007, Conner observed that his ARR of the 5050 S. Greenwood property was not in the Rezko 5050 Greenwood loan file and in it’s
    place was the Murphy Checklist purportedly dated “06/15/2005.”…On June 18, 2007, Conner sent an email to James Murphy which provides, in part, “I spent time trying to track down work of mine that should be in a particular high profile loan file, though it is not–having been replaced by a checklist.”
  • ” In October, 2007, Conner had various communications with Mutual Bank’s Human Resources Department representative, Lana Schlabach. In an email communication of October 15, 2007, Conner directly referenced “Resentment over my mentioned discovery of the removal/replacement of an appraisal review that I conducted. That appraisal review contained substantial observations and suggestions. The transaction and parties involved were high profile in the media.I am under the impression that the FBI has since looked at the file.”
  • “On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007
    email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated
    Conner’s employment”
  • Late 2007 the FBI investigated the lot transactions. Mr. Conner stated. “Agents and I talked about payoff, bribe, kickback for a long time, though it took them only a short number of minutes of talking with me while looking at the appraisal to acknowledge what they already seemed to know: The Rezko lot was grossly overvalued,”
  • On October 16, 2008 Kenneth J. Conner filed his first lawsuit for retaliatory dismissal.
  • On October 25, 2011 the FDIC initiated a lawsuit against Mutual Bank officers, directors and the bank lawyer. “5. Collectively, the Director Defendants and Officer Defendants (“Director and Officer Defendants”) (a) recklessly implemented a strategy of rapid asset growth through approving a high concentration of risky CRE, ADC and out-of-area loans to a small concentration of high-volume borrowers; (b) failed to implement appropriate underwriting and credit administration practices; (c) ignored the Bank’s loan policies; (d) ignored federal lending regulations; and (e) disregarded warnings from the Bank’s regulators regarding the Bank’s lending activities.”
  • Mr. Conner has filed a Qui Tam lawsuit against the officers, directors and employees of Mutual Bank as well as Adams Valuations Corp. and others. The lawsuit is no longer under seal.

 

 

Rezko for Radicals

The whistleblower account of Obama’s $125,000 real estate scam.

by  Kenneth J. Conner

Available on Amazon October 1st

Copyright © 2012 Kenneth J. Conner, All rights reserved.

Kenneth J. Conner Qui Tam whistleblower lawsuit unsealed, Mutual Bank officers, Amrish Mahajan, Rezkos lot purchase, Adams Valuation corp, False statements and omissions

Kenneth J. Conner Qui Tam whistleblower lawsuit unsealed, Mutual Bank officers, Amrish Mahajan, Rezkos lot purchase, Adams Valuation corp, False statements and omissions

“Why did Mutual Bank fire whistleblower Kenneth J Connor after he
challenged the appraisal on the land purchased by Rita Rezko, just
prior to the land sale to Obama?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did the Rezkos enter into an agreement to purchase the lot next to the Obama house and pay the asking price of $ 625,000 at a time when they were broke and heavily in debt?”…Citizen Wells

“I believe I’m more pristine on Rezko than him.”…Rod Blagojevich

This is a Citizen Wells exclusive.

I have been in regular contact with Kenneth J. Conner since he filed his original whistleblower lawsuit in 2008. As you may recall, Conner, a former employee of Mutual Bank of Harvey, was asked to do an appraisal review of the lot the Rezkos purchased in June 2005 for the full asking price of $ 625,000. Adams Valuation Corp. had appraised the lot earlier for $ 625,000. After review, Kenneth J. Conner concluded, based on comparable properties, that the lot was worth $ 500,000. An appraisal requested by Barack Obama by Howard B. Richter & Associates on November 21, 2005, near the time of Conner’s evaluation, determined the value of the lot to be $ 490,860. The Obama’s purchased one sixth of the lot in 2006.

From Citizen Wells October 31, 2011.

“9.  In June, 2005, Mutual Bank President and CEO Amrish Mahajan and
other Mutual Bank officers approved a loan to Rita Malki Rezko (Rita
Rezko) which was guaranteed by Antonin Rezko so that Rita Rezko could
purchase a 9,090 square foot vacant parcel of real estate at 5050 S.
Greenwood Avenue, Chicago. As part of the Mutual Bank loan
underwriting process, Mutual Bank obtained a real estate appraisal
from Adams Valuation Corporation (Adams Appraisal) which purported to
provide an opinion of value of the subject 5050 S. Greenwood real
estate (the collateral for the Rezko loan) at $ 68.76 per square foot.
A copy of the Adams Appraisal is attached as Exhibit C. In June, 2005,
Rita Rezko closed on the purchase of the 5050 S. Greenwood property at
a purchase price of $ 625,000.00 along with the loan from Mutual Bank
in the amount of $ 500,000.00 with Mutual bank obtaining a first
mortgage lien position on the Greenwood vacant parcel.”

“10.  On or about January 4, 2006, Rita Rezko entered into an
agreement with Senator Barack and Michelle Obama (Obamas) to sell a
ten-foot strip of the 5050 S. Greenwood property to the Obamas. A copy
of the Obama/Rita Rezko contract is attached as Exhibit D. As a result
of that transaction, the Rezkos requested that Mutual Bank release
it’s first collateral position to the ten-foot strip parcel
transferred to the Obamas. In that same general time frame, Richard
Barth, Mutual Bank Senior VP of construction lending and James Murphy,
Mutual Bank Senior VP Internal Auditor/Risk Manager, requested that
Conner perform an appraisal review of the Adams Appraisal attached
hereto as Exhibit C.”

“11.  In late 2005 or early 2006, Conner performed an appraisal review
of the Adams Appraisal (Exhibit C) per the directive of Richard Barth
and James Murphy. Conner prepared a written Appraisal Review report
(ARR) opining that the Adams Appraisal overvalued the Greenwood lot by
a minimum of $ 125,000.00 and that a reasonable and fair valuation for
Mutual Banks’s underwriting purposes should be no greater than $
500,000.00 for the entire 5050 S. Greenwood parcel as originally
purchased by Rita Rezko. In that same general time frame an appraisal
was performed for the 5050 S. Greenwood property by Howard B. Richter,
MAI which valued the 5050 S. Greenwood property at $ 54.00 per square
foot but then discounted the ten-foot strip being transferred by Rita
Rezko to the Obamas by fifty percent, as the ten-foot strip was
unbuildable standing alone…The valuation by the Richter Appraisal for
the 5050 S. Greenwood lot was substantially to Conner’s ARR
valuation.”

“12.  Conner notified Richard Barth and James Murphy orally of his ARR
findings and Conner’s ARR was filed in the “Rezko 5050 Greenwood” loan
file at Mutual Bank.”

“13.  In addition to Conner’s ARR stating that the Adams Appraisal
overvalued the 5050 S. Greenwood property, Conner had reported on
other occasions that Adams Valuation Corporation had overvalued real
estate subject to Mutual Bank loan underwriting valuation.”

“14.  On or about October 19, 2006, Mutual Bank received a Grand Jury
Subpoena (GJS) requiring Mutual Bank to produce the Rezko 5050
Greenwood loan file, as well as a Rita Rezko Riverside District
Development LLC checking account and loan file. Electronic mail
(email) communications about the subpoena were circulated to Mutual
Bank officers and attorneys, including Amrish Mahajan, James Murphy
and Conner. A copy of an October 19, 2006 email string pertaining to
the Rezko GJS is attached as Exhibit F. On information and belief,
Conner’s ARR was removed from the Rezko 5050 Greenwood loan file prior
to the submission of that file pursuant to the GJS, and in it’s place
Mutual bank submitted an appraisal checklist which was purportedly
dated “06/15/05″ from Senior VP James P. Murphy (Murphy Checklist). A
copy of the Murphy Checklist is attached as Exhibit G.”

“16.  In 2007, Conner observed that his ARR of the 5050 S. Greenwood
property was not in the Rezko 5050 Greenwood loan file and in it’s
place was the Murphy Checklist purportedly dated “06/15/2005.”…On June
18, 2007, Conner sent an email to James Murphy which provides, in
part, “I spent time trying to track down work of mine that should be
in a particular high profile loan file, though it is not–having been
replaced by a checklist.””

“17.  In October, 2007, Conner had various communications with Mutual
Bank’s Human Resources Department representative, Lana Schlabach. In
an email communication of October 15, 2007, Conner directly referenced
“Resentment over my mentioned discovery of the removal/replacement of
an appraisal review that I conducted. That appraisal review contained
substantial observations and suggestions. The transaction and parties
involved were high profile in the media.I am under the impression that
the FBI has since looked at the file.””

“18.  On October 23, 2007, eight days after Conner’s October 15, 2007
email to Schlabach attached as Exhibit J, Mutual Bank terminated
Conner’s employment for pretextual reasons.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/mutual-bank-amrish-mahajan-richard-barth-fdic-lawsuit-kenneth-j-conner-whistleblower-vindication-obama-rezko-land-deal/

On October 25, 2011 the FDIC initiated a lawsuit against Mutual Bank officers, directors and the bank lawyer.

From Citizen Wells October 31, 2011.

From the lawsuit:

“5. Collectively, the Director Defendants and Officer Defendants (“Director and Officer Defendants”) (a) recklessly implemented a strategy of rapid asset growth through approving a high concentration of risky CRE, ADC and out-of-area loans to a small concentration of high-volume borrowers; (b) failed to implement appropriate underwriting and credit administration practices; (c) ignored the Bank’s loan policies; (d) ignored federal lending regulations; and (e) disregarded warnings from the Bank’s regulators regarding the Bank’s lending activities.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/mutual-bank-amrish-mahajan-richard-barth-fdic-lawsuit-kenneth-j-conner-whistleblower-vindication-obama-rezko-land-deal/

The Kenneth J. Conner Qui Tam lawsuit includes the Rezko lot purchase along with other transactions as part of an ongoing pattern of deception.

The lawsuit begins:

“This action, brought on behalf of the United States, concerns various knowing false statements and omissions caused by certain officers, directors and employees of Mutual Bank of Harvey (collectively, “Mutual Bank”) to the Federal deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) in part in order to reduce deposit insurance premiums due to the FDIC and otherwise conceal risk.”

http://www.scribd.com/doc/105592243/Kenneth-J-Conner-Qui-Tam-whistleblower-lawsuit

Qui Tam lawsuits defined.

“Qui tam is a law passed by Congress that allows a private individual with knowledge of fraud committed against the federal government to act as a government whistleblower and bring about a qui tam lawsuit on behalf of the US. Any situation where a company or individual has defrauded the government comes under the False Claims Act, including Medicare fraud and pharmaceutical fraud.”

“Qui tam is a provision of the False Claims Act that allows a whistle blower to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the US government for a fraud committed against the United States. A government whistleblower who successfully files a qui tam lawsuit is entitled to receive between 15 percent and 30 percent of the lawsuit settlement funds recovered for the government.

A considerable amount (estimates are as high as 10 percent) of the US annual budget is paid to companies or individuals who defraud the government, usually by overcharging, submitting bills for services never performed, or over-billing for services provided. Qui tam whistleblower lawsuits include government contract fraud, defense contractor fraud, Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, pharmaceutical fraud and other public benefit fraud.

Qui tam Lawsuits and Settlements

Over one thousand qui tam lawsuits were filed between 1987 and 1995 and from 1988 to 1995 over $1 billion was recovered by qui tam lawyers, either in settlements or lawsuit verdicts filed by government whistleblowers. Since 1986, the government has recovered over $2 billion as a result of these lawsuits, of which almost $340 million has been paid to whistleblowers, also known as “relators”.

Typically, fraud cases are related to where the government is spending the most money. For instance, in the late 1980s, many qui tam lawsuits involved the defense industry. Recently, health care and pharmaceutical cases have been foremost.”

“Whistleblower Protection

“Congress added Whistleblower protections to the False Claims Act in 1986, which entitles the whistleblower to reinstatement with seniority, double back pay, interest, special damages sustained as a result of discriminatory treatment, and attorneys fees and costs, even if the case is never filed, as long as the whistle blower’s allegations could legitimately support a False Claims Act case.

The False Claims Act also protects qui tam plaintiffs who are “demoted, suspended, threatened, harassed or in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and conditions of employment” for acts done in furtherance of filing a claim under the Act.”

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/lawsuit/qui-tam-whistleblower-government-fraud.html#.UE9Jk41lTL9

I was just given the ok to present this.

More to come.