Apr 23, 2010

Feds close bank with ties to Illinois candidate Giannoulias

08:30 PM
By M. Spencer Green, AP

Federal regulators shut down a bank today owned by the family of Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat running for President Obama's former Senate seat, the Associated Press and Chicago newspapers are reporting.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced today that Broadway Bank had failed and would be restructured before reopening next week. Giannoulias worked as a senior loan officer at the bank before he ran for state treasurer, according to this story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Management of the bank is already an issue in the campaign. Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for Giannoulias' GOP opponent, Rep. Mark Kirk, said the campaign will continue to focus on what she called "reckless decision-making" at the bank, the Sun-Times reports.

"It is early in the campaign," Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill, told Bloomberg News when asked earlier today whether the Giannoulias campaign could survive a bank closure.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... nnoulias/1