Kenneth J. Conner once had a nice and prestigious job working as a real estate analyst at the Mutual Bank in Harvey, Illinois. But Conner is no longer working at the bank, he is now officially unemployed. That's right, he was fired for blowing the whistle on his employees over a collaborative scheme worked out between the bank, Tony Rezko and Presidential candidate, Barack Obama.
Here's what happened:
In June of 2005, Mutual Bank approved a loan for Rita Rezko, the wife of now-indicted financier,Tony Rezko, that enabled her to purchase a lot adjacent to the home Barack Obama was buying. The bank obtained a real estate appraisal from the Adams Valuation Corporation, which assessed the value of the property at $625,000. Rita Rezko closed on the purchase of the property at a purchase price of $625,000 along with a loan for $500,000 from the bank.
However, Mr. Conner later made his own assessment of the value of the lot, and concluded that the Adams' appraisal overvalued the property by $125,000 and that the lot was worth no more than $500,000.
As it turned out, Obama bought his home for $1.65 million - $300,000 under the asking price - on the same day that Rita Rezko bought the neighboring lot for the asking price of $625,000 in 2005.
Hmmm..... Do I hear 'Kickback'?
Conner notified the bank's CEO's of his findings, and his ARR was filed in the "Rezko 5050 Greenwood" loan file at Mutual Bank. On one or more subsequent occasions, Conner re-examined the loan file and there were no other appraisal reviews, reports or checklists of the Adams appraisal in the file other than his own.
Later that year, Mutual Bank received a Grand Jury subpoena requiring the bank to produce Rita Rezko's "5050 Greenwood file". However, instead of submitting Mr. Conner's file to the GJS, the bank submitted an appraisal checklist - "purportedly" dated 6/15/05 - from senior Vice President James Murphy. In 2007, Conner noticed that his ARR of the property was not in the "Rezko Greenwood 5050" file, but in its place was the Murphy checklist, ["purportedly"] dated 6/15/05.
Hmmm......
Conner subsequently sent an email to James Murphy complaining about the matter, and on October 2007 Conner sent an email to the bank's Human Resources Department representative, Lana Schlabach, expressing "resentment" over the removal of his ARR from the "Rezko Greenwood" file, adding that he was under the impression that the FBI had examined the file, but apparently, had not seen his ARR because it was removed from the file. Conner also wrote that if the FBI were to ask him "about such matters", he would have to "tell them the truth."
And guess what happened after that.
Eight days after Conner's email to Schlabach, Conner was fired for "pretextual" reasons.
Hmmm.....
Conner is suing the bank for $4,2 million. And the bank could be guilty of making false statements, willfully overvaluing property, bank fraud, witness retaliation, willful violation of a lawful subpoena, FDIC violations, and state banking regulations.
Let's see: Mr. Conner lost his job, and the bank CEO's could end up in jail, right alongside Tony Rezko. But Barack Obama, well, he's headed to the White House, of course - and in all fairness, I wouldn't expect anything less for the "Messiah".........
PDF file of Mr. Conner's suit
And the latest from the Washington Times.
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1 comment:
but the Bush FBI only releases damning information on investigations which involve Republicans. They will go as far out of their way as they can to avoid harming the political careers of a Democrat.
William Jefferson (D-LA) is STILL in office 5 years after they busted him in a sting. No trial. No public statements.
And Fitzpatrick missed the best possible evidence of corruption by not waiting until Blago actual nominated the new US Senator. They would have had the motive, conspiracy and then the actual CRIME. But by doing this now, they have to go to a jury with a case where somebody only talked about something which could have been a crime. WHY would he sabotage his own case by not allowing the criminal to actually implicate himself with the criminal act? We don't bust drug dealers PRIOR to the transaction. We don't bust fraud artists BEFORE they commit the fraud.
The FBI has completely boned themselves on this one. They've done it before. There would have been no public harm to allow Blago to actually commit the crime PLUS the FBI would also have the goods on the other criminals who paid to put the candidate into the Senate! But now all the other crooks are going to get off the hook. Thanks, Fitzy.
The last time Fitzy had to create a crime in order to convict somebody. This time he has crimes all around him but he queers his own investigation by stopping the crime before it happens. Not exactly the standard for consistency.
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