UNITED
NATIONS,
April 23 -- It
was late
Tuesday
afternoon when
the Obama
administration
announced it
was nominating
Roberto
R.
Herencia to be
a member of
Board of
Directors of
the Overseas
Private
Investment
Corporation.
It
seemed
routine. His
biography, as
presented in
the
announcement,
states that
“between 2009
and 2010, Mr.
Herencia was
the President
and CEO of
Midwest Banc
Holdings Inc.
and Midwest
Bank and
Trust.”
But
there's a
problem, most
straight-forwardly
found in the
case In re
Midwest Banc
Holdings Inc.,
10-37319, U.S.
Bankruptcy
Court,
Northern
District of
Illinois
(Chicago.)
In
that case,
Midwest listed
$9.7 million
in assets but
$144.7 million
in debt. It
had taken
$84.8 million
in bailout
funds from the
Troubled Asset
Relief
Program. The
bank and its
23 branches
were shut
down on May
14, 2010, with
Firstmerit
Bank of Akron,
Ohio then
taking
over its $2.42
billion in
deposits.
So
why is Obama
naming a
banker would
took an $84
million TARP
bailout
and then went
bankrupt to
the Overseas
Private
Investment
Corporation?
Previously
Inner
City Press has
questioned
the
appointment of
Jay Powell
from Deutsche
Bank and
Carlyle to the
Federal
Reserve Board,
click here for
that.
Since
he
was confirmed,
Powell has
been put in
charge of
ruling of
Federal
Reserve
appeals of
Freedom of
Information
Act denials,
of which Inner
City Press has
filed several.
More
so than his
predecessors,
Powell nearly
automatically
upholds the
denials of
access,
sometimes
finding
reasons other
than the ones
asserted to
justify
continued
withholding.
But
in the wake of
the financial
meltdown and
the lack of
prosecutions,
how about
naming a
banker who not
only took the
bailout, but
then
declared
bankruptcy, to
a government
post on the
OPIC board?
Watch
this site.
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