Obama’s Finance Chair, Failed Bank Owner Penny Pritzker and Wall Street Today

Copyright © 2008 Uppity Woman. All Rights Reserved.

Fellow former hippie and blogger over at Power and Control tossed me a link to his most interesting article on the condition of Wall Street and how it relates to Mr. Innocent, Barack Obama. The blogger’s first paragraph refreshed my memory about a piece I wrote back in April while the MSM was busy stroking The One and looking for new ways to set Hillary Clinton aflame.

You see, while Barack Obama is faking outrage over all the bankruptcies and bailouts, he doesn’t mention that a number of his top ten contributors are from Wall Street, including Goldman Sacs, Lehman and the JP Morgan Chase. He also fails to mention that one of the first subprime lenders to stick it to borrowers and have her bank seized is a woman named Penny Pritzker, who just happens to be Barack Obama’s campaign Finance Chair (as confirmed on April 3, 2008) and a potential Secretary of the Treasury in an Obama administration.

Power and Control blogger has this to say:

This is a long and complicated story about how Obama backers were behind the mortgage industry meltdown. It hast to start some where, so lets start with a well known Chicago name Penny Pritzker. It starts with a bank failure.

Power and Control is not only correct, but it looks like it’s time for a re-print (and then some) of my April 3 2008 piece on Penny Pritzker and the failed Superior Bank. I must have been psychic, I guess.

Let’s meet Barack Obama’s Finance Chairperson, Penny Pritzker.

We all know that Barack Obama hangs out with some interesting people and Penny Pritzker is no exception. I thought you might like to know more about Penny Pritzker and the closing of Superior Bank, which was owned by the Pritzker family.

The Pritzkers are one of the nation’s wealthiest families and heirs to the fortune created by the Hyatt hotels. Yes, Penny is a billionaire. So basically, Penny could squash me like a bug right now for writing this.

Among their other endeavors, the Pritzkers were the owners of Superior Bank in Hinsdale, Illinois when it was seized.

Yes, I did say seized.

Penny Pritzker, Barack Obama’s great Chicago (of course!) friend was a pioneer you might say! She was a failed subprime lender who set the tone all the way back to 2001. She did it before it was even in style.

Below is a 2001 press release from the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)

OTS Closes Superior Bank FSB; Hinsdale, Ill. Thrift is Insolvent

WASHINGTON – The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) closed Superior Bank FSB, Hinsdale, Ill., today and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver.

The FDIC transferred the insured deposits and substantially all the assets of Superior Bank into a newly chartered, full-service mutual savings bank, known as Superior Federal, FSB, which will open for business on Monday morning. All depositors of Superior Bank automatically become depositors of Superior Federal, and will have immediate access to their insured funds. All 18 of Superior Bank’s Chicago metropolitan area offices will open for business Monday and will continue to offer full banking services, including online banking. Superior Bank’s loan production and servicing operations will also continue to operate normally.

OTS used its authority under the FDIC Improvement Act of 1991 to close Superior Bank when it found that the bank remained critically undercapitalized — that its tangible equity capital was less than two percent of its total assets. The bank failed to implement a capital restoration plan that it submitted to OTS on May 24 this year.

Superior Bank suffered as a result of its former high-risk business strategy, which was focused on the generation of significant volumes of subprime mortgage and automobile loans for securitization and sale in the secondary market. OTS found that the bank also suffered from poor lending practices, improper record keeping and accounting, and ineffective board and management supervision.

Superior became critically undercapitalized largely due to incorrect accounting treatment and aggressive assumptions for valuing residual assets. The bank also experienced significant losses during 2000 from its automobile lending program.

OTS has determined that Superior Bank is insolvent, having incurred losses that have depleted all or substantially all of its capital. OTS also determined that Superior Bank was no longer able to transact business in a safe and sound manner.

OTS notified the bank of its serious concerns in July 2000.

The bank was purchased by two families in 1988 — the Pritzker family of Chicago, owner of Hyatt Hotels and other interests, and the Dworman family of New York, with interests in real estate and financial services activities — and was operated through a complex network of holding companies.

In light of these findings, OTS determined that closure and the appointment of FDIC as receiver were necessary to protect the interests of the bank’s insured depositors.

As of March 31, 2001, the failed bank had total assets of $1.9 billion and total deposits of $1.5 billion. FDIC insures depositors’ accounts up to the statutory limit of $100,000.

Superior is the only bank that OTS has closed in 2001, and only the fourth OTS-regulated institution closed in the past five years.

The FDIC has established a toll free telephone number for customers of Superior. That number is 1-800-331-6306, and will be available until midnight tonight and then from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily thereafter.

At the time of this seizure, it was determined that Penny Pritzker and her family owed $460,000,000 to the Federal Government. Yes, that’s right folks. Nearly a half a billion dollars. Gee, i wonder if that’s all paid back yet, don’t you?

I thought you might also like to hear an interview with one of Penny Pritzker’s victims and how this bank closing affected her life. You will also hear her reaction to the thought that Barack Obama would hire Penny Pritzker as his campaign Finance Chair, not to mention her horrified reaction to the thought that Ms. Pritzker might one day be “Secretary of the Treasury”. If “Play” doesn’t work, Click in MP3 Stream link.Buckle your seat belt first, please. This woman does not spare details and is not in a good mood. I suppose I wouldn’t be in a very good mood either if I lost my savings to Penny Pritzker.

I guess the main stream media didn’t think this Petty little Penny Pritzker Problem (say that three times fast) was important enough to look into back in April, 2008 when insignificant little me wrote about it. Ooops! Wait! They don’t seem interested in looking into it now either! Obama’s going to fix this problem. Oh yeah, for sure.

While your at it, take a look here at The Real Barack Obama’s repost of her piece on the Penny Pritzker Problem. It contains a nice round-up of Pritzker contributions to Obama as well.

Additional links on this bilking of innocent people:
NY Times, December, 2001
FDIC Failed Bank Information – Superior Bank
OTS Closes Superior Bank FSB; Hinsdale, Ill. Thrift is Insolvent
OTS Announces Resolution of Charges Against Auditor of Closed Superior Bank FSB