Top Obama Fundraiser Helped Run Failed Subprime Lender

For the Pritzker family of Chicago, the 2001 collapse of subprime-mortgage lender Superior Bank was an embarrassing failure in a corner of their giant business empire.

Billionaire Penny Pritzker helped run Hinsdale, Ill.-based Superior, overseeing her family's 50% ownership stake. She now serves as Barack Obama's national campaign-finance chairwoman, which means her banking past could prove to be an embarrassment to her -- and perhaps to the campaign.

Superior was seized in 2001 and later closed by federal regulators. Government investigators and consumer advocates have contended that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices. Ms. Pritzker, a longtime friend and supporter of Sen. Obama, served for a time as Superior's chairman, and later sat on the board of its holding company.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Ides]

Pritzker again? This thing had ZERO legs when it was pulled on Obama during the primary (maybe because her brother J.B. was working for Hillary's campaign).

The story's old and only half-told in this WSJ piece, and I'm tired at the "hint" of controversy being enough to overlook any actual substance just to smear someone.

Here's a little substance:
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2002/Tremors-in-the-Empire/

[VOTER]

Exactly right!

This is old news in Illinois. I am surprised WSJ could even find it .

Desperation.

[scorpioleidy]

McSame had about five of these, right?!

[cariintexas]

Who posted this article. I see WSJ. that would not be the same WSJ owned by Murdoch, now would it. And the chaos rolls on.

[VOTER]

Check out the following:

http://www.mcclathcydc.com/256/story/44976.html

The article comes from the Miami Herald.

"Thousands in Florida with Criminal Records Work Unlicensed As Loan Originators..........."

In 2002, several individuals attempted to stop the possible criminal activity.

Where was good old Jeb Bush?

Floridians are just beginning to see and to feel the damage done by Jeb.

Maybe they have learned their lesson. Jeb was the first GOP Gov to have two terms.

Never AGAIN? Sure hope so........................

[californiadreamer]

Maybe this is the Presidential Election year that the electorate can send a message that the American people are not going to let themselves be the fall guys for the special interests who raise the big chunks of money for the campaigns. Obama should help the American families who were imprudent in their mortgage transactions save homes threatened by foreclosure, especially since the banks offering them the new mortgages were looking for a profit bundling and selling those mortgages. He should run for the president as a man more interested in helping his fellow citizens than in helping the big campaign donors and fund raisers. Will he, or will this just be another election as usual?

[texanna]

I am continually amazed at the tolerance of Obama's supporters for things about Sen. O or his campaign that they loudly decry when those very things or things very similar are associated with any opponent of Sen. Obama.

[inthecolour]

Oops, I didn't realize that I was on a rightwing website.

You can try focusing on a zillions of shady characters working for Mcain instead of grasping at straws with this story.

[keepemhonest]

Top McCain advisor, Sen. Phil Gramm was behind the Enron failure.

Top-Secret McCain advisor, Karl Rove was behind the CIA Valerie Plame leak.

Top-Secret McCain advisor, Karl Rove was behind the Justice Department firing United States Attorneys who refused to indict elected democratic leaders around the country.

Top-Secret McCain advisor, Karl Rove manipulated the court and the prosecution of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman D) to destroy him politically ...

Here is my personal favorite:
** Top-Secret McCain advisor, Karl Rove was behind the racist 2000 Presidential Commercial intended to undermine then-Bush rival John Mccain: "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?" said Rove/Bush Commerical.

... hmm ... and that's the guy Mccain uses as his "Top Secret Campaign Advisor."

[Candyx]

why would you want to bring this out when mccain has tons of ties to the savings and loan scandal

[Daly]

many of Cain's voters cannot recall anything beyond him never talking about being a hero so they surely cannot recall k e a t i n g 5 or Phil's pick pocket antics so this recycle news is good for them.

Cain's worst mistake is having the most popular man in the world leave the country.

Even the D -L A M A is speaking out.

[NeoStar9]

Wait a minute. Wasn't this already reported back during the middle of the primary and it was explained then and wasn't even brought up again because it was a non-issue. This isn't new news at all.

[rollingdivision]

When your billionaire big fund raiser has agreed "to pay $460 million to help defray the costs of Superior's collapse" and you have to explain "In a prepared statement, the Obama campaign noted that Ms. Pritzker was never accused of wrongdoing by regulators in connection with Superior" it's time for her to leave the campaign. Why do so many of the idle rich support Obama? http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638

[pleeezzze]

Paybacks gonna be a b*tch , huh ?

[Argoth]

So...I bought something that was not a good investment once and I donated to Obama. Does that make me a story too?

[donttasemebro]

Get her out of there.

[joeyp404]

O is friends with billionaires? Wow, and yesterday the Obamanians were upset about a fundraiser in the Hamptons...

[rollingdivision]

O has gotten huge money from the pacs, executives and employees of all the big wall street investment bankers and mortgage bankers, not that they want anything in return. Check at opensecrets.org, the numbers are telling.

[PixelMarx]

Perhaps we should point out that a lot of the borrowers engaged in risky, speculative borrowing, and while some were genuinely taken advantage of, others were not, and don't need our tears.