Barney Frank defends support of bank after call from disgraced pol
“Dianne Wilkerson asked me to do it!”
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said yesterday he has “no regrets” about his role in helping a troubled Boston bank qualify for a $12 million federal bailout now at the center of ethics charges against California Rep. Maxine Waters.
In fact, Frank – chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee – says he never helped OneUnited at the behest of Waters, whose husband had served on the bank’s board.
Instead, the Bay State congressman said he worked to promote the bailout at the request of scandal-plagued then-state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson.
“I was already working on behalf of OneUnited, I was called by Senator Wilkerson and others, I don’t remember who. I was out in California doing a hearing and got a call from Wilkerson,” he told the Herald yesterday.
At the time Frank said he acted on Wilkerson’s behalf, the senator was one month away from federal bribery charges to which she recently pleaded guilty. She had previously pleaded guilty to failure to pay federal income taxes and been cited for unreported campaign donations and expenditures.
In 2001, she was fined as a sitting senator by the State Ethics Commission for failing to report consulting fees from OneUnited’s predecessor, the Boston Bank of Commerce, for which she had lobbied.
Wilkerson did not return a call seeking comment, but Frank said he felt “vindication” from a federal ethics panel report released yesterday as charges against Waters were leveled by the U.S. House.
Frank said he advised Waters to “stay out of it” because of her potential conflict of interest in pushing OneUnited’s bailout under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
But when he was asked if he looked into OneUnited, which a few weeks later was slapped with a cease-and-desist order by regulators alleging improper lending practices and excessive executive pay and perks, including a Porsche for executives, Frank said he did not.
“No, I did not look into this specific bank because it was not my final decision on who got aid,” said Frank. “I think minority banks are healthy for the country’s economy. They’re the only minority-owned bank in Massachusetts.”
Waters approached Frank on behalf of OneUnited in early September 2008 and Frank, who is identified only as “Representative A” in the ethics report released yesterday, told her: “He would address the problem. Representative A then asked his staff to take over the OneUnited issue from Representative Waters.”
Waters faces a House trial this fall on three ethics charges relating to a request for federal help for OneUnited where her husband, Sidney Williams, had been a director and still owned stock. According to the ethics report, Waters called for and got a meeting with top Treasury and government officials, including representatives from Frank’s office and Sen. John F. Kerry’s office, on Sept. 9, 2008.
Yesterday, critics called Frank a “co-conspirator” with Waters.
“If Frank knew she had a conflict of interest and then he admits to the ethics committee he could use the cover of his interest in Massachusetts and minority-owned banks, then he’s just carrying water for Waters,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative, nonpartisan government watchdog. “I don’t know how he could stay clean or skate away on this.”
However, Frank (D-Newton) said, “They asked for all my records and at no point did they ever tell me that I was being investigated. I’m pleased that they’ve concluded that nothing I did raised any questions.”
OneUnited received $12 million from the massive federal TARP program. So far, OneUnited hasn’t proven too good an investment – the bank has missed five dividend payments to the Treasury Department.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1271935
Ethics trials highlight racial tensions in Congress
/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1271983
Democrats declare swamp of corruption drained
/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1271980
