The ShoreBank Bailout, the Scent of Obama and a Mysterious Player

Welcome to the world where the scent of President Obama, and a curious Chicago bank, intersect.

Chicago's ShoreBank has failed and the FDIC has stepped in to bailout the bank. Some bailout. The usual crony crew, Goldman Sachs et al, are all in on this one. And there is the always curious scent of Obama and microlending.

So what's with ShoreBank and Obama?

The company website features a video of Obama in Kenya championing ShoreBank microlending projects overseas.

Obama's mother started the microlending business in Indonesia and Treasury Secretary Geithner's father ran the microlending project for the Ford Foundation for all of Asia, including Indonesia (My suspicion is that Geithner's father was/is top level CIA, with the Ford Foundation as a cover for his moving throughout Asia.) According to Ian Wilhelm of the The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Ford Foundation says that Obama's mother and Geithner's father "met at least once in Jakarta."

The ShoreBank and its employees donated some $12,000 to the Obama 2008 presidential campaign, and co-founder Mary Houghton reportedly gave advice to Obama’s late mother about microlending issues.

ShoreBank Board of Director member Howard Stanback is a Hyde Park neighbor of the President. The President served with Stanback on the board of the radical Woods Fund (where Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers also sat), according to Michelle Malkin.

Now on to the ShoreBank bailout.

The FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Urban Partnership Bank, Chicago, Illinois, a newly-chartered institution, to assume all of the deposits of ShoreBank.

The major investors in the new bailout bank, Urban Partnership, reads like a who's who of Wall Street insider elite:

American Express Company, Bank of America, Citigroup, Ford Foundation, GE Capital Equity Investments, Inc., Harris Bank, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Key Community Development Corp., Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust Corporation, PNC Investment Corp., State Farm Mutual Automobile, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and Wells Fargo & Company

One has to ask,"What are all these player's doing around such a relatively tiny bank?" But there's more,  PEU Report has done its usual yeoman's work:

....in looking for SEC filings on Urban Partnership Bank or ShoreBank, I found a ShoreCap II Ltd., a private equity fund incorporated in Mauritius. Minimum investment is $250,000 for the $55.5 million fund. It's address is:

2230 S. Michigan Avenue
Suite 200
Chicago, IL 60616

A number of Shorebank subsidiaries share this address

I other words, ShoreCap II is a mysterious player operating from ShoreBank's address but incorporated in Mauritius . PEU suspects it may be a private equity operation.

As PEU Report puts it:

Let's be clear, private equity is never mentioned by ShoreBank or its subsidiaries. Mauritius did not make ShoreCap International's client list. Yet, a $55.5 million Mauritius-based private equity fund was launched from ShoreBank's offices. The private equity fund's President, Franklin Kennedy, is a ShoreBank executive.

Most appropriately, PEU asks:

Given ShoreCap II's three notice of exempt offerings, does Chicago have an Ugland House?

There are layers and layers to the ShoreBank story, remove one layer and you are sure to find another. None of it ever leads to one of President Obama's favorite pet themes, transparency.

UPDATE- PEU Report emails:

Microlending and private equity join in ShoreCap International, a Shorebank sub not listed on their website. Oddly, it's incorporated in the Cayman Islands, home of the Ugland House.