David Vitale, President of the Chicago Board of Education, is the same David Vitale who was executive Chairman of Shore Bank, the crony-ridden bank specializing in everything from political fundraising to climate science.

In case you missed coverage of Shore Bank, we covered it here for several years now.

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At a lunch with a retired Tribuner who was getting a charge out of the Chicago Daily Observer coverage of ShoreBank.  He related a story about a 1980′s era Tribune investigation of the questionable practice of “redlining” or steering investment out of poorer neighborhoods. I paraphrase

When we got around to looking at ShoreBank, they had no records of where they loaned money and did no reporting to the Bank Regulators, responding, ‘Of course we loan money to our own neighborhood, we’re ShoreBank”, which was backed up by the then overlords at the Tribune.

Take a look at this from Bloomberg

ShoreBank Corp., the holding company for a Chicago lender that served low- and moderate-income communities before being closed by regulators in August, filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11.

ShoreBank said it had about $63.5 million in liabilities and about $19.2 million in assets in a filing yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. Eleven of the holding company’s units also sought bankruptcy.

You can read the whole article, but you won’t find any mention of Political Insiderism, Rep. Jan Schakowsky or her felonious husband Robert Creamer, Sen. Dick Durbin, the mis-investment of prepaid tuition funds, longtime Cdobs favorite William Brandt.

Here is a little more depth on what has gone on at ShoreBank

A list of the corporate shareholders at ShoreBank tells a story of insider trading and crony capitalism

Allstate Insurance Company
Bank of America Corporation
BP Corporation North America Inc.
Bullitt Foundation
Calvert Social Investment Equity Fund Catholic Healthcare West
Center for Community Change
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Chicago Community Foundation
Cleveland Tomorrow
CNA Financial Corporation
Cooperative Assistance Fund
Cummins Foundation Inc.
Development Equity Fund, L.L.C
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society
of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the US
Dominican Sisters of Springfield, IL
Ecotrust
Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan
F.B. Heron Foundation
Ford Foundation
Harris Bankcorp, Inc.
Health Care Service Corporation
Illinois Prepaid Tuition Trust Fund
Irving Harris Foundation
Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Joyce Foundation
LaSalle National Corporation
Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company
MAF Investments, Ltd.
Marquette Community Foundation
MBNA Community Development Corporation.
New Prospect Foundation
Northern Michigan University
Northern Trust Corporation
Piton Foundation
Prudential Insurance Company
R.D. Merrill Company
Regency Savings Bank, F.S.B.
South Shore Commission
State Farm Mutual Automobile Company
Twenty-First Century Foundation
UIDC Holdings, L.P.
Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock
United Church of Christ/ Local Church Ministries.
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Wieboldt Foundation

This is crony capitalism on steroids . Insider trading makes doing business in Illinois nearly impossible without paying politicians for favors. This is Illinois at its worst or as the Tribune puts it

“This institution has made Chicago stronger. It deserves to be saved, so it can continue that work.”