Report: Rep. Maxine Waters Helped Steer Bailout Funds to Bank With Family Ties

Published December 24, 2015

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., helped steered millions of dollars in bailout funds to a bank on whose board her husband served, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The bank also didn't appear to meet the requirements for receiving the money, the newspaper reported.

Waters, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, arranged a meeting in September between Treasury officials and the chief executive of OneUnited, one of the country's largest black-owned banks, which requested $50 million in special bailout funds.

Treasury officials told the newspaper that Waters didn't tell them her husband, Sidney Williams, served on the bank's board of directors and has owned at least $250,000 in stock in the institution.

The bank, then considered to be in a precarious condition, received $12 million in December from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was intended for healthy banks.

Williams no longer serves on the bank's board; it is unclear whether he still owns OneUnited shares, the newspaper said.

The bank came under fire from regulators in 2007 for failing to give more loans to lower-income residents in Miami, while favoring wealthier customers there, the newspaper said. And the F.D.I.C. sanctioned the institution in October for "unsafe or unsound banking practices," including excessive compensation for its chief executive.

Michael Levin, a spokesman for Waters, told FOXNews.com that the Times report was riddled with errors and predicted the newspaper will make corrections.

Click here to read The New York Times report.

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