Obama Linked Shorebank: Prepaid tuition program failed in ShoreBank review, auditor general reports

Obama linked Shorebank is in the news. Crain's Chicago Business reports:

The state agency running the College Illinois prepaid tuition program, which lost all of a $12.7-million investment in Chicago community bank ShoreBank, failed to follow the state’s competitive procurement requirements in hiring a firm to vet the investment beforehand, the Illinois Auditor General concluded in a report Thursday.

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission—an agency under intense scrutiny by the Legislature for its controversial administration of the college savings fund that promises to cover future tuition at state universities for 55,000 students—wrote a contact with the firm hired to perform due diligence on the proposed ShoreBank deal that effectively paid that firm only if the agency followed through on the investment.

That vendor, San Francisco-based investment bank Grigsby & Associates Inc., was paid 2% of the investment, or $255,600, the report said.

No word yet from convicted felon Robert Creamer on this one, or his wife Jan Schakowsky.