Chicago Aldermen got loans from bank led by lawyer, OK’d his clients’ projects.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

While backing plans to build condos in their wards, two aldermen representing Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Wicker Park and other booming neighborhoods got loans from a bank headed by the lawyer for the developers, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th) and Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st) each has gotten mortgages from Belmont Bank & Trust, according to a Sun-Times’ review of the more than 1,200 mortgages that the small, Northwest Side bank has made since it opened 11 years ago.

Maldonado’s loans totaled nearly $1 million, Moreno’s $825,000, according to records and interviews.

The chairman of the bank? James Banks, who’s also one of the city’s busiest zoning and development lawyers. He is the largest shareholder in Belmont Bank, according to records it filed with the Federal Reserve Bank.

Belmont Bank has been in the news before.