Stephen Calk

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Stephen Calk (born 1964/1965) is the founder, former Chairman and CEO of The Federal Savings Bank, a federally chartered National Bank headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. He was an economic advisor to Donald Trump during the 2016 United States presidential election campaign.^[1][2][3] Calk currently serves as an Ambassador for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.^[4][5]

Calk was convicted of conspiracy and bribery in July 2021 for providing loans to Paul Manafort, the former chairman of the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, in exchange for a possible high-ranking position in the Trump administration.^[6]

Early life and career

Calk was born in Detroit, Michigan, and was raised in Florida, Illinois, and London. He attended the United States Military Academy Preparatory School, and is a 1988 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.^[7]

In 1982, he enlisted in the United States Army and was honorably discharged as a Private First Class before he was early commissioned as an Army Officer. He is a graduate of the United States Army Aviation School and served in both active and reserve status as a combat helicopter pilot and commander for over 16 years.^[8]

In 1998, Calk received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Calk is also a graduate of the nine-year Presidents Program in Leadership at Harvard Business School.^[9]

He has served his community numerous civic and philanthropic boards including serving as the Chairman of the United States 10th Congressional District's Service Academy Selection Committee and as a Certified Leader in the Boy Scouts of America. He has served as a Trustee for the University of Illinois St. John's Catholic Newman Center and on the Board of the USO of Illinois. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Chicago Chapter of the World Presidents Organization and Young Presidents Organization. He is a proponent and advocate of Veteran housing needs. Calk is a former trainer and mentor of junior military officers and senior non-commissioned officers before taking command positions or returning to civilian life after service to their country. He serves as an Ambassador for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Before, he is a graduate of the United States Army Aviation School and served in both active and reserve status as a combat helicopter pilot and commander for over 16 years. Also, he enlisted in the United States Army and was honorably discharged as a Private First Class before he was early commissioned as an Army Officer.^[4][7][8] He has also served on numerous civic and philanthropic boards and is a member of The Economic Club of Chicago, The Harvard Club of New York City, Halter Wildlife Preserve, and The Chicago Club where he served on the Membership Commission. Calk is a nationally recognized expert in the fields of finance, economics, and real estate finance as well as National Security and Military issues.

Calk's banking career began in 1995 when he founded Chicago Bancorp, which has been described as "one of the largest privately-held retail mortgage banks in the country” and served as its president until it was later absorbed into The Federal Savings Bank, where, with his brother John, he focused on issuing mortgage loans on single-family homes to veterans.^[5][10]

In 2014, Calk moved his bank's headquarters to Chicago after the city offered him tax breaks.^[5] Calk struck an agreement with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel that promised to bring up to 400 new employees to a gentrifying neighborhood west of downtown. The city agreed to pay the bank $10,000 per employee, in what was the largest-ever grant of its kind, to cover job training costs. In the end, Calk and his brother John pulled off a neat trick: Their bank, among the most profitable in the country that year, collected $3.6 million in public subsidies in substantial part by hiring employees. The city and the bank said in written responses to questions that Federal Savings fulfilled all of its obligations and that the funds were only paid after the job training was completed and verified. A multimillion-dollar deal between Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Stephen Calk was supposed to deliver 400 new jobs to the city. On April 23, 2012, Stephen Calk said in an email to a city official that Federal Savings Bank's board of directors had approved plans to establish a national home loan center in Chicago, subject to receiving a training allowance of $10,000 per employee. Under the deal, Chicago's financial commitment was to come from a portion of the city's TIF program that is dedicated to job training. Between early 2012 and March 28, 2013, the city of Chicago awarded two TIFWorks contracts totaling $2.1 million to Federal Savings and its holding company, according to city records. In 2015, the city awarded another $1.5 million to the holding company, bringing the total to $3.6 million. However, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Planning and Development told that the city was aware that the bank's training would cover both incumbent and new employees. The program's guidelines state that the funds can be used both to train new hires and to provide training that upgrades the skills of current employees. The Federal Savings Bank, which specializes in home loans for veterans and first-time homebuyers, has 1722 employees.^[3][5][11]

In 2016/2017 Calk served as a Senior Economic Advisor to the President-Elect of the United States and he has served as an advisor to the Governor of the State of Illinois, the Commissioner of Banks. and Real Estate and the Office of Professional Regulation for the State of Illinois on matters of Mortgage Banking and Real Estate finance. Calk had been named to the Trump campaign's economic advisory panel in August 2016.^[7][12] Calk was nominated by Congressman Phillip Crane and subsequently appointed to the United States Military Academy Preparatory School at West Point.

In 2016, he was an economic advisor to Donald Trump during the 2016 United States presidential election campaign. Calk calls himself a centrist who backed President Barack Obama in 2008. He says he's only met Trump three or four times, at social or charitable events. “He seemed to take a real interest in the fact that I was a single dad, that I was a family man, that I built my business, and I think he had a lot of respect for that,” Calk says. Calk has respect for Trump's economic plans, especially cutting child-care costs and cutting business taxes to 15 percent. “He wants to see America on top, and I think the way he will deliver that message will probably be in a very measured way,” he says. Trump's economic team is totally composed of white men — no women, no minorities. Calk said this is only the initial group. He expects more diversity when additional advisers are added.^[3]

In 2017 Calk was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, Midwest division. He has served on the board of directors, advisory board of directors, or customer advisory board of directors for various public and private companies, including JP Morgan Chase’s Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp., Ohio Savings Bank, Citimortgage, Bank of America, and the former General Electric Mortgage Insurance Company. He is regularly featured in print and on-air national news programs, including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Fox Business News, CNBC Squawk Box, CBS evening news, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, Money, Crain's Chicago Business, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times. Calk has served as an advisor to the Governor of the State of Illinois, the Commissioner of Banks and Real Estate, and the Office of Professional Regulation for the State of Illinois on matters of Mortgage Banking and Real Estate finance.^{[4][13][3][5][11]}

The Federal Savings Bank of Chicago

Calk's banking career began in Kansas, where, with his brother John focused on issuing mortgages on single-family homes to veterans.^[5][10] He moved his bank's headquarters to Chicago in 2014 after the city offered him tax breaks.^[1] After it, Calk has served as an advisor to the Governor of the State of Illinois, the Commissioner of Banks and Real Estate and the Office of Professional Regulation for the State of Illinois on matters of Mortgage Banking and Real Estate finance.^[5]

In 2011, Stephen and John Calk announced that with the approval of the Office of Thrift Supervision they have closed the deal and purchased the more than 100-year charter and assets of Generations Bank from Armed Forces Bank. Before, in 1995 Stephen established and served as CEO of Chicago Bancorp, which has grown to be one of Illinois’ largest privately held retail mortgage banks.^{[3][5][14][13]}

In 2014, Calk struck an agreement with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel that promised to bring up to 400 new employees to a gentrifying neighborhood west of downtown. The city agreed to pay the bank $10,000 per employee, in what was the largest-ever grant of its kind, to cover job training costs. In the end, Calk and his brother John pulled off a neat trick: Their bank, among the most profitable in the country that year, collected $3.6 million in public subsidies in substantial part by hiring employees. The city and the bank said in written responses to questions that Federal Savings fulfilled all of its obligations, and that the funds were only paid after the job training was completed and verified. A multimillion-dollar deal between Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Stephen Calk was supposed to deliver 400 new jobs to the city. On April 23, 2012, Stephen Calk said in an email to a city official that Federal Savings Bank's board of directors had approved plans to establish a national home loan center in Chicago, subject to receiving a training allowance of $10,000 per employee. Under the deal, Chicago's financial commitment was to come from a portion of the city's TIF program that is dedicated to job training. Between early 2012 and March 28, 2013, the city of Chicago awarded two TIFWorks contracts totaling $2.1 million to Federal Savings and its holding company, according to city records.^[4][13][11]

In 2014, the Federal Savings Bank of Chicago signed an agreement to cooperate with the New York City real estate firm Douglas Elliman, and in exchange, either Douglas Elliman or its parent company, the Vector Group, invested in Calk's bank, according to a 2015 deposition by Howard Lorber, the Vector Group's CEO. Lorber, a longtime friend, and ally of Trump's, later served with Calk on the Trump campaign's economic council.^[4][11]

In 2015, the city awarded another $1.5 million to the holding company, bringing the total to $3.6 million.^[11] However, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Planning and Development told that the city was aware that the bank's training would cover both incumbent and new employees. The program's guidelines state that the funds can be used both to train new hires and to provide training that upgrades the skills of current employees. The Federal Savings Bank, which specializes in home loans for veterans and first-time homebuyers, has 1722 employees.^[4][5][11]

In 2019, Calk resigned as chairman and CEO from the Federal Savings Bank of Chicago.^[15]

Loans to Paul Manafort

Manafort first got in touch with Calk's Federal Savings Bank of Chicago in April 2016, according to testimony given by the bank's senior vice president Dennis Raico at Manafort's August 2018 trial for fraud and tax evasion. Manafort, Calk, and Raico discussed loans and politics over dinner in New York in May 2016. On July 28, Calk became directly involved in discussions about loans to Manafort and his son-in-law for investment properties, which Raico told the court was unusual. Subsequently, over a lunch, Calk and Manafort discussed another loan. On October 6, 2016, Manafort emailed Calk to say that he had been mistaken in saying at this lunch that he owed $2.5 million on a Bridgehampton, New York, property that he intended to use as collateral. In fact he owed $3 million. "I must have had a blackout," Manafort wrote in his email. On October 16, Manafort asked to change the terms of the loan, requesting a line of credit on the property instead of using it as collateral for a construction loan for a California property. In his application materials for the loan, Manafort provided a 2016 income statement for himself that his business partner Rick Gates later testified was false.^[16]

James Brennan, another vice president at the bank, testified at Manafort's trial that Manafort failed to declare in his application materials that two of his New York properties were already mortgaged and that Manafort's statements about his income in 2015 were inconsistent.^[17] Brennan also testified that bank employees had noticed that Manafort seemed to have no income as of July 2016, though he claimed to be owed $2.4 million, that he was more than 90 days late on a $300,000 credit card bill.^[18] Concerns within the bank about the propriety of the loan were overruled by Calk, however, and on November 16, 2016, Manafort received from Calk's bank a $9.5 million cash-out refinance loan on a house in Bridgehampton, New York. "It closed because Mr. Calk wanted it to close," Brennan testified.^[17] On January 4, 2017, Manafort received an additional loan from Calk's bank, a $6.5 million construction loan on a property on Union Street in New York City.^[15] The two loans, totalling about $16 million, were the largest and second-largest ever issued by the bank.^[18] The combined size of the loans at the time represented around 5 percent of the bank's asset base of $341 million,^[19] and represented about 22 percent of the bank's equity capital of $72 million.^[20]

The bank has since written the loans off as a loss.^[17]

See also

• List of economic advisors to Donald Trump in 2016 presidential campaign

References

External links

• Federal Savings Bank of Chicago