Time: Wed Jul 16 13:43:17 1997
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Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 12:46:26 -0700
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Treasury Memos Probed (fwd)
<snip>
>
>Report: Treasury Memos Probed
>
>By KAREN GULLO Associated Press Writer
>
>WASHINGTON (AP)--Hours before congressional investigators
>showed up, Treasury officials hastily composed
>memos justifying $11 million in grants to banks
>owned by friends of the Clintons, congressional
>investigators said.
>
>The memos were undated, written in the present
>tense, and inserted into the files, apparently
>to make investigators think they had been written
>when the grants were made instead of after the
>fact, according to Republicans on the House Banking
>Committee investigating the matter.
>
>The Treasury Department said it considers the matter
>serious and is investigating.
>
>A letter sent Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Robert
>Rubin from the committee said Treasury officials
>Kirsten Moy and Steve Rohde ``clearly calculated
>to mislead the subcommittee.''
>
>``There appears to be no plausible explanation
>for the decision to leave the documents undated
>other than to foster a false impression that they
>had been prepared contemporaneous with the grant
>decisions,'' said the letter signed by six Republicans.
>
>Rubin said the Treasury Department is looking into
>the matter.
>
>``We view these concerns with the utmost seriousness,
>'' he said in a letter sent Tuesday to a committee
>member.
>
>News of the undated memos came as funding for the
>program is up for consideration in Congress. Republicans
>want to cut the program to $50 million from $125
>million.
>
>The banking committee said a report from the Treasury's
>inspector-general showed that Ms. Moy ordered Rohde
>to compose the evaluation memos after learning
>that aides to Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., chairman
>of a House Banking subcommittee, were planning
>to visit.
>
>Against the advice of a department lawyer, Moy
>and Rohde inserted the memos into the files without
>dating them, the letter said.
>
>The lack of dates on the memos aroused suspicion,
>and Bachus ordered an inquiry.
>
>The inspector general's report found that of the
>32 entities awarded money from Treasury's Community
>Development Financial Institution Fund in July
>1996, the four with connections to the Clintons
>did not have evaluation memos, a routine part of
>the application process, investigators said.
>
>Rohde said the memos are not misleading because
>they reflect the actual evaluation process and
>were based on notes he made when the grants were
>awarded to the banks.
>
>The program channeled nearly one-third of its first
>$37 million in grants for poor communities to four
>related banks with ties to the Clintons.
>
>The assistance went to community development lenders
>associated with South Shore Bank, also known as
>Shorebank, a Chicago-based institution. Southern
>Development Inc., an Arkansas company that Hillary
>Rodham Clinton set up with help from Shorebank,
>received $2 million in assistance.
>
>Shorebank official Robert Weissbourd said the bank
>and its affiliates deserved the federal assistance.
>``No one has said that those institutions on the
>merits don't deserve the awards,'' he said.
>
>AP-NY-07-16-97 1101EDT
>
>Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
>
<snip>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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