The House Ethics Committee says that even as the Los Angeles Democrat was warned against interceding on behalf of a bank with ties to her husband, her chief of staff was 'actively involved' in helping OneUnited
By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington —
Even as Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California was warned by a colleague against interceding on behalf of a troubled bank with ties to her husband, her chief of staff, who also is her grandson, was "actively involved" in working to help the bank, according to a House Ethics Committee report released Monday that accuses the longtime Los Angeles political figure of three ethics violations.Around the same time that Waters set up a September 2008 meeting between U.S. Treasury Department officials and representatives of minority-owned banks, her chief of staff, Mikael Moore, sent an e-mail to the staff of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. According to the report, the subject of the e-mail was: "O[ne] U[nited] is in trouble'".
Three months later, Boston-based OneUnited, with branches in Massachusetts, Florida and Los Angeles County, received $12 million in bailout funds.
If OneUnited had not received the aid from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Waters' husband's financial interest in the bank would have been worthless, according to the House Ethics Committee's 10-page statement of alleged violations.
The report accuses the 10-term congresswoman of violating three House rules: one that requires its member to "behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House"; a second that prohibits lawmakers from using their influence for personal benefit; and a third forbidding the dispensing of favors.
The report referred to Frank's advice to Waters to "stay out of it" and refrain from advocating on behalf of OneUnited because of her husband's ties to the institution. Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, served on the OneUnited board from 2004 to 2008, and was a stockholder in the bank at the time of the September 2008 meeting.
Once Waters "realized" that she should not be involved in assisting OneUnited, she should have instructed her chief of staff to refrain from assisting the bank, the report says. But after the meeting, the report says, her chief of staff was "actively involved in assisting OneUnited representatives with their request for capital from Treasury and crafting legislation to authorize Treasury to grant the request".
Waters, who has vowed to fight the charges in a trial, has defended her efforts as in keeping with her longtime work to promote opportunity for minority-owned businesses and lending in underserved communities such as her South Los Angeles district. Los Angeles Times
