The prosecutors are dumb-founded, but they have been unable to show that banker Jeffrey Gonsiewski was anything other than a man with an enormous heart.
He'll also soon be a man with a fairly lengthy prison term to serve.
For thirty years, Mr. Gonsiewski wrote up loans for clients of an Elmwood Park, Illinois, bank. All very dull, you'd expect, the same process over and over, the same joy shared with those about to buy their dream home.
Then came the mortgage melt-down. Clients came to Mr. Gonsiewski for help in altering the terms of their mortgage loans so that they could find a way to keep their property. Taking pity on the desperate, the banker then made alterations and changes and adjustments to the original loan documents without first clearing things with his superiors.
But things would turn around soon enough, wouldn't they, and the money would be repaid eventually.
Yet the turn-around never came and the bank found out what was going on. The loan officer was fired, an investigation opened, and all the searching in the world showed that Mr. Gonsiewski didn't take any money. Like some misguided St. Nicholas, he re-distributed the bank's wealth among its downtrodden customers without once thinking about himself.
If he'd thought about himself, of course, he'd not be on his way to prison for 63 months. The bank would also like $5 million in restitution, but they're trying to squeeze blood out of a middle-aged turnip on that one.
Quite the grand gesture of charity, done with money that was much needed by the bank's owners. After all, the Chicago Blackhawks were also pressed for funds last year, and the Wirtz family wasn't in any position to give away mortgages when they were focused on giving Chicagoans a championship.
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