Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters is a traitor.

Maxine Waters is a traitor.

Maxine Waters is a traitor and member of the United States Congress (D-CA), representing California’s 35th congressional district.

In early December, Democrats chose the scandal-plagued Rep. Maxine Waters to be the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee despite her many transgressions over the years. The influential congresswoman has helped family members make more than $1 million through business ventures with companies and causes that she has helped, according to her hometown newspaper.

In August 2010, Waters’ influence peddling earned the attention of a subcommittee of the House Ethics Committee which charged Rep. Waters with three counts of violating House rules and ethics regulations in connection with her use of power and influence on behalf of OneUnited Bank. After a highly controversial investigation, plagued by accusations of impropriety and corruption, on September 12, the committee failed to hold Waters to account for steering $12 million to OneUnited, in which she and her board member husband held shares.

The Financial Services Committee, among other responsibilities, has jurisdiction over all issues pertaining to; you guessed it, the banking system.


Additional Information

Maxine Waters is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee.

Waters’ arranged a meeting between officials at the Department of Treasury and OneUnited Bank, a bank with which she has financial ties.

Meeting Between OneUnited and Treasury Officials

In September 2008, Rep. Waters asked then-Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson to hold a meeting for minority-owned banks that had suffered from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac losses. The Treasury Department complied and held a session with approximately a dozen senior banking regulators, representatives from minority-owned banks, and their trade association.

Officials of OneUnited Bank, one of the largest black-owned banks in the country that has close ties to Rep. Waters, attended the meeting along with Rep. Waters’ chief of staff. Kevin Cohee, chief executive officer of OneUnited, used the meeting as an opportunity to ask for bailout funds. Treasury, however, did not commit to a bailout. Former Bush White House officials stated they were surprised when OneUnited officials asked for bailout funds because they understood the meeting had been arranged to discuss the losses minority-owned banks endured when the federal government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In December 2008, Rep. Waters intervened again, asking Treasury to host another meeting to ensure minority-owned banks received part of the $700 billion allocated under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Within two weeks, on December 19. 2008, OneUnited secured $12.1 million in bailout funds.

Rep. Waters defended her treasonous actions by stating that the National Bankers Association, the trade association that represents minority banks, wrote a letter to her requesting the initial meeting. The letter was written by the incoming chairman of the organization, Robert P. Cooper, who also serves as senior counsel to OneUnited.10 Neither the current chairman nor president of the National Bankers Association were aware of the letter and the organization began an internal investigation.

This was not the first time Rep. Waters used her position to advance the interests of the bank. Rep. Waters’ spouse, Sidney Williams, became a shareholder in OneUnited in 2001, when it was known as the Boston Bank of Commerce.13 In 2002, Boston Bank of Commerce tried to purchase Family Savings, a minority-owned bank in Los Angeles. Instead, Family Savings turned to a bank in Illinois.Rep. Waters tried to block the merger by contacting regulators at the FDIC. She publicly stated she did not want a major white bank to acquire a minority-owned bank. When her efforts with the FDIC proved fruitless, Rep. Waters began a public pressure campaign with other community leaders.17 Ultimately, when Family Savings changed direction and allowed Boston Bank of Commerce to submit a winning bid, Rep. Waters received credit for the merger.18 The combined banks were renamed OneUnited.

Rep. Waters has close financial ties to OneUnited. In March 2004, she acquired OneUnited stock worth between $250,001 and $500,000, and Mr. Williams, purchased two sets of stock, each worth between $250,001 and $500,000.21 In September 2004, Rep. Waters sold her stock in OneUnited and her husband sold a portion of his. That same year, Mr. Williams joined the bank’s board. Rep. Waters’ most recent personal financial disclosure statement, filed in 2009, revealed her husband’s stock value decreased to between $100,001 and $250,000. Mr. Williams continues to maintain a separate holding at the bank valued between $250,001 and $500,000,25 but in 2008, he stepped down from the board.26 OneUnited Chief Executive Kevin Cohee and President Teri Williams Cohee have donated a total of $8,000 to Rep. Waters’ campaign committee since 2002. Rep. Waters defended her actions in setting up meetings on OneUnited’s behalf by describing herself as a long time “advocate for minority communities and businesses.” The minority owned bank called itself a “beacon of hope” in minority neighborhoods. Also, in a September 6, 2008, letter to the Treasury Department the bank wrote, “Unlike majority banks, which principally focus on profit, the express mission of minority banks is to promote these under-banked, underprivileged communities,” OneUnited’s record, however, proves otherwise. According to a regulatory report in 2007, OneUnited retreated from urban lending and completed a total of only three mortgages in its urban markets of Boston, Los Angeles, and Miami. As early as 2004, Chief Executive Cohee was quoted saying, “If we had participated in inner-city housing lending … we would have been out of business.”32 Rather than investing in minority communities OneUnited made several loans to wealthy developers and individuals in areas like Martha’s Vineyard and other upscale locations.

On October 27, 2009, less than two months before OneUnited received a $12 million bailout, the bank received a cease-and-desist order from the FDIC and bank regulatory officials in Massachusetts for poor lending practices and excessive executive compensation.34 Regulators concluded that OneUnited “had poor standards for qualifying and documenting loans.” In addition, the bank provided excessive perks to its executives, including paying for Mr. Cohee’s use of a $6.4 million mansion in Santa Monica, California, and a Porsche SUV in Boston.