| The Star and Tribune was handed a story Friday night. It was handed the story that a bank in Ostego was being taken over by the FDIC.
This was no ordinary small bank. This was a special bank. This bank was featured in a NY times story when it opened. This bank was an example back then. This was a Christian bank and would adhere to Christian principals of doing business. People moved their hard earned savings into this bank because of that and the bank prospered.
Tellers prayed with depositors at the drive through window. People were healed in the lobby by the laying on of hands. Some 60 people were "born again" in this bank. Your loan officer prayed with you when you applied for a loan. We don't know how many non Christians got loans.
One of the banks owners was the embodiment of the conservative political Christian movement, The co-founder of the Minnesota Moral Majority, a former Secretary of State who often said that the 5 most dangerous words in the English language were "separation of church and State".
She became an owner while she held the Secretary of State office and after her defeat in her re-election bid for that office she successfully ran for the State House under the slogan "Integrity counts".
St. Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer is listed as a co owner of the Bank and is on the Board of Directors.
Last spring a small news story appeared in the Star and Trib sighting the fact that the bank was being investigated by the FDIC for shoddy banking practices. Amongst other things the FDIC said the bank had poor oversight by the board and a number of questionable loans. In other words they were running their bank like a club house and giving out loans based on faith not fact.
You and the customers of the bank probably didn't hear about this because it was a small story and nobody other than a few Bloggers followed up on it.
I personally contacted the local papers that cover that area to ask them if they were going to cover that story. I contacted the St. Cloud Times, The Elk River Star and the Sherburne County Citizen. After all a local small town bank that services their area being investigated by the FDIC for insolvency issues should at least get a mention. Nope, nada, nothing. "We're looking into it" was what they told me last spring.
When the Star and Tribune ran the story on its website Friday night they mentioned that Kiffmeyer was an owner of the bank. An Hour later they had scrubbed that version and Kiffmeyer's name was removed from the story.
20 million dollars of FDIC money will be required to bail out Kiffmeyers bank. It's one of only 6 banks in the state to fail.
It looks like the FDIC will save some of the people who put their faith in Kiffmeyers bank. And it looks like the Star and Tribune will save the owner by keeping her name out of this mess. |
