| Stephen Calk
Convicted of Manafort Loans in 2021
Applies to Fed Now Redactions
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Podcast 2 3 5 SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 24 รข€“ After months of preliminaries,
the trial of Stephen Calk for
conspiracy to trade his bank's
loans to Paul Manafort for the
Secretary of the Army position
began. Inner City Press live
tweeted, here,
previous coverage here,
podcast here After mere
hours, the jury found him
guilty. Inner City Press
verdict tweet here; in front
of 40 Foley Square, Calk
refused questions (including
on his bank and desire of UN
Ambassador position) and was
whisked off in a black car.
Video here.
Sentencing was set. Podcast here. Jump cut to
January 2026 when this
appeared on the Federal
Reserve's website: "The Stephen M.
Calk 2025 Trust, Houston,
Texas; to
become a savings and loan
holding company by acquiring
National Bancorp Holdings,
Inc., and thereby indirectly
acquiring The Federal Savings
Bank, both of Chicago,
Illinois.
10 Chicago" Can a
convicted felon be part of the
ownership structure of an FDIC
insured bank? Does it being a
trust change anything? The
Federal Reserve Bank of
Chicago does not list an email
address to request information
or copies of applications.
They should just be put on the
Internet, Fair Finance Watch
and Inner City Press suggested
- and emailed 4 af FRBChi Days
later, a portion of the
application was provided.
Surprised, FFW filed this: This is a first
timely comment opposing the
application by The Stephen M.
Calk 2025 Trust... Stephen
Calk was indicted for, and in
July 2021 was convicted of
financial institution bribery
and conspiracy to commit
financial institution bribery.
In the understanding of many,
the conviction - or even
before, given the evidence -
would have led to an order of
prohibition. But after
waiting some time for a copy
of the "public' portion of the
application, we learn of a
September 2023 letter from the
Federal Reserve Bank of
Chicago to Mr. Calk, with
heavy redactions - and now in
2026 this application, which
we are
opposing.
For the record, this FOIA
request has been submitted
through the Fed's FOIA
portal: "This is a FOIA
request for all withheld
portions of the pending
application by the Stephen M.
Calk Trust re The Federal
Savings Bank." Then on March 24
the Fed sent Inner City Press
a redacted answer. The Fed
asked, "1. Confirm whether The
Stephen M Calk 2025 Trust has
been legally formed. If it has
not yet been formed, confirm
when the applicant intends to
complete formation of the
trust. The answer: "The
Trust has not been legally
formed; we intend to form it
promptly upon approval of the
application by the Federal
Reserve Board." - than a full
paragraph redacted. Inner City
Press immediately submitted a
FOIA request, receipt
confirmed.
We will comment more once the
needed documents are
provided. Also, for
the record, Fair Finance
Watch has been monitoring The
Federal Saving Bank and finds
that in 2025 in Illinois it
made 759 mortgage loans to
whites while denying only 86
applications from whites,
while making only 98 loans to
African Americans and denying
fully 27 applications from
African
Americans.
This is disparate. In New York State
in 2024, The Federal Savings
bank made 332 mortgage loans
to whites while denying only
62 applications from whites,
while making only 154 loans to
African Americans and denying
fully 19 applications from
African
Americans.
Nationwide in
2024 The Federal Savings Bank
made 4285 mortgage loans to
whites while denying only 760
applications from whites,
while making only 934 loans to
African Americans and denying
fully 239 applications from
African Americans. This
is
disparate. Finally, for now,
while not conceding that this
belated trusteeship structure
would comply with the law and
good policy, the proposed
trustee is listed on the board
of directors of another bank,
Consumers Bank - we will have
more on this when the
documents, requested the day
after the FRB of Chicago
belatedly provided us the
public portion of the
application, are
provided. The
application should not be
approved On February
7, 2022 Calk was sentenced to
a year and a day - but got
bail pending appeal. Two years later,
with Calk still not in prison,
on February 22, 2024 his
lawyers wrote in. Letter on
Patreon here. On March 4, Judge
Schofield denied Calk's
motion, and set a surrender
date: "ORDERED that Defendant
shall surrender for service of
sentence at the institution
designated by the Bureau of
Prisons by 2:00 P.M. on April
18, 2024. On December 2,
2025 Calk's counsel wrote in
asking to eliminate the last
year of supervised release,
saying the US Attorney has no
objection. And on December
9, it was granted: "as to
Stephen M. Calk, Application
Granted. Defendant Calk's term
of supervision is terminated
effective today.(Signed by
Judge Lorna G. Schofield on
12/9/2025)." The case is US v. Calk, 19-cr-366
(Schofield) 
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innercitypress.com |
Friday, March 27, 2026
Stephen Calk Convicted of Manafort Loans in 2021 Applies to Fed Now Redactions
