At the heart of the ethics investigation into Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) — which today yielded a Statement of Alleged Violation against Waters — is her connection to the California-based bank OneUnited and its receipt of TARP funding in 2008. A new investigation by students at American University details the timing of those transactions, and calls into question some of the assumptions at the heart of the investigation.Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, served as a director at OneUnited — which bills itself as “the first Black internet bank and the largest Black owned bank in the country” — until April 2008. He also owned a significant quantity of stock, which the committee valued as $350,000 as of June 2008. That amount represented, according to financial disclosures, between 4.6 and 15.2 percent of the Waters’ assets.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=122876