Obama Law Firm Got Millions for ACORN from Predatory Lender, Famous Dope, Inc. Bank

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August 26, 2008 (LPAC)--ACORN, which conduits hundreds of millions of dollars for George Soros-directed political operations and the Obama campaign, got a huge boost in 2002 through a deal worked out by Barack Obama's law firm.

Obama was then an Illinois state senator and since 1993 had practiced law with Miner, Barnhill & Galland.

The Obama firm represented ACORN in a class-action suit brought in 2002 against Household Finance Company, a notoriously predatory sub-prime lender that was in the process of being taken over by Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC), historically a central financing agency for British Far East opium trafficking. Obama's partner Sarah Siskind, lead counsel in ACORN et al. v. Household International, Inc., 2002 WL 1563805 (Superior Court of California 2002), reached a settlement with HSBC.

The deal, worth hundreds of millions of dollars in payments, stipulated that HSBC would pay undisclosed amounts of the settlement to ACORN, which was supposed to counsel borrowers on how to cope with their victimizaton.

The British bank explained the arrangement with ACORN in a 2003 press release:

"Household International, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HBC), the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and a series of borrowers from across the United States, announced today they have reached a proposed settlement of nationwide class action litigation relating to the mortgage lending practices of Household's two U.S. branch-based businesses, Household Finance Corporation and Beneficial Corporation.... In connection with the proposed settlement, Household has agreed to provide funding over a three-year period for ACORN-sponsored financial counseling and literacy programs."

In 2004, the year after the settlement, members of the Obama firm contributed about $26,000 to Obama's initial campaign for the U.S. Senate -- alongside George Soros, who met with Obama and raised $60,000 for the campaign. ACORN counsel Sarah Siskind gave Obama $1,000 and gave $500 to the other Soros project, MoveOn.org.

In 2001, the year before his firm represented ACORN, Obama had been a director of the Wood Fund of Chicago, when the fund awarded a $75,000 grant to "Chicago ACORN (fiscal agent is American Institute for Social Justice Inc)." The grants from Woods Fund to Acorn continued for several years, totalling over $300,000. That year, 2001, the chairman of the Woods Fund board on which Obama served was Howard J. Stanback, who ran New Kenwood LLC, a company founded by now-convicted fraudster Tony Rezko and Rezko's commercial partner Allison Davis. Mr. Davis was Barack Obama's former boss at the law firm, then called Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland. Another member of the Woods Fund board that started funding ACORN was William C. Ayers, former Weather Underground terrorist.

In the 2003 press release put out by HSBC, an ACORN spokesman is quoted praising the British bank:

"Household's performance on implementing the Foreclosure Avoidance Program has been exceptional, and we are hopeful that our future work together will deliver enormous benefits to subprime borrowers."

In fact, HSBC plunged ahead with sub-prime lending, not very well covered with the ACORN oak-leaf. In 2007 alone, HSBC had to write off the $11.7 billion in predatory loans to their American victims.