Ex-Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort wants to nix Chicago bank records

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Paul Manafort is asking for a court hearing later this month on his motion to quash financial records seized last year by the FBI, including documentation of loans with Chicago-based Federal Savings Bank.

As the I-Team has reported on several occasions this year, prosecutors are scrutinizing Manafort's relationship with The Federal Savings Bank in Chicago, where he had multi-million dollar loan deals made through the CEO, a Trump campaign economic adviser.

Pre-dawn FBI searches of Manafort's homes, businesses and storage areas in July, 2017, focused on financial records and were authorized by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his Russia inquiry. At the time, Manafort had been voluntarily providing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia's election interference. The FBI raids on his property suggested authorities feared he may have been hiding records.

Mueller has said Manafort used "doctored profit and loss statements" to secure loans from The Federal Savings Bank (TFSB ) totaling $16 million. The I-Team reported in February that the former top Trump operative secured loans "through a series of false and fraudulent representations." Authorities say he overstated his company's income "by millions of dollars" to obtain one mortgage of $9.5 million and another for $6.5 million.

Stephen Calk is TFSB's founder and CEO, and he served on the Trump campaign economic advisory panel. The Federal Savings Bank is headquartered at 300 N. Elizabeth Street in Chicago's Fulton Market District.

Search warrants filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Manafort is facing criminal money laundering charges, state that investigators wanted "records related to Manafort's efforts to secure loans from TFSB on the basis of inconsistent representations about his income and net worth."

Calk has denied any wrongdoing in the Manafort case including reports that he offered him loans in exchange for the prospect of a top Pentagon post with the Trump administration. Calk's spokesperson has told the I-Team that he is fully cooperating with the Mueller investigation.

A congressional oversight committee is also investigating whether Calk "may have made loans of up to $16 million" to Manafort "in exchange for alleged promises to name him Secretary of the Army."

Last month top committee Democrats asked Federal Savings Bank for records from the Calk-Manafort loans. Committee Democrats say TFSB has responded with a one-page letter maintaining that "news speculation is false." The bank provided a single document - a copy from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's superseding indictment of Manafort that it argued proved the bank was a victim of Manafort's alleged fraudulent conduct, lawmakers said.

In a letter to House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, ranking Democrats are now asking for a subpoena to force the Chicago bank to turn over documents from loans to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.