Meet Dave Spence: The Missouri Candidate For Governor Who Won't Pay Back His Bank's $40 Million TARP Bailout

Source: DailyBail.com - 9/6/12

"Where do they find these buffoons..."

Spence is the GOP candidate for Governor in Missouri.

Instead of repaying Reliance Bank's $40 million TARP bailout, Spence doled out $40 million in insider loans to board members, including $1.1 million for a vacation home for himself and a cool $600,000 for his plastics company.

Nice work if you can get it.

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The Facts:

• For six years, Dave Spence helped run Reliance Bancshares and its main subsidiary, which took $40 million as part of the Wall Street bailout.
• Spence supported the Wall Street bailout, which he defended as an "extra cushion of capital" to banks like his.
• Shortly after Reliance received its $40 million TARP bailout, Spence took a million-dollar insider loan from the bank for a vacation house.
• Spence then voted not to repay taxpayers their money and quit the bank, leaving taxpayers with a $40 million tab.
• During Spence's time with Reliance Bancshares, federal regulators repeatedly reprimanded the bank and its subsidiaries for making bad loans and engaging in risky business practices.
• Even after the bailout, Spence and his fellow board members approved lavish pay packages for the bank's executives as well as perks, such as country club memberships.
• Spence's bank was named the worst-performing bank in the St. Louis region.

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Instead of Repaying $40 Million Bailout, Dave Spence's Bank Gave $40 Million in Insider Loans to Board Members

Jefferson City, Mo. - Just days after Dave Spence was forced to admit he voted not to repay taxpayers the $40 million bailout his bank got from Washington, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported today that Spence's bank actually gave $40 million in insider loans to board members and executives instead. After the bank received the TARP bailout, Spence himself received millions in loans to purchase a vacation home and expand his business.

According to an editorial in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Mr. Spence and the rest of the board voted in early 2011 not to repay the $40 million in TARP money to the federal government. This was after the bank voted in 2009 and 2010 to approve loans, in approximately the same amount, to bank board members and executives. Mr. Spence received some of these loans, one for a vacation house at Lake of the Ozarks." [Editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/5/2012]

In February 2009, Reliance Bank received $40 million from the U.S. Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP.

According to public records, in 2009, Reliance Bancshares made $18,979,559 in new loans to executive officers and directors. In 2010, Reliance Bank made $21,041,439 in new loans to executive officers and directors. (Reliance Bancshares, Form 10-K/A, 03/16/11; Reliance Bancshares, Form 10-K, 03/30/11)

Of that, Spence took out an equity loan on his home in St. Louis, took a $1.1 million mortgage on a vacation home at the Lake of the Ozarks and took a $600,000 loan for his company. [Associated Press; Camden County Property Records]

Sources:

http://www.paybackthebailout.com/

http://www.spencesbankbailout.com/