Giannoulias contradicts self, worked 500 hours for failed Broadway Bank in '06

As I've noted many times before, when he was running for state treasurer four years ago, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias never passed up an opportunity to tell people he was a banker.

Now that his bank has been seized by the feds--costing taxpayers $394 million--he's telling anyone that will listen that he left Broadway Bank in 2005. But he told the IRS something else, as the Chicago Tribune reports:

Giannoulias was able to take a $2.7 million tax deduction last year because he reported working hundreds of hours at Broadway Bank in 2006.

Giannoulias says there's no contradiction, and in fact there is no suggestion the Democratic state treasurer took a tax break he didn't deserve. Rather, the issue highlights the fine line Giannoulias walks on the campaign trail in explaining exactly what he did at Broadway and when he did it.

The bank was at the top of his résumé when he was a 30-year-old first-time statewide candidate in 2006 with few professional highlights. But in his tight Senate race against Republican Mark Kirk, his tenure as a senior loan officer at Broadway is a bull's-eye for critics who hit him for the bank's loans to mob figures as well as troubled lending that contributed to Broadway's collapse earlier this year.

Saying he left in 2005 gives Giannoulias maximum distance from the bank's questionable lending practices, the April takeover by federal regulators and other controversies such as a loan by the bank to convicted influence peddler Antoin "Tony" Rezko in early 2006.

But by reporting working 500 hours for Broadway Bank in 2006, the Mob Banker was able to avoid paying income taxes for 2009.

But Giannoulias wants to raise federal income taxes. Your taxes.

Technorati tags: politics Illinois Election Democrats Alexi Giannoulias crime senate Chicago banks banking finance Rezko