From one scandal to the next, it seems that where ever Nathan Deal goes, Casey Cagle is not far behind, and now, these two men want to hold the two most powerful offices in Georgia. All I can say is – grab your wallets.
Republicans and political insiders are already openly suggesting Deal is damaged goods. Now, the question is, will this political nightmare also impact Casey Cagle, whose own financial disclosures with the SEC reveal that in 2005, he was a “director” whose duties were “management” of GB&T Bancshares, Inc. This was same year (2005) the first loan of over half a million dollars was made to Wilder Outdoors by Gainesville Bank and Trust, held by GB&T Bancshares, Inc.
Cagle’s response was that he was “not involved in nor aware of the independent loan decisions at the local bank level. ” Maybe not, but I think someone needs to ask Cagle to define the term “management.”
There’s more – much more- below the fold.
It’s odd that in 2008, Deal had no problem involving Cagle in his bid to “preserve a
purely state program, one that had generated financial benefit for Representative Deal
and his business partner” (OCE, page 23). They even held some of the meetings in Cagle’s office, with Cagle present. (OCE, page 54-55) Yet in 2005, Deal and Cagle had no conversation about a half million dollar loan from a bank held by a corporation Cagle sat on the board of, where his activity was “management.” Do they, unlike the rest of us, live in a world where poorly collateralized loans of this size are a given, not even worth a mention to a friend and political ally?
Not long after, in November of 2007, GB&T Bancshares accepted a stock buy-out offer from SunTrust. At the time, Harris Blackwood, a reporter with the Gainesville Times noted:
It has been a challenging year for GB&T Bancshares. A December examination by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. of HomeTown Bank of Villa Rica, a subsidiary of GB&T, revealed several loan relationships originated by the bank’s president at the time violated bank policies.
What Cagle knew, when he knew it, and whether the Wilder Outdoors loan violated GB&T lending policies are questions begging for answers.
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