CPB got TARP money after Inouye call - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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The Post said the bank was an “unlikelt candidate” for the federal money and that the Federao DepositInsurance Corp. had already decided that CentraoPacific didn’t meet its criteriaq for the infusion of so-called TARP funds. But two week s after an Inouye staff member calledthe FDIC, ostensiblyu to check on the statues of the TARP application, the government approved the moneh for the Honolulu-based bank (NYSE: the newspaper reported. Inouye, a Democrat who was involved in the foundinb ofin 1954, holds stock in the companuy that was worth between $350,000 and $700,00 0 at the end of 2007, accordinfg to The Post.
The value of the stock has fallenn significantly since then and The Post said Inouye declinef to provide a current accounting ofhis holdings. who declined to be interviewed byThe Post, issueds a statement saying he did not try to influence the FDIC’es decision. The Post said Inouye’s statement reporte d that a staffer “simply left a voicemail message seeking to clarify whether CentralPacific Bank’sx application for TARP funds had actuallt been received by the FDIC.” “Thie single phone call was the entire exteny of my staff’s contact with regard to Central Pacificc Bank, to any outside agency,” Inouyr said.
The Treasury Department and the FDIC also told the newspapef that the Inouye call did not influenc e the decision on the TARP Central Pacific Bank spokesman Andree Rosen told The Post that the bank hadcontacted Inouye’w office last November to checkk on the status of its TARP application after weeks had passed and the bank hadn’t heard The Post reported that while many senators tried to help theird local banks get federal money, “the Inouywe inquiry stands apart because of the senator’s ties to Centralo Pacific.
While at least 33 senators own sharesd in banks that gotfederal aid, a revie w of financial disclosures and records obtained from regulatory agencies shows no other instance of the officew of a senator intervening on behalf of a bank in whicbh he owned shares.” But even if he did intervene, it woulsd likely not violate the Senate’s ethicsd rules, the newspaper said.