Chicago banker gets 366 days in prison for bribing Paul Manafort

A Chicago banker who tried to buy his way into a cushy gig in the Trump administration with a $16 million bribe to Donald Trump’s former campaign chief was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in prison.

The founder and ex-CEO of Chicago’s Federal Savings Bank, Stephen Calk, 57, was found guilty of conspiracy and financial institution bribery in July 2021 for trying to weasel his way into the White House by bribing Paul Manafort, a former lobbyist who became Trump’s campaign manager.

“We sadly send many poor and disadvantaged people to jail for crimes they committed because they had no good means to earn a decent wage to support themselves, to support their families,” Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lorna Schofield told Calk.

“Suffice it to say, you are extremely wealthy and did not need to commit this crime.”

Schofield also slapped Calk with two years of supervised release, 800 hours of community service, and a $1 million fine. The year-and-a-day prison stint means Calk could be released early on good behavior.

In a statement, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Calk abused his position “to try to buy himself prestige and power by trading millions of dollars in high-risk loans for influence with a presidential campaign and consideration for positions at the highest levels of the Defense Department.”

But in his own statement, Calk, a divorcee and father of three, who is appealing his conviction, took no responsibility for his crimes.

“I stand here, or sit here rather, deeply, deeply humbled. As you can imagine, my life is in shambles,” said Calk. “I deeply, deeply regret that the bank’s reputation has been tarnished as a result of my indictment and my conviction.”

Trial evidence revealed Calk green-lit millions of dollars in loans to a debt-laden Manafort on the night of the 2016 election. And in the weeks after Trump’s win, Calk sent Manafort a ranked list of his preferred job titles in the Trump administration.

At the top of the list was Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Commerce, and Secretary of Defense.

But Calk also was eager to take any one of 19 ambassadorship roles if he lost out on the high-level gigs, beginning with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy, evidence showed.

Manafort ultimately offered Calk a Pentagon post as undersecretary of the Army. But the banker blew it in a job interview at Trump Tower, according to short-term White House Director of Communications Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci, who testified at Calk’s trial.

Manafort was tried and convicted of bank and tax fraud in northern Virginia in 2019 and sentenced to 7½ years in prison. Trump pardoned him before leaving office in 2020.

Calk’s case emerged from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.