Bank CEO pleads not guilty in loan scheme for Trump post

NEW YORK — A banker charged in New York with issuing loans to win a role in President Donald Trump’s administration has pleaded not guilty.

Stephen Calk entered the plea during an appearance in Manhattan federal court Thursday.

Prosecutors say he was CEO of Chicago’s The Federal Savings Bank when he approved $16 million in loans to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. They say he wanted a senior administration post in return.

Chief Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman set bail at $5 million, an amount agreed to by prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Freeman also warned Calk not to have contact with anyone at the bank, except for his brother. Prosecutors will submit an official list of bank employees he cannot contact by next week.

The bank says Calk’s on a leave of absence with no involvement with the bank.

William F. Sweeney Jr., head of New York’s FBI office, said Calk “went to great lengths to avoid banking violations in an attempt to secure a senior position in a presidential administration.”

“His attempt at petitioning for political favors was unsuccessful in more ways than one — he didn’t get the job he wanted, and he compromised the one he had,” Sweeney Jr. added.

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Manafort lobbied Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to consider Calk for Secretary of the Army, according to emails from the weeks leading up to the 2016 election shown to jurors at Manafort’s tax evasion and bank fraud trial last year.

Prosecutors said that while Manafort’s loans were pending approval, Calk gave Manafort a ranked list of government positions he wanted, starting with Secretary of the Treasury, followed by Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of Defense, as well as 19 ambassadorships similarly ranked and starting with the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.

According to trial evidence, Manafort passed along Calk’s resume to Kushner in a Nov. 30, 2016, email, along with two other names of people he said “should be a part of the Trump administration.”

Manafort wrote that the individuals would be “totally reliable and responsive to the Trump White House.

He also said Calk was “strong in defense issues, management and finance.”

Kushner responded, “On it!”

Calk was formally interviewed for the position of under secretary of the Army in early January 2017 at the Presidential Transition Team’s Manhattan offices, prosecutors noted.

But Calk never got an administration post, though he did approve Manafort’s loans.

Manafort is serving a 7½ year sentence on charges he misled the government over his foreign lobbying work and encouraged witnesses to lie on his behalf. He also faces an indictment in New York charging him with state crimes , including a residential mortgage fraud scheme.