NEW YORK — A Chicago banker who tried to buy his way into a cushy gig in the Trump administration with a $16 million bribe to former President 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.