More Details of Braun's Financials Emerge

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jan 6, 2011 2:00PM

Just one day after mayoral candidate Carol Mosely Braun released a portion of her 2008 and 2009 federal income tax returns, her meltdown as the city's "consensus" black candidate continued.

The Sun-Times is reporting that Braun has taken out four mortgages on her Hyde Park home - which is now up for sale - and that she received a loan for her organic food business in 2006 for $250,000 from Joseph Stroud, a millionaire television station owner living in Oak Brook. That loan was secured through a mortgage on her home in 2007. Unfortunately for Braun, Stroud made her the loan just nine months after being found liable for racially harassing a former employee in a case that wound up before the Supreme Court.

Braun declined to answer questions about her taxes, income and other business dealing - which include a consulting and public-speaking firm known as CMB One and her seats on the boards of MWH Global, a global engineering firm with offices in Chicago, and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance. Louis Vitullo, Braun's attorney, friend and campaign volunteer, told the press that he wasn't prepared to answer many questions asked by the Sun-Times, but that “We’re pursuing any questions you have.” Braun used the kerfuffle as an opportunity to attack rivals Gery Chicago and Rahm Emanuel “The reality is that unlike Mr. Emmanuel [sic] and Mr. Chico, who traded on their government relations for vast riches when they left office, I did not.” Emanuel declined to comment, but Chico’s spokeswoman, Brooke Anderson shot back, telling the Sun-Times that “instead of indiscriminately attacking other candidates, Carol would be better served if she were simply transparent and released the remainder of her tax returns.”

Braun further refused to comment on the state of her business when she appeared on the site of a shooting Tuesday, saying "some of you may work for the Tribune or the Sun-Times, and last time I looked, the Tribune was in bankruptcy." As she went to leave the scene of the murder, she told the Tribune, "There's a kid laying up dead," adding, "come on guys, be responsible yourselves."