In
a copyrighted story by former Sacramento Union
editor Joseph Farah, the new Internet paper World Net Daily names both Deputy Secretary of
the U.S. Department of Interior John Garamendi and his
wife, Associate Peace Corps director Patricia Wilkinson
Garamendi, as subjects of the charges.
After Bill and Hillary, the
political-appointee Garamendis are the highest-ranking
husband-and-wife team in the Clinton administration.
John Garamendi, nominated to his current post
by Clinton in 1995, is a former California insurance
commissioner and was an unsuccessful candidate for the
1994 Democratic nomination for governor.
Patricia, or "Patti," Garamendi, an
unsuccessful candidate for both the California
legislature and the U.S. Congress, was appointed by
Clinton in 1993 to be Administrative Director of
Volunteer Recruitment for the Peace Corps.
The accusations against the Garamendis,
according to Farah's report, come from William Freitas,
current president and executive director of Bankers
Community Performance Concerns, Inc.
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Formerly Freitas was
president and chief executive officer of the Bank of
Lodi, in Lodi, California.
According to Freitas, he was fired from the
Bank of Lodi post in July 1994, and part of the reason
was his refusal to allow the Garamendis to loot a family
trust account for loans to their political campaign
funds.
"My sudden departure from the bank was
due to my consistent refusal to support imprudent
self-dealing loan requests from certain directors,"
he said.
According to Freitas, one of those requests
especially stands out in his mind because of its
"serious political ramifications."
In the World Net Daily account attributed to
Freitas, in the loan portfolio of the Lodi bank at the
time he left were two borrowings, totaling $400,000, from
the J.E. Wilkinson Trust. Co-trustees were Patti
Wilkinson Garamendi, her two sisters and her mother,
Merle Wilkinson. Patti Garamendi alone, however, had
power of attorney. With her husband, John, she directed
the financial activities of the trust.
Freitas says that one of the bank's directors,
Ray Coldani, helped the Garamendis
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