Aiding and abetting a slum lord. Or that at least is so according to "Johnny Northside's" blog, this link.
From there, links given: here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
If your mind does not easily connect the dots, go to that opening link - it may help.
Basically, Minnwest appears to have been quixotically managed, and as I have guessed before, the City paid more for that disttressed mess than they ought to have - by not letting the Minnwest shareholders [holding company shareholders probably] eat more of their mistake. It appears it was not their only mistake, per the other blog.
I have not tried to research "Minnwest" via Google or Bing, and my guess is that there's more iceberg than tip showing, if someone took the time.
A quick google = Pamiko foreclosure, an item the Johnny Northside blog highlights, gives two more links of history, there, this link and here. Both are from December 2009, so one has to wonder what new and interesting broken deals of Minnwest might splat out in the current year or so.
I don't have an account there at Minnwest, and the FDIC always exists for the purpose of bailing out depositors, so I am not saying run on the bank. Rather, I wonder what's between the ears of key management besides adipose tissue. How did they ever get into a position to manage a lot of money, and where were the regulators then, where are they now? It seems this masterful operation is still humming and running, and, wow!
_______UPDATE________
Bizjournal has a search function, and using keyword = Minnwest, a list of 30 hits were returned, including links here, here, here, and here; with some appropriate to the time of Bruce Nedegaard's death, the involuntary bankruptcy involving Ramsey Town Center and Columbia Heights condo adventuring. I leave it to readers to study further on their own.
_______FURTHER UPDATE______
One of those earlier links is a hoot. This link. Some North Dakota bank took lion's share of a Tom Petters loan, where "personal guarantees" were said to exist. Signed by the accountant as "attorney in fact" with no power of attorney document in the packet.
Who are these bankers, and how do they check out deals? That's like Finance 101, be sure the guarantee is enforceable and not defective. Connect the dots. If the signature is by another, an agent clearly indicated as such, check that the agent has binding authority to commit the principal. That's Agency 101, there.
Don't banks use lawyers? They used to. In times of exuberant prosperity, vs. now after the bubble's burst, I'd bet there are differences, and that the North Dakota bank was exuberant when it took the Petters paper. And Minnwest, it appears to have closed the loan, taking the security of the personal guarantee, such as it was. That's two banks striking out. One more and the inning would be over.
----------
UPDATE NOTE: Headline parantheses added to make it read more clearly, opening paragraph revised to state gist of the Johnny Northside contention, as I understand it. It appears from that blog, in total, that a contention is made of a slum lord couple living a lavish lifestyle including ownership of Canterbury racehorses, off of the cash flow from poor folks renting dilapidated housing; with the scale and magnitude of abuse not being possible without institutional lender cooperation and facilitation.
