(A picture's worth a thousand words. Click on the blue print for the evidence.)

The Mazon State Bank

If you haven't, yet, read The Story before reading this page. It will make far more sense.

The loss of my mom's inheritance has raised some serious questions about the ethics of the Mazon State Bank in Mazon, IL, located at:

Rudy kept his safe deposit box at the Mazon State Bank. He was good friends with Robert Breisch, the former CEO and president of the bank (I believe he was also the first CEO and president). Rudy bought stocks in the bank when they became available, doing his part to support the bank and the community. A few years ago, he sold those stocks to Walter. He told my mom, "It's a good investment for a young man and I want Walter to have them. He's a good guy who's going places and deserves the opportunity."

The Mazon State Bank is one of Walter's business clients; I'm not sure if Walter is still a stockholder in the bank. Robert Breisch is still very involved with the bank, according to their own site as of 3/9/08. In fact, he is listed as the Chairman of the Board on the bank's site. Michael C. Breisch, his son, is currently the CEO and president of the bank, which now has three branches. The bank's current assets as of 3/9/08--again according to their site--are approximately $78 million.

A bank is an important part of the community and needs to maintain practices of the highest ethical standards. After all, we trust them with our money, our loans, our very well-being and the well-being of our children and families. Why would a bank with assets of around $78 million care about my mom's mere $210,000 inheritance, left to her by the bank's Chairman of the Board's good friend? I have no idea but here is how they've behaved to date:

My mom called the bank the week following Rudy's memorial service. She spoke to Robert Breisch to verify whose names were on the box, since Walter said he had never heard of the box. Robert confirmed that Walter's name was on the box. Here's the weird thing: he looked up the signature card and told my mom no one had been in the box except for Rudy. We later learned that was a lie because we saw the signature card and Walter was in the box the day before Rudy's memorial service. Why would Robert lie? I have no idea but he's the Chairman of the Board and he was very unethical.

When we returned to the bank to get a copy of the safe deposit box signature card, as directed by a prominent attorney, Michael Breisch, the CEO and president, refused to let us see the card and provide a copy. He was extremely rude to my mother and yelled at her. He called her a liar and said she had misrepresented herself to gain access to the box in the first place. Imagine, yelling at a distraught, recently widowed 66-year-old woman, then calling her a liar. And a widow of your father's good friend, at that. I asked the bank to call the police and Michael obliged me. Officer Jeff Marques (Mazon's only cop from what I gathered) arrived on the scene. He told Michael that he had to follow the court order and provide my mother with the signature card. The bank did and that's when we saw something very odd: the day after my mom entered the box to learn that Walter had emptied it, Walter had returned to close the box (probably after notification by the bank). He squeezed his signature above my mom's on the day she was there, to make it look like they had come together. They hadn't and doing so appears to be fraudulent. Even more alarming is the fact that a bank representative actually has to watch you sign the signature card and then sign her own initials for verification. Whoever watched Walter sign the card on Oct. 11, '07, allowed him to fraudulently sign on a previous date. Thus, it strongly appears that the Mazon State Bank committed fraud, as well.

Being savvy, I asked the bank to provide us with surveillance footage of the entire 24 hour period of both the day Walter was in the box before Rudy's service and the day my mom was in the box. Such footage would show that Walter was not in the box with my mom. (Why would she need a court order to get in the box if he was there? His name is on the box!) The bank refused, even though they could provide us with the footage at their own discretion. Michael insisted we get a court order. I then asked him to sign documentation that he would save all video footage for those days for two years, for when we got a court order. He agreed, typed up something, and I had the cop sign as a witness. (When you sign for entrance to a safe deposit box, you may re-enter as many times as you like on that day of business without signing again; your one signature is good for that entire day of business.)

We were also supposed to receive a receipt detailing the sale of Rudy's stock in the bank. (The sale price of the stock would help to demonstrate what Rudy had put in the box.) Robert Breisch and the rest of the bank could not find it. They didn't know where they put it. Can you imagine a bank having such a poor filing system? Of course, I think they knew exactly where it was but just chose not to provide it to my mother. So, they are either unethical or incompetent. Hmm. Are either traits you want in your bank?

We got a court order for the bank stock sale and the surveillance footage. The bank replied with a letter from CEO Michael Breisch, himself. The letter stated that the bank would provide the items requested in the court order only after my mom paid the fees for the items. He asked for a total of $550 from a grieving, financially struggling widow. (You'll notice he requested outrageous fees, like $75.00 for the copy of the signature card under "Research Fee Regarding Safety Deposit Box" and so forth.) The letter also indicated that the bank would not release any item individually; all fees had to be paid to get any one item. I'm not sure if that's legal but if nothing else, it seems unethical and to be a bully tactic.

I found these fees to be ridiculous, so I emailed Michael a request for the bank's schedule of fees in December, '07. As of March 9, 2008, he has still failed to reply. (Every bank has to keep and supply a shedule of fees upon request, to make certain that they are not misrepresenting their fees or singling out customers--like 66-year-old recently widowed, emtionally distraught, broke women.) Failing to provide a schedule of fees upon request is yet again an unethical act and possibly illegal.

Given their behavior, I really would suggest conducting your bank business with banks other than the Mazon State Bank, including all three of its branches.

I will provide a list of alternative banks for you to investigate here. They would probably suit your banking needs much better. Also, if you have a story about the Mazon State Bank you'd like to share, email me. It just might make the site! Email me about good banks in the area, too.

Incidentally, I am so shocked by the bank's behavior, I emailed them on April 1, 2008, just to see if they had sent me the requested documentation in the mail and it was lost. I also asked them to verify the information on this page before I posted it. I thought for sure there must be some reasonable explanations for their behavior. Instead, they confirmed what seems to be an ongoing effort to bully my mother.

The VP sent me this email in reply, which was one sentence of horrible grammar.

I replied that I looked forward to hearing from their attorneys. I waited a week but never heard from them and even started to think that it might be some kind of bluff on their part. So, I emailed the bank again, letting them know that their latest action seemed very much to support all the evidence to date, as stated here, and then I made this page live.