Bank Assumes Ownership of Brooke Stock; Baranowski Named as CEO
Carl Baranowski has been named as president, CEO and secretary of Brooke Corp. after a housecleaning that has left the company with a board of directors consisting of one person. Baranowski has served as general counsel for the company.
A filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlined a complete turnover of the board of Brooke. The Overland Park-based company is the parent company for Brooke Capital Corp., the Brooke Insurance franchising arm, and Aleritas Capital, the lending arm.
Founder Robert Orr, Leland Orr and Michael Hess were removed as officers and directors of Brooke Corp. and all its subsidiaries on Oct. 17, the SEC filing states. Brooke Corp. directors John Allen, Joe Barnes and Mitchell Holthus tendered their resignations from the board Oct. 7, but the resignations were rejected and withdrawn. The three directors resubmitted resignations, which were accepted Oct. 13.
The new chairman, and sole member of the Brooke Corp. board, is David Zeglis, manager of Trim Creek LLC. Zeglis was elected to the posts on Oct. 10.
Trim Creek owns about 42 percent of the company’s stock. It is a subsidiary of Crete Bancorporation, which owns First United Bank in Crete, Ill.
Trim Creek acquired the stock when Robert Orr and his brother Leland Orr were forced to sell their stock Oct. 3. The stock was collateral for about $12.9 million in loans with First United Bank, which put the loans in default in September.
The main power at Brooke remains Albert Riederer. U.S. District Court Judge John Lungstrum named the former Jackson County prosecutor as special master of the company in mid-September as a result of a lawsuit filed by Bank of New York Mellon accusing the Brooke companies of “fraudulent conduct and misappropriation of millions of dollars.”
Source: Source: Kansas City Business Journal | Published on October 22, 2008
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