Democratic Michigan State Rep. Brian Banks owes his landlord rent money and faces eviction after he bounced a check, according to a Fox 2 News investigative report.
Banks, a freshman representative for District 1 in Lansing, made headlines in 2012 for running despite a record of eight felony convictions between 1998 and 2004 for writing bad checks and credit card fraud. Part of his campaign strategy was stressing his image as a reformed man whose past was behind him.
On this occasion, Banks said he was in a dispute with the landlord and paying his rent in escrow. When reporter M.L. Elrick attempted to meet with him last week to comment on the story, Banks claimed to be meeting with seniors:
When I called city hall, officials there told me while I was on the phone that a man matching Banks' description came in and tried to create an escrow account to pay rent to, who else, Banks' landlord.
This is very curious. If Banks was meeting with seniors, why was his Doppelganger trying to pay his rent? And if he is paying rent to an escrow account that may or may not exist, why did he write a rubber check to his landlord?
This was also news to Banks' landlord, of course. When I contacted him, he said he has received no complaints from Banks or his house mate or their attorney. Instead, he said in an email from Alaska, where he lives, "I have text message after text message assuring me that rent "has been sent."