California Rep. Maxine Waters may be in hot water. Federal regulators this week came out and questioned the Democrat’s personal ties to a bank, OneUnited, that she helped put on the road to a bailout. 

Waters last year helped set up a series of meetings between the bank and regulators, a meeting at which OneUnited’s chief executive, Kevin Cohee, asked for $50 million in federal assistance. He ended up receiving $12 million.

In the weeks and days leading up to the meeting, Waters failed to disclose to Treasury officials that her husband, Sidney Williams, once served on the bank’s board. Though he received no salary for his role, the bank’s rules required him to hold at least $250,000 of stock. Neither Waters nor Cohee would say how much he paid for the shares.

Barney Frank, House Financial Services Committee chairman, did know about the connection, and told the Los Angeles Times he advised her to stay out of it: "She acknowledged that ‘Sidney had been on the board. I could have a conflict here … I said, ‘Fine, just stay out of it, I’ll deal with it.’" Frank attended the meetings with OneUnited.

For his part, bank executive Cohee thinks the scrutiny is motivated by race; OneUnited is one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. He also scoffs at the suggestion Waters acted inappropriately. Via The New York Times:

Ms. Waters is an important advocate for minorities and minority issues and an indispensable part of Los Angeles communities. But we derived no benefit whatsoever from any activity related to her. And she did not really do anything. There is nothing that she did that impacted the process.

Indeed, one treasury official asserts the bank met the requirements for federal assistance. Still, we expect Waters will hit some rocks in the future. Can the long-serving lawmaker stay afloat?