![]() ![]() The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Taibbi, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap (2014), at 46. Bennett, “Mortgage Fraud Prosecutors Pounce on a Small Bank,” Bloomberg Business, Jan. Morgenson, “A Tiny Bank’s Surreal Trip Through a Fraud Prosecution,” New York Times, July 17, 2015.Ģ. The loan officer later pleaded guilty to grand larceny, fraud, and falsifying business records he apparently was taking kickbacks for falsifying mortgage applications. The bank investigated, and terminated the loan officer the following Monday. When the borrower started asking about extra checks she had written for the loan officer, Vera Sung grew suspicious and called off the closing. The case began with a routine real estate closing at the bank’s Chinatown branch on a Friday in December 2009. In May 2012, it became the first and only bank to be indicted for mortgage fraud in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. But it also serves as a cautionary tale about the lurking dangers of self-reporting and cooperation without the assistance of counsel and the importance of always considering potential liability.Ībacus Federal Savings Bank was founded in New York City’s Chinatown in 1984. 1 The prosecution, led by the Manhattan DA’s office, has been variously assailed as a political expediency, the persecution of a minority-owned bank, and a misplaced use of post-financial crisis investigative resources. In another shameful, unprecedented development, a stoic Sung and his family were made to perform the infamous “perp walk” in chains.“We cooperated with them, not realizing we were the target,” said Vera Sung, a director of Abacus Federal Savings Bank, about the bank’s interactions with prosecutors at the start of a two-and-a-half year investigation that led to the bank’s indictment, trial, and finally, acquittal this past June. The government’s chief witness was the fired loan officer. Nevertheless, a case was brought against Abacus Bank, claiming falsely that the corruption was systemic and all the officers were guilty of crimes that could land them in prison. In the years surrounding the housing crisis, Abacus officers learned that one of their workers was falsifying loan documents and extorting money from prospective clients. Like George, Tom and his family found great satisfaction in helping members of his community, most of them immigrants, to buy their first homes. ![]() In opening scenes that are indicative of the film’s tendency to overstate its case, the venerable Tom Sung, a 79-year-old respected Chinatown attorney and founder of Abacus Bank, and his spunky wife, Vera, sit in front of their TV in Connecticut, watching Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Tom openly identifies with the film’s George Bailey. Vance gamely appears on camera to make his case and seems entirely oblivious to the fact that he was completely wrong to bring the case forward and that in large part the prosecution was driven by prejudice. In “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” (an ironic counter to the infamous “too big to fail”), Academy Award-nominated director Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) paints a slightly problematic, nonfiction David and Goliath portrait of what can only be called a complete travesty of justice perpetrated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office led by Assistant District Attorney Cyrus Vance?Jr. Would it surprise you to know that the only American bank indicted and brought to criminal court for its role in the 2008 financial crisis was the small Chinese-American owned and operated Abacus Federal Savings Bank of Chinatown, New York City? ![]()
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