The Oscar-nominated PBS documentary Abacus: Small Enough to Jail reveals this Fun Fact: since the 2008 financial crisis the government has only prosecuted one bank. Not Chase, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, or Goldman Sachs. Nope, it was Abacus Federal Savings Bank, a bank that has 6 branches centered around New York City's Chinatown.
Abacus is a family-owned bank founded by Thomas Sung back in the 60s. The day-to-day control mostly passed down to his daughters Jill and Vera. It mostly provides banking services to the Chinese immigrants in the Chinatown area. Besides, deposits, withdrawals, and safe deposit boxes, they also provide loans. The loans can be problematic because a lot of the people applying work mainly in cash.
In 2012 the government brought charges against the bank for falsifying documents, larceny, conspiracy, and so forth. It took until 2015 though for the trial to actually begin. And then the prosecution's case seemed sort of laughable. Their star witness was this guy named Ken Yu who was actually the perpetrator of most of the falsified mortgages. On the cross-exam he was caught in several lies by a recording made by the prosecution itself! It's no surprise then that his plea deal was later revoked and he did six months.
The other problem was they charged the bank with larceny and all that but of 3000 mortgages in the time period covered, a mere 9 defaulted. There was really no financial damage done to Fannie Mae or the general public. Certainly nothing on the scale of the 2008 meltdown.
It's kind of hard to see the prosecution as the good guys when they pulled stunts like chaining 15 of the accused Chinese people together and dragging them into the courtroom. As someone said, could you imagine the furor if it had been 15 black people they were doing that to?
The other thing is the Sung family really didn't seem like a bunch of con artists. They're a tightly-knit family and I really hoped they wouldn't be convicted because they seemed like good people who were trying to help their community. Because really the big banks weren't exactly lining up to offer Abacus's customers loans. The documentary does a good job of presenting them as a fairly normal family with their own squabbles and quirks.
Between that and really a lack of compelling evidence, it was surprising it took a week to come to a verdict. Mostly there were 4 jurors who were holding out. Finally even they relented and the bank was found not guilty on all charges. To which one of the prosecutors groused that being found not guilty doesn't mean they're exonerated. I dunno, it kinda does, doesn't it?
The sad thing is it cost the bank millions of dollars and damaged their reputation for nothing really. Meanwhile all the big banks are right back to screwing the economy over, only calling it by a different name. The whole thing came off as expensive grandstanding that wasted time and money, harmed people who weren't guilty, and accomplished nothing. Sometimes even when David wins, it's not really a very satisfying win.
The documentary is free on Amazon Prime if you want to check it out.
2 comments:
Will have to check it out. Free is good. I also like the new look of your blog.
I've watched this, and I agree with you. Our country has become so corrupt that it is just mind-boggling. I blame the idealistic Bernie-followers, but only a little. That ship has sailed now and pointing fingers does nothing. I think the financial crimes of the past will take a back seat to the loss of personal freedoms in the very near future.
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