![]() Sung is not engaging in hyperbole when she talks about “a show.” The most gasp-inducing sequence in James’ film is the “perp walk” of those indicted, with former Abacus employees marched through the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in front of the New York media. He wanted to have the first word out to the media, that’s why I felt they didn’t give us advance notice.” “ was going to be the first prosecutor to indict a bank. “I realized this was political, this was going to be a show,” she says. Sung alleges that the DA told the family of the indictment “literally one day before the indictment and the arraignment,” which meant the Sungs had no time to offer any kind of response. ![]() “I knew this was not how they normally go about things, this was not how cases were supposed to go,” says Chanterelle Sung, a lawyer who at one time worked for the same DA’s office which indicted her family. The only deal the DA offered the Sung family was to plead guilty to a felony and pay a large fine, which would have effectively meant the end of Abacus. ![]() Several of the defendants pled guilty, and agreed to testify for the prosecution. The district attorney’s office soon became involved, and in 2012 brought charges against the bank and 19 former employees, alleging they had inflated the income of mortgage applicants and falsified documents in order to obtain mortgages through the Federal National Mortgage Association, otherwise known as Fannie Mae. He was fired, as were two other crooked loan officers the bank discovered. “In his indictment he talks about how this is the first bank to be indicted, and he links it to the mortgage crisis, which is ridiculous, because Abacus refused to get into all the credit default swaps that were going on.”Ībacus’ troubles began in 2009, when a loan officer with the bank was accused of stealing money from a mortgage closing. and his office “saw this as a major PR move kind of case,” says filmmaker James. “ took a heavy-handed approach from the beginning, and refused to change their opinion.”ĭistrict Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. The documentary was nominated for an Oscar in 2018.The case was “about this community, comprised of Chinese immigrants, and a lack of willingness to understand the community,” says Jiayang Fan, who wrote about Abacus for The New Yorker. It was broadcast nationally on PBS Frontline on September 12, 2017. The story is told in Steve James’ feature-length documentary Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, which had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 11, 2016. On September 9, 2015, the Court dismissed all of the charges against the remaining defendants, due to lack of evidence. The Bank, along with its former Chief Credit Officer and its former loan supervisor, were acquitted of all charges in a jury trial in New York Supreme Court on June 3 and 4, 2015. The unreasonableness of the prosecution, in light of the treatment received by large banks, was questioned by media outlets. It also said it was not involved with the fraudulent packaging of subprime mortgage securities and had a mortgage default rate of 0.5%, a tenth of the national average. Abacus replied it uncovered the improper behavior itself, reported it to the regulator, and fired the employee in question. The bank was accused of falsifying loan applications so that borrowers would qualify for mortgages. In May 2012, the Manhattan District Attorney office indicted Abacus Federal Savings Bank and 19 of its employees for fraud regarding hundreds of millions of dollars of mortgages that had been sold to Fannie Mae between 20. In the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York. Abacus Federal Savings Bank et al., case number 02480-2012, In addition, Investigator Jason Malone of the District Attorney’s Investigations Bureau participated in the investigation under the supervision of Supervising Investigator Santiago Batista. Investigative Analyst Steven Koch and Trial Preparation Assistants Marisa Calleja, Elisabeth Daniels, Melissa Brown, and Kathleen Dougherty assisted in the investigation. Lozano led the investigation under the supervision of Polly Greenberg, Chief of the Major Economic Crimes Bureau, and Adam Kaufmann, Chief of the Investigation Division. Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance AgencyĪssistant District Attorneys Edward Starishevsky, Senior Investigative Counsel, and Julieta V.
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