U.S. Century in Florida Unloads $120 Million in Loans

U.S. Century Bank in Doral, Fla., sold about $120 million of loans in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The bank has been looking to raise capital after the collapse of its proposed sale to C1 Bank. The quarter's loan sales included $30 million of loans that the bank disclosed earlier this month and another $21 million from 10 loans and judgments, the South Florida Business Journal reported in its online edition Friday.

A company spokeswoman confirmed the amount of the loans sales, but she declined to say how many loans were sold. The bank did not disclose the names of entities that bought the loans.

U.S. Century had been pinched for capital even before its planned sale to C1 Bank fell apart. Instead, C1 Bank agreed to buy certain assets from U.S. Century, including a lease for a branch in downtown Miami.

The bank had a core-capital leverage ratio of 4.28% at Sept. 30, and about 22% of its $1.2 billion in assets were classified as nonperforming, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

U.S. Century will release its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 31, the spokeswoman said.

As the bank looks to raise capital, it faces a challenge from a new class-action lawsuit alleging that its directors misused funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The complaint, which was reported by the South Florida Business Journal on Thursday, alleges that that bank's management "squandered" some of the $50 million it received from Tarp to "bail out" businesses owned by certain bank directors.

The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 9 on behalf of more than 400 minority shareholders, also alleges that Ramon Rasco, the bank's chairman, and other directors used U.S Century as a piggybank to finance their own business ventures at minority shareholders' expense, while granting loans at below-market rates to family and friends.

The allegations could prompt regulators to get involved, according to South Florida Business Journal. "I would be surprised if the regulators, whether it's the FDIC, the SEC or others, are not already looking into these allegations," a former senior enforcement lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission told the publication.