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Discover Financial gets in on the "look-at-me" act of reality television with blatant product placement on the "Food Network Star" show.
June 7 -
Barclays unveiled a video featuring David Hasselhoff earlier this month, as the pop-culture icon cheered on a customer shopping with the bank's new U.K. PayTag device.
June 4 -
Bank marketing can be a bit, er, plain, but the Denver bank uses that reality to its advantage in an ad set to air Sunday in Colorado during the Super Bowl.
February 2
A real estate developer whose daughter flaunted her family's pimped out crib on a television show has been charged with defrauding two banks.
Michael Pouls is accused of misleading National Penn Bank in 2007 and the former Wilmington Trust in 2008 into lending him almost $13.4 million on the basis of fraudulent securities statements, the U.S. attorney's office in the eastern district of Pennsylvania said in a recent news release. He was charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and false statements to induce loans.
In securing $10 million in an additional line of credit from Wilmington, Pouls claimed to have about $28 million in assets invested in two different accounts at TD Ameritrade. In reality he had about $3,000, the complaint said.
When Pouls sought to borrow almost $3.4 million from National Penn, he claimed that he would maintain at least roughly $3.4 million in a TD Ameritrade account. Instead, Pouls knowingly depleted the account and had about $3,300 in the account, the complaint said.
"Mr. Pouls accepts responsibility for his wrongs, which he ceased voluntarily long ago and has been working hard to rectify," Lisa Mathewson, Pouls's attorney, said in an email sent to American Banker. "His motive was never to line his own pockets, but to save his business during an unprecedented real estate downturn."
Pouls's daughter, Samantha, gave a tour of their family's 15,000-plus square foot home in Gladwyne, Pa., on the MTV show "Teen Cribs" in 2009,
Pouls makes a brief appearance during the segment wearing a frilly apron while cooking up something in the kitchen. At the end, Samantha's mom reassures the audience that it isn't about the house but rather "enjoying friends in the house, baking and cooking, about sharing life and fun."
Curbed — which described the house as "beyond grand" — reported that the home was built 14 years ago for $22 million but is now on the market for $3.8 million.
A spokeswoman for National Penn declined to comment. M&T Corp. (MTB), which acquired Wilmington in 2011, did not return a call seeking comment.
If convicted, Pouls, 50, faces a maximum of 110 years in prison and a fine totaling almost $3.3 million.
