Investor Kenneth Lehman to Buy Marine Bank & Trust in Fla.

Bank investor Kenneth Lehman plans to buy a controlling stake in Marine Bank & Trust Co. in Vero Beach, Fla.

Lehman has applied to purchase 100 million shares of Marine Bank's common stock and 5 million shares of its preferred stock, the Washington Business Journal reported Wednesday. The sale price wasn't disclosed, but a regulatory filing lists the market value of the $138 million-asset company's common stock at $1.50 per share, the Journal reports.

Lehman has filed a change-of-control application with regulators and the deal could be finalized next week, Marine Bank President Bill Penney told American Banker. Penney said he could not comment further on the planned sale before it was approved.

In March, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a cease-and-desist order against Marine Bank, alleging that it engaged in unsafe lending and "a clear pattern of risky practices," including holding insufficient capital reserves. It ordered the bank to raise its Tier 1 capital ratio to 8% and total risk-based capital to 12%. Those figures were 5.75% and 9.77% as of Sept. 30, according to the FDIC.

Lehman, 54, has invested in many community banks, including First Capital Financial Corp. in Glen Allen, Va., and Delmar Bancorp (DBCP) in Maryland. He is also the secretary and a board member at Virginia Commerce Bancshares (VCBI) in Arlington, and helped lead the company's planned $491 million sale to United Bancshares in West Virginia, which was agreed to in January.