-
Recently hundreds of ethnic Chinese depositors rushed to withdraw their money from Abacus Federal Savings Bank in New York's Chinatown and from its branch in Philadelphia, sparked by fears of the thrift's insolvency.
May 8 -
For a man whose thrift lost 13% of its deposits in a four-day run, Thomas Sung sounds surprisingly upbeat.
May 1 -
WASHINGTON - The founder of Abacus Federal Savings Bank said Monday that the New York thrift lost about $30 million of deposits during a four-day run last week.
April 29 -
WASHINGTON - A run this week on a New York thrift - one of the first in the country in a decade - has left its management open to the criticism that it mishandled the discovery of an alleged embezzlement scheme.
April 24
Abacus Federal Savings Bank and more than a dozen of its former employees are facing criminal charges related to a scheme in which it allegedly falsified information on mortgage applications so that unqualified borrowers could secure loans.
The New York bank was charged with grand larceny and mortgage fraud, among other allegations, the Associated Press
Prosecutors allege that the bank's loan officers helped borrowers lie about things like incomes and job titles on applications to get mortgages while underwriters approved the loans knowing that the information was inaccurate. They said that the alleged fraud took place between May 2005 and February 2010.
Fannie Mae purchased the loans then repackaged them as securities and sold them to investors, the Associated Press reported. Prosecutors said that more than 4,000 loans were involved and that the loans generated made millions of dollars in fees for the bank.
Abacus said that it was surprised by the charges since it had investigated the mortgages itself and reported the problem to Fannie Mae. The $249 million-asset bank said that it would defend itself against the charges.
The bank also claimed that Fannie Mae and the borrowers were not injured, according to the Associated Press. Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Manhattan District Attorney, said that most of the loans were being repaid.
