![]() ![]() The long process drags itself out, as Abacus sees other, larger banks get off or pay a large fee. Sung went to meet them personally to calm them down. It was the second crisis the Abacus had faced, as in 2003 a previous employee had stolen money from the bank and caused a temporary panic among its depositors, who made a run on the bank until Mr. With that, began a five-year ordeal of investigations, accusations, and a 67-day trial. Moreover, it was convinced the Sungs themselves were in cahoots with all the financial shenanigans. Despite fully cooperating with the police, and despite the bank itself being the one to expose and report the crime, the NYCDA believed the bank itself must have known about the fraud. Yu was immediately fired and Jill Sung, one of AFSB's officers, reported the crime to the authorities. Moreover, he was deceiving the bank about loans made. In December 2009, one of AFSB's employees, Qi Bin (Ken) Yu, was exposed as a thief and money launderer. That same attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr., would become the Sung Family nemesis. Only another daughter, Chanterelle, opted not to join the family business, but to become a lawyer and work for the New York County District Attorney. Over time, Abacus Federal Savings Bank grew to respectability and prestige, and three of his four daughters came aboard to help run AFSB. With that, he founded Abacus, using the legendary Chinese calculator as inspiration for the name. Thomas Sung, a first-generation Chinese-American, saw a need for a bank to service his community. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail chronicles the Abacus trial, the effects it had on the family behind the bank, and on how Abacus Federal Savings Bank was almost made the scapegoat for a disaster not of their own making. It was small and from a community that was not seen as a threat politically. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail is a play on the idea that it was targeted because unlike the other major international corporations that were 'too big to fail', Abacus was easy pickings. Instead, it was a small family-run bank with a total of six branches that specialized in working with the Chinese-American community, primarily in New York's Chinatown. The 2008 mortgage crisis had many causes and villains, but in the banking industry, there was only one that faced any actual prosecution. Eight individuals publicly accepted criminal responsibility for their roles in this conspiracy by pleading guilty to crimes they committed while employed in Abacus Bank’s loan department.It has been ten years since the world financial market teetered on the verge of total collapse. When confronted with loan after loan in which the paperwork was allegedly falsified, a grand jury voted to indict the bank and other individuals. ![]() The ensuing grand jury investigation revealed widespread fraud. “This matter originated in 2010 with a complaint by an Abacus Bank borrower to the NYPD, who referred it to our office. “You would be hard-pressed to find a prosecutor’s office that would not have brought this case,” the spokesman said. Sung, pictured above, is presented as a George Bailey-like figure who had his community’s interest at heart, and the movie even opens with Sung and his wife watching “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The family plans to attend the Oscars with James on March 4.Ī spokesman for Vance responded to “Abacus” and James’ comments. The movie presents that argument, but focuses on the family of Thomas Sung, the founder of the bank, as they went through the ordeal of fighting the charges. Vance, who appears in the movie, defends the decision to prosecute as a responsible move to root out corruption, and he denies that the bank was unfairly targeted. Also acquitted were two of its senior officers, who argued that they were not aware that loan originators in the bank had a scheme to produce false mortgage documents and collect commissions. A jury found the bank not guilty of mortgage fraud and a host of other charges in 2015. ![]()
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