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> http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Ex-bank-bosses-indicted-for-Wilmington-Trust-collapse.html <http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Ex-bank-bosses-indicted-for-Wilmington-Trust-collapse.html>
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> Ex-bankers indicted for Wilmington Trust collapse
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> <http://www.philly.com/inquirer>
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> Two top officers of the failed Wlimington Trust Corp. face federal charges of filing false financial reports with the U.S. Government in the months before the bank's financial collapse. The bank, the largest in the Federal Reserve District of Philadelphia at the time, was forced to sell to M&T Bank the next year at a fraction of its previous value. More than 700 bank employees lost their jobs in the aftermath as M&T wrote off bad real estate development loans and consolidated operations.
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> William North, the bank's former Chief Credit Officer, and Kevyn Rakowski, the former Controller, each face one count of making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and three counts of lying to the Federal Reserve. The men cooperated with "known and unknown" others "in concealing from the market and the Federal Reserve the total quantity of past due loans on the bank's books" in October and November, 2009. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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> "It's disappointing that after a four-year investigation, in which Bill North spent the equivalent of three full days" helping federal agencies, "he would be accused of making false statements in documents he didn't prepare, didn't write, didn't sign and didn't have any control over," his lawyer, David Wilks. "He was one of the few people at the bank who objected to this practice which had been followed for decades, that regulators never objected to. He is not resposnible for public reporting." Rakowski's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
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> U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III in a statement said the bankers "knew that the false information being provided to the Bank's regulator masked the true condition of its loan portfolio." He called this "criminal conduct (which) contributed to the decline of Wilmington Trust." Oberly and his counterparts in Philadelphia have indicted a series of former Wilmington Trust loan officers and managers who approved allegedly illegal transactions in the years before the bank's financial collapse. No charges have been brought against former top officers Ted T. Cecala or Robert V.A. Harra. "The investigation is ongoing " Oberly spokeswoman Kimberly Reeves told me.
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> Oberly's office says it was assisted by the FBI, the Treasury's Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), IRS criminal investigators, the Federal Reserve and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Prosecutors are assistant U.S. Attonesy Robert Kravetz and Lesley Wolf.
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Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com <x-msg://59/eschwerin@obblaw.com>
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