More than that, the story of Abacus and the Manhattan DA’s office is a cautionary tale of what can happen when a culturally distinct community of immigrants seeks to share in the American dream, and a zealous prosecutor’s office concludes that its efforts to do so are criminal. The case is the subject of the PBS documentary Abacus: Small Enough to Jail that has been nominated for an Acacemy Award. Invoking the 2008 mortgage debacle, DA Vance said, “If we’ve learned anything, it’s that at some point, these schemes unravel and taxpayers are left holding the bag.”Ībacus, which was founded by the father of Vera Sung ’90 and Chanterelle Sung ’04, was, and remains, the only bank indicted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The indictment claimed that the bank had falsified loan applications so that unqualified borrowers could obtain home mortgages, and then sold these fraudulent mortgages to the Federal National Mortgage Association-Fannie Mae-the alleged victim. The charges: 184 counts of falsifying business records, and of residential mortgage fraud, grand larceny, and conspiracy.
#ABACUS FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK PLUS#
announced the indictment of Abacus Federal Savings Bank plus nineteen of its former employees, including the head of the loan department. The date was May 31, 2012.Īt a splashy press conference, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. Cameras flashed as they held on to each other, hunched over, trying to cover their faces.
Fifteen Chinese-Americans were handcuffed, chained together, and paraded by law enforcement down the narrow hallway of a New York City courthouse.
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