Massive fraud found at shuttered Chicago bank whose president was found hanged at customer’s home
A century old Bridgeport bank that federal canadian goose jacket regulators shut down last December less than two weeks after its president was found hanged in a customer’s home had been involved in a massive fraud scheme that topped $82.6 million, a federal audit has found.
canada goose clearance And the audit says federal regulators are partly responsible for the losses because they treated Washington Federal “as a ‘training’ or ‘practice’ bank” for uk canada goose outlet rookie examiners who failed to detect the scheme, ignoring “red flags” and being hoodwinked by bank officials including president John F. Gembara since at least 2011. canada goose clearance
canada goose store Gembara, 56, canada goose clearance sale the grandson of the bank’s founder, was found dead last Dec. 3, sitting in a chair with a rope around his neck inside the Park Ridge bedroom canada goose uk black friday of a bank customer who owed the bank nearly $1.8 million and was Canada Goose Jackets facing foreclosure. It was 25 miles from his home in Palos Hills. canada goose store
Gembara’s death has been ruled a suicide by Park Ridge police and the Cook County medical canada goose store examiner’s office.
The bank’s failure is under investigation by the FBI canada goose black friday sale and by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., a federal agency that regulates financial institutions.
The FDIC is trying to collect the unpaid loans, which include as much as $27 million it’s seeking from Robert M. Weston; George F. Kozdemba, a retired electrical technician for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago; William M. Mahon, a deputy commissioner for the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation; and Leonard Stepien, comptroller of a canada goose uk outlet packing company. None returned messages Canada Goose Parka seeking comment.
Gembara’s wife Therese canada goose factory sale Gembara also Visit Your URL has hired an attorney, Luke Casson, who told the Chicago Sun Times earlier this year that the widow doesn’t believe her husband killed himself. Kowalski also previously told the newspaper he thinks somebody killed the bank president.
canada goose coats The federal audit issued this week doesn’t mention Gembara’s canada goose death. It also doesn’t identify any of the bank officials. canada goose coats
Canada Goose Outlet But it does highlight a series of conflicts of interest involving bank officials and board members who approved loans and then had oversight of the loans they had made. Canada Goose Outlet
cheap Canada Goose Washington Federal had made loans to residential and commercial customers without appraising the value of the property until a week to six months after the loans were made, the audit found. cheap Canada Goose
Canada Goose Parka “We identified weaknesses in the execution of the OCC’s supervision of the bank that led to missed opportunities for timely enforcement actions related to Canada Goose Outlet the bank’s loan portfolio,” the audit says. “We believe that had the OCC examination teams identified and cheap Canada Goose addressed these issues timely, the fraud at Washington Federal may have been uncovered sooner and the loss to the [deposit insurance fund] and individual account holders may have been reduced.” Canada Goose Parka
The OCC discovered the fraud as well as the shoddy oversight by the OCC bank examiners last fall.
canada goose black friday sale It’s Canada Goose sale unclear what prompted the OCC to conduct that audit. Casson previously told the Sun Times it was the result of a tip from someone inside the bank. canada goose black friday sale
Canada Goose Jackets The OCC turned its findings over to the FDIC, which moved to shut down the bank. Canada Goose Jackets
canada goose coats on sale Gembara apparently was aware of that action several days before he died. canada goose coats on sale
canadian goose jacket The Park Ridge home of a Washington Federal Bank for Savings customer where bank chief John F. Gembara was found dead. The homeowner told police in the northwest suburb that Gembara said he “needed to hide due to ‘troubles’ at the bank. Kevin Tanaka / Sun Times canadian goose jacket
Washington Federal was one of eight banks in the United States that failed in 2017, according to the FDIC, which says losses are covered by banks nationwide.
buy canada goose jacket cheap Since the Chicago bank’s forced closing, its deposits have been assumed by Royal Savings Bank, which took over Washington Federal’s main office at 2869 Canada Goose online S. Archer Ave. and its lone branch at 1410 W. Taylor St. in Little Italy. buy canada goose jacket cheap
Canada Goose sale During the examination last fall, the bank examiners looked at a sample of nine loans and were told by bank officials that five of the loans had been paid off. Canada Goose sale
“They requested additional information about the paid off loans, but had difficulty obtaining information from the bank,” the report says. uk canada goose An OCC official “instructed the https://www.canadagoose-sale.co.uk canada goose outlet sale [examiner in charge] to inform the bank’s president that the examiners canada goose uk shop would not leave the bank until the bank provided the requested information.”
canada goose “In November 2017, OCC examiners met with the bank’s canada goose coats Board of Directors to convey significant concerns identified during the examination, including the failure of the bank to provide requested documents and loan files. After the meeting, a member of the bank’s management, who was also a board member, advised OCC examiners that there was a major fraud occurring at the bank. [The assistant deputy comptroller] told us that if previous examiners would have validated that the loans the bank reported as paid off were indeed paid off, the fraud would have been cheap canada goose uk uncovered sooner.” canada goose
canada goose clearance sale “We believe that the use of insufficiently supervised inexperienced examiners significantly contributed to the failure of OCC to timely identify Washington Federal’s deficiencies,” the audit says. canada goose clearance sale
During those earlier examinations, the OCC employees failed to challenge the bank to produce records to show that loans had actually been repaid, the report says: “An examiner told us canada goose coats on sale that they trust that a bank is giving them a complete and accurate loan trial balance and accept the loan trial balance in good faith unless there is reason to question it.”
buy canada goose jacket The auditors said they had to manually audit Washington Federal’s records because the bank’s computerized management information system couldn’t produce records such as a report on loans that had been extended or renewed or even “a report detailing the volume of investor owned real estate and owner occupied 1 4 family mortgages.” buy canada goose jacket.