![]() government determined that the multi-million dollar banks were indeed "too big to fail." And some would complain, too big to indict, when not a single financial institution was brought to justice. Why them?"ĭuring the early 2000s, in the largely unregulated subprime mortgage industry, the biggest banks in America, like Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Chase, Lehman Brothers, and many others, provided billions in risky mortgages to millions of unqualified applicants unable to afford them.īitter controversy arose when the U.S. "Because no other bank had been indicted, and knowing it was just a small community bank, the 2651st largest bank in America, with one of the lowest default rates on record, it was a head-scratcher. "That was mind-boggling to me," said the film's producer, Mark Mitten. Yet here is a small community bank doing what banks are supposed to do - lend to their community - and this is the only one indicted," said James. "Big banks that engaged in damaging actions that caused so many people to lose their life savings and their homes were not punished. What happened next is what director James calls, "a wrongful persecution" and "an unequal application of justice."ĭespite Sung's blowing the whistle on their employee's illicit activities and firing him the same day it was discovered, the bank itself became the target of a federal investigation into mortgage fraud. They immediately reported it to the banking authorities and fired the employee. ![]() ![]() The ordeal began when Jill Sung, CEO of the bank founded by her father, Thomas Sung, noticed an anomaly in the bank's loan department and discovered one of the bank's lower-level employees had been falsifying mortgage applications.ĭid they cover it up and skate with a simple fine like all the big banks did? No. In 2012, in the aftermath of the crippling 2008 mortgage crisis that sent the United States and world economies into a devastating tailspin for half a decade, New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance filed multiple charges of fraud against Abacus Federal Savings Bank, a small, privately-owned bank that served New York's Chinatown community. Movie City News called it "one of the best documentaries in recent years," while The Hollywood Reporter asserted it was "both an affirmation and an indictment of the American Dream." It won Best Documentary from the Critics Choice and the National Board of Review Awards. The Academy Award-winning director, Steve James, best known for "Hoop Dreams," told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview, "I gravitated toward documentaries because I wanted to tell stories, but I wanted to tell true stories about people in pivotal situations, at a crossroads in their lives. mortgage crisis that triggered a financial crisis worldwide. It's a film about a tiny Chinese-American community bank indicted for fraud during the 2008 U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominees for its 90th Oscar awards to be given on March 4, their line-up for Best Documentary Feature included, "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail." LOS ANGELES, March 1 (Xinhua) - When the U.S.
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