You might have missed this budding scandal last week, what with the FBI sting of former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon and his arrest on corruption charges, and the Duke Energy coal ash pond fiasco which is still hanging around in the headlines. But eye-popping, what-were-they-thinking allegations were lodged last week against other officials with connections to Charlotte and the Carolinas.
CertusBank, founded and run by former Bank of America and Wachovia executives - at least one who still lives in Charlotte - was the subject of a scathing expose in American Banker magazine where a group of investors charged “gross mismanagement by senior executives.”
Among the allegations were these expenditures: “nearly $10 million paid to a consulting firm owned by Certus’ top officers; $146,000 for three months of work by an executive’s son fresh out of college; $2.5 million for three executive apartments and high-end upgrades; $347,000 for private plane trips; $131,000 for Carolina Panthers games; several hundred thousand dollars for sponsorships and charitable gifts; and more than $500,000 for American Express bills.”
Other amenities allegedly included a nearly $1 million art collection, a theater and a 13-foot touch-screen "media wall" that, the bank says, is the tallest in the United States. Here's the one that caught my eye: An executive allegedly affixed 300,000 pennies to ceiling of an office suite at the company's headquarters in Greenville, S.C.
According to the FDIC, CertusBank listed noninterest expenses of more than $145 million for 2013 while posting losses of more than $82 million. It had $1.7 billion in total assets and $1.5 billion in liabilities as of Dec. 31.
Here's the kicker. The bank got started by buying up failing or ailing banks in the Southeast.
Say what?!!!
This week, co-founder Charles M. Williams, who had been vice chairman and who lives in Charlotte, resigned. He was in charge of mergers and acquisitions and sources said he had been planning to step down since last year.
And all this was happening as CertusBank was losing millions - $100 million since 2012.
Geez.
According to the FDIC, CertusBank listed noninterest expenses of more than $145 million for 2013 while posting losses of more than $82 million. It had $1.7 billion in total assets and $1.5 billion in liabilities as of Dec. 31.
Here's the kicker. The bank got started by buying up failing or ailing banks in the Southeast.
Yep. We cannot make this stuff up.
- Fannie Flono
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6 comments:
Lets play the party affiliation game ----> co-founder Charles M. Williams...
Fannie your courage is only outdone by your propensity to play the race card..
You should be proud..
And Texas got a cat house in it.
Could not stand it, could you Fannie? Had to find a white dude. No one cares about Williams cause he was not mayor of Charlotte. Crooks come in all colors. Even the crooks in the WH.
You know he must be corrupt if a hedge fund manager ratted him out...
No honor among thieves.
Annnort----what am I missing here? Charles Williams is not s white person. What are you accusing Fannie of?
The real Charlotte scandal, the one that has made the NY Times quite a few times, the LATimes, the Washington Post etc, etc and pretty much every newspaper in the state is the Duke/McCrory scandal. Talk about Mayor Pat problems, about embarassment, this is the real one.
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