![]() ![]() No one at the courthouse could recall a time such a thing happened in such a case. ![]() In another shameful, unprecedented development, a stoic Sung and his family were made to perform the infamous “perp walk” in chains. The government’s chief witness was the fired loan officer. ![]() Nevertheless, a case was brought against Abacus Bank, claiming falsely that the corruption was systemic and all the officers were guilty of crimes that could land them in prison. In the years surrounding the housing crisis, Abacus officers learned that one of their workers was falsifying loan documents and extorting money from prospective clients. Like George, Tom and his family found great satisfaction in helping members of his community, most of them immigrants, to buy their first homes. In opening scenes that are indicative of the film’s tendency to overstate its case, the venerable Tom Sung, a 79-year-old respected Chinatown attorney and founder of Abacus Bank, and his spunky wife, Vera, sit in front of their TV in Connecticut, watching Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Tom openly identifies with the film’s George Bailey. Vance gamely appears on camera to make his case and seems entirely oblivious to the fact that he was completely wrong to bring the case forward and that in large part the prosecution was driven by prejudice. In “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” (an ironic counter to the infamous “too big to fail”), Academy Award-nominated director Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) paints a slightly problematic, nonfiction David and Goliath portrait of what can only be called a complete travesty of justice perpetrated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office led by Assistant District Attorney Cyrus Vance?Jr. Beyond the arguments on both sides, as well as that provided by those in the middle, such as employees, clients, and jurors in the trial, the negative impact on the Sung family itself is shown in they defending themselves and their good reputation against baseless claims.Would it surprise you to know that the only American bank indicted and brought to criminal court for its role in the 2008 financial crisis was the small Chinese-American owned and operated Abacus Federal Savings Bank of Chinatown, New York City? While the Sung family admits that there were crimes committed by low level employees, primarily loans officers, they dealt with the problems when discovered, and that the district attorney is using them as a scapegoat in the public wanting accountability for the financial crisis, things done to "them" that would not have been done to bigger players, all which did not sit well with the Chinese-American population in the all too familiar feeling of they as a group being disenfranchised. It was the only financial institution that was indicted for the mortgage loan crisis of 2008, while the big banks got away with plea deals, deferred prosecutions, fines or the like in being too big to fail, making a business like Abacus an easy target for prosecution. He likens himself and the bank to It's a Wonderful Life (1946)'s George Bailey and the Bailey Savings and Loan, his Bedford Falls being New York City's Chinatown comprised largely of immigrant mom and pop businesses similar to the bank. Manhattan-based Abacus Federal Savings Bank is a proverbial mom and pop business, its founder, Thomas Sung, a lawyer by trade, starting it solely in seeing an unmet need for someone like him, a first generation American, and his family. ![]()
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