Agents search home of EX-CEO

Banker points to One Bank probe

Federal investigators searched the home of Layton Stuart, former chief executive officer of One Bank & Trust Co. in Little Rock, on Wednesday, Stuart said.

A spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service in Nashville, Tenn., said IRS agents were among those who searched Stuart’s home at 1 Hickory Creek Drive.

“They were there on official business,” said Dennis Holenstein, the IRS spokesman. Holenstein declined to elaborate.

FBI agents were also part of the search of Stuart’s home, said Kim Brunell, an FBI spokesman. The IRS was the lead agency in the search, she said.

The federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued its third regulatory sanction against One Bank in September, ordering that Stuart be dismissed from his position as chief executive and relinquish all bank property.

The banking regulator also ordered a forensic audit of the bank to verify the accuracy of the bank’s books since January 2009. Forensic audits are often done as part of a criminal investigation.

The agents searched Stuart’s home in the “ongoing investigation and inquiry into One Bank and its activities,” Stuart said.

“There was some concern that I had bank records I was not entitled to have,” Stuart said. “I don’t believe I had any documents that I was not entitled to have. The [federal regulator’s] orders were that I was not to have any bank records. I hope that there is no confusion or misinterpretation over the information I had.”

According to the order against One Bank in September, bank property that Stuart was required to relinquish included “vehicles and keys; keys to all bank premises; credit cards; computers and disc drives; printers; fax machines; photocopiers; cell phones; audiovisual equipment; other electronic devices; supplies; and documents that are originals and-or copies of the bank’s books and records.”

The search was “very serious” and “not pleasant,” Stuart said.

“I think the searches will continue to all former executives and some current executives that have been placed on administrative leave,” Stuart said. He declined to identify those executives.

Stuart owns essentially all the stock of the private bank, which has assets of about $440 million. The bank lost about $4.3 million last year and about $8.3 million in the past three years.

Gerald Pavlas, a former Dallas banker, was hired to replace Stuart at One Bank. Pavlas declined to comment about the search of Stuart’s home.