Tiny bank took the fall as big guys skated away
“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” begins with Thomas and Hwei Lin Sung, watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” and reflecting on their own American dream.
Except the business they founded — a small bank like the one in the iconic Christmas movie — became a highprofile government example of mortgage crisis fraud. While the “too big to fail” larger banks distributed trillions in fraudulent mortgages without criminal prosecution, the tiny Abacus Federal Savings Bank wedged between a couple of New York City noodle shops was targeted by the government as the problem.
“Hoop Dreams” director Steve James takes a strong point of view — that the Sung family was victimized by a government that protected the strong and made an example of the weak. He makes a good case that the nearly one-sided point of view is necessary. No one in the government is looking out for these immigrant bankers. So the people — citizens, the press, a documentarian — should step in.
The documentary is dry as the details of the case are compiled, with a spare piano and harp score and some highly technical elements as the court case unfolds. But the lack of action is made up for by the gumption of the accused banking family, whose respect for each other is apparent even as they bicker and interrupt each other over trial strategy, press releases and the catered lunch.
The Sung family is humiliated with staged arrests involving a seemingly endless perp walk with the family chained together. But they don’t wilt. The same ethic that went into building their lives in America goes into fighting the charges, and fighting for their name. The Sungs raised three girls who are attorneys, labeled correctly in the documentary as the slingshot in the David/Goliath story.
(In one of the more cinematic real-life touches, youngest daughter Chanterelle worked for the district attorney who prosecuted the Sungs, before quitting to become a legal bulldog for her family.)
Like George Bailey, and the Cartwright family from “Bonanza” and other fictitious families, the real-life story of the Sungs is one of loyalty and adhering to their code, even as they face losing everything.
It’s not the wonderful life the Sung family were planning on, but the Abacus Federal Savings Bank story is a different kind of American dream.