Film raises questions about bank fiasco fallout
Two mysteries remain at the end of this documentary from Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Life Itself ), about an embattled little bank. Why was Abacus, a relatively tiny, family-owned bank indicted on criminal charges as part of the U.S. mortgage-fraud crises? And how did they wind up being the only ones?
The sound-bite argument is that while the big banks were too big to fail, Abacus was “small enough to jail.” There are also suggestions the case had racist overtones, since Abacus dealt largely with New York’s Chinese population. “This case is about an attack on our community,” says one commentator. “We were easy prey.”
What no one seems to deny is that Abacus had some fraudulent practices going on, although they were traced to one Ken Yu, who was almost immediately fired. Other than that, the bank had an enviable record, including one of the lowest default rates in the country. Someone points out if the bigger banks had been so well behaved, the 2008 meltdown would never have happened.
James lays it on a little thick at times, opening with scenes from It’s a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra’s 1946 film about a good-hearted savings and loan harassed by an evil oligarch. He even returns to the film to illustrate the time in 2003 when an embezzler in the ranks of Abacus caused a run on the bank. Patriarch and founder Thomas Sung is of course cast in the role of James Stewart’s George Bailey character, minus the guardian angel and the endearing stutter.
The result is an interesting tale, though a little dry at times. (I blame The Big Short (2015), for making me yearn for Margot Robbie in a bubble bath whenever the financial issues get hard to understand.) By the end of the trial, we’re told by prosecutors Abacus was not exonerated. Maybe not, but it sure feels like it.