WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Wilmington Trust Corp., the first financial institution to be criminally charged in connection with the federal bank bailout program, reached a settlement with prosecutors Tuesday just as the corporation and four former top executives were set to go to trial on bank fraud charges.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Andrews postponed the trial for the former executives until March after announcing the agreement between federal prosecutors and the bank to a group of more than 40 potential jurors.
Andrews did not provide details of the agreement, but prosecutors scheduled a news conference later Tuesday.
“The bank being removed from the case has really upset the strategy and planning and preparation for the other defendants,” the judge explained. “It’s my judgment that they’re not prepared to try the case without the bank as a co-defendant.”
Wilmington Trust, a century-old institution founded by members of the DuPont family, was hastily sold in 2011 to M&T Bank at a steep discount as it teetered on the edge of collapse. The bank imploded despite receiving $330 million from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Prosecutors accused Wilmington Trust, through its senior executives, of concealing the truth about the bank’s deteriorating commercial real estate loan portfolio from bank regulators, investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Former Wilmington Trust president Robert V.A. Harra Jr., former chief financial officer David Gibson, former chief credit officer William North, and former controller Kevyn Rakowski are charged with fraud, conspiracy and making false statements to federal regulators.
Three other former Wilmington Trust officers, vice president Joseph Terranova, Delaware Market Officer Brian Bailey, and loan officer Pete Hayes have pleaded guilty in the case and are awaiting sentencing.
Two other coconspirators already have been sentenced. James Ladio, former CEO of MidCoast Community Bank, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $700,000 restitution. Businessman Salvatore Leone was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay $784,000.
Prosecutors have alleged that Wilmington Trust concealed the total quantity of past due loans on its books from October 2009 through November 2010. They say Wilmington Trust failed to disclose to regulators its practice of “waiving” matured loans designated as current for interest and in the process of being extended from the reporting requirements for past due loans. The indictment cites several emails, dating as far back 2007, in which North expressed concerns about the amount of loans being waived from the reporting requirements.
According to the indictment, Wilmington Trust officials reported only $10.8 million in commercial loans 90 days or more past due at the end of 2009, concealing more than $333 million in past due loans subject to the waiver practice.
During the course of the alleged conspiracy, in February 2010, Wilmington Trust raised about $274 million through a public stock offering. The bank is the defendant in a separate class-action lawsuit by investors.
