La banque c'est moi

BIG NEWS today in the BIG federal investigation that everyone has been watching with rapt anticipation.  There is a new indictment in the FNBC scandal.

First NBC Bank's former top lawyer was charged in federal court Friday with conspiracy to defraud the New Orleans bank, which failed two years ago in the biggest U.S. bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis.

Gregory St. Angelo served as First NBC's general counsel for a decade until 2016, and during that time, he took out loans totaling tens of millions of dollars from the bank, many of which went into default. He is accused of conspiring with two former top First NBC officials to defraud the bank: President and CEO Ashton Ryan, referred to in court documents as "Bank President A," and former Chief Credit Officer Bill Burnell, referred to in the documents as "Bank Officer B."

It says here that St. Angelo is and has been cooperating with prosecutors and is likely to plead and roll, probably on Ryan.  Seems like he's still keeping his spirits up, though. 

Ryan continues to maintain his innocence, according to his lawyer, Eddie Castaing.

“Anyone who committed fraud on the bank also committed fraud on Ashton Ryan and the board, and they should plead guilty," Castaing said Friday. "Ashton had nothing to do with it.”

Ashton Ryan IS the bank. Also he had nothing to do with any of the shady stuff the bank has been involved with. That's pretty good.

It's also a good sign. The further up this goes, the better it's going to be when someone like Ryan actually goes to court.  There are a lot more people and institutions that could get named in this thing.  One example, among many, is the soon-to-reopen African American Museum.

In 2012 the museum cut expenses by eliminating its executive director position. At the time, a board member said that NOAAM’s yearly income had fallen to $200,000, less than half the ideal $500,000 operating income. In March 2013 the museum announced it had closed to complete renovations and never reopened.

According to a report by WWL-TV, the museum’s troubles continued when Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield briefly became a board member. Mayfield had served as chairman of the New Orleans Public Library Foundation, and was accused of unlawfully steering nearly $1.4 million from that organization to the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. He left the African American Museum board in 2016 after reportedly incurring a $1 million bank loan on behalf of the museum. The loan had been granted by First NBC bank, which dissolved in 2017.

According to WWL, a philanthropic group called Treme Guardian led by businessman John Cummings assumed the bank loan in the interest of the museum. In 2014, Cummings, an attorney, opened the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, La., an institution designed to confront the history of slavery. But in 2018, Treme Guardian sued the NOAAM in Orleans Parish Civil District Court, alleging the museum had failed to make payments on the $1 million loan, continued to allow it historic properties to deteriorate and neglected to carry proper insurance.

There are more than just that, of course.  Hopefully this keeps going.