![]() "That was a tremendous injustice," Mitten said, adding that it was the reason he decided to do the film. "It's hypocritical that all these large too-big-to-fail banks that hadn't had any kind of prosecution other than paying fines, and yet, they were trying to prosecute this bank," said Mark Mitten, producer of the film. Thomas Sung, founder of Abacus Federal Savings Bank, stands in an aisle of the bank's safety deposit boxes with his two daughters, Vera Sung (left) and Jill Sung, who are executives at the bank. One of the accusations was granting loans to borrowers who didn't demonstrate sufficient income and selling some of these loans to Fannie Mae, "passing the risk to the federal bank," although the bank had "one of the lowest default rates in the entire country." "I'm very proud that we have helped the Chinese community grow and many immigrants buy their homes," Sung said. ![]() Sung, who was born in Shanghai and came to the US as a teenager, served as an immigrtion lawyer in New York before he set up the bank, with the mission to help immigrants realize their American dream. "It was to plead felony and pay fines, while the big banks were offered fines and settlements and moved on." "We were not given an option," Thomas Sung, 80, founder and patriarch of the bank, told China Daily. Meanwhile, as the film showed, big banks issued $4.8 trillion in fraudulent loans and paid $110 billion in fines, but no one was prosecuted. The family-owned bank was the only one prosecuted after the 2008 financial meltdown despite its very low default rate. However, the Sung family paid $10 million in legal fees and had immeasurable business losses. After a four-month trial in 2015, the bank was exonerated. The DA indicted the bank in May 2012 with a list of nearly 200 counts of charges, including grand larceny and mortgage fraud. When the lights came up at the end of the film, the entire audience gave a standing ovation.Ībacus documents the story of the Sung family, owners of Abacus Federal Savings Bank in New York's Chinatown, and their battle against the New York County District Attorney's prosecution on fraud charges. Jian Ping / For China DailyĪ sold-out audience packed the screening of Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, a documentary by Steve James shown at the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival on Oct 18. From left: producer Mark Mitten Sung family members Vera, Thomas and Hwei Lin and director Steve James. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail fi lmmakers and those whose story was featured in the movie attend the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival.
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