With this, also, she is in a position to advocate for values she holds dear-choice and democracy.
#Abacus federal savings bank mortgage statement trial#
Now, two years after the jury trial found the bank not guilty of mortgage fraud and other charges, and as the film is screening nationally and soon to air on national public television, Jill Sung ’90 finds that people are reaching out to share their story of “David and Goliath” legal battles or other stories that feel rife with discrimination. Vance Jr., who led the prosecution.Ībacus: Small Enough to Jail, was an award-winner on the independent film circuit, including the audience award at the 2017 San Diego Asian Film Festival Showcase, and the audience award for best documentary at the 2107 Sarasota Film Festival. James was there to film key moments and conduct interviews, including one with New York City District Attorney Cyrus R. In an unprecedented turn of events, 18 Abacus employees were placed under arrest and the press was offered a shocking photo-op: 10 of these employees were “handcuffed to a chain and paraded down the hallway in the Criminal Court building in a staged perp-walk before the national news media like a herd of slaves being led to the auction block,” as Thomas Sung later described that event in his statement to the public after Abacus was found innocent of wrongdoing.īefore that day of vindication, however, the legal proceedings, machinations, and trial sprawled over five long, intense years. Yet instead of prosecuting that individual, the district attorney’s office turned their scrutiny on the bank’s officers and employees. The Sungs immediately fired him, referred the matter to their regulator, and reported the incident to the police. The events that are chronicled were set in motion when the Sungs discovered that one of their loan officers was taking money from borrowers in order to create false loan documents. Sung and his wife are the parents of four daughters-three lawyers and one medical doctor-including two affiliated with the bank: Jill Sung ’90, president and CEO of Abacus, and her elder sister Vera, who sits on the board. That bank is Abacus Federal Savings Bank, located in New York City’s Chinatown and founded in 1984 by Thomas Sung, an immigration lawyer and an immigrant himself, who saw the need for this within the insular community. bank to be criminally charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis. On Sept.12 (check local listings), Public Broadcasting Service’s Frontline will broadcast Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, a new documentary by Steve James ( Hoop Dreams, Life Itself) that tells the story of the only U.S. bank indicted for mortgage fraud related to the 2008 financial crisis. The film chronicles the saga of the only U.S. Jill Sung ’90, center, with her sister Vera and father, the founder of Abacus Federal Savings Bank, in a still from the new documentary by Steven James, which will air on PBS Frontline Sept.
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