Feds: Bank Chairman Used TARP Money to Buy Luxury Condo in Florida
A bank chairman from Missouri pleaded guilty on Tuesday to lying about how he used bailout money given to banks during the 2008 economic crisis. Rather than using the federal funds to stabilize his small bank, court records say, the chairman spent about a third of the money on an oceanfront condo in Florida.
Darryl Layne Woods, 48, of Columbia, Mo., could be sentenced up to a year in prison and may also have to pay a $100,000 fine. Lying to federal officials about how the money was spent is a misdemeanor crime.
Court records do not say whether Woods will be charged with misusing the money, which came from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
“At a time when many other Americans were losing their homes, he was siphoning off public funds to buy a luxury vacation condo in Florida,” Tammy Dickinson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District, said in a statement. “These federal funds were intended to help stabilize the economy during a fiscal crisis. Instead, this disgraced business leader took advantage of the situation to benefit himself and other bank executives, then lied to federal investigators in an attempt to hide his scheme.”
Rest here…
~
No Comment