Bank head used TARP dollars to buy FL condo

by Ryan Smith | 28 Aug 2013

A former Missouri bank chairman is facing up to a year in federal prison after he admitted to using federal bailout funds to buy a vacation home.

Darryl Layne Woods, 48, pleaded guilty Monday to misleading federal investigators about his use of funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to buy a luxury condo in Fort Myers, Fla.

Woods is the former chairman and CFO of Mainstreet Bank in Ashland, Mo., as well as chairman, president, and majority shareholder of Calvert Financial Corporation, the bank holding company for Mainstreet. In November of 2008, Calvert applied for TARP funds and in January 2009 was awarded $1,037,000 through the TARP Capital Purchase Program, according to the Special Inspector General for TARP Christy Romero.

Woods admitted Monday in federal court that within days of receiving the cash, he used $381,000 of the TARP funds to purchase the Fort Myers condo for his own use and the use of other bank executives. When investigators quizzed Calvert on how the money was being spent, Woods failed to disclose the purchase.

“The purpose of TARP is to promote financial stability and lending in a time of national economic crisis, not to bankroll the purchase of luxury vacation properties for bank executives,” Romero said Tuesday.

“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,” U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson said. “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.”

As part of his plea agreement, Woods must sever his professional ties to the banking industry, and can no longer serve as an officer or employee of any financial institution. He could also face up to a year in federal prison, and be ordered to pay restitution and a fine of up to $100,000.

My 2 cent Commentary:  Now if some Joe Nobody went into the Mainstreet Bank in Ashland, Mo and robbed them of $381,000 and was later apprehended, do you think that, if found guilty, would get UP TO a year in federal prison?  No way!  That poor Joe Nobody would be looking at 7 to 10 years and not in some country club prison.  This seems to be another example of corporate greed in the bank system.  Although not entirely getting away with it, the punishment does not seem to be a adequate.