Banker Pleads Guilty To Using Bailout Money To Buy Himself A Luxury Condo

from the taxpayer-money dept

Wed, Aug 28th 2013 7:43am — Mike Masnick

Always suspected that the whole TARP bailout effort of the banks was a giant boondoggle to take your taxpayer money and give it to wealthy bankers for their own private stash? Well, in at least one case, that's exactly what apparently happened. The feds announced that a banker, Darryl Layne Woods, who was the head of Mainstreet Bank in Ashland, Missouri, applied for TARP funds and received over $1 million from the program back in January of 2009. On February 2nd of 2009, he used $381,487 of that same money and bought himself a luxury condo in Florida. A mere eight days later, Woods had to explain to the Special Investigator General in charge of monitoring the program how it was being spent, and conveniently left out the condo in Florida. No surprise there. Incredibly, from the DOJ's announcement, it seems that they're more focused on him lying about the condo than buying the condo in the first place:

Woods failed to disclose in his letter that a significant portion of TARP funds had been used to acquire the condominium. Failure to disclose the purchase of the condominium was a material misrepresentation of facts relating to the true use of TARP funds.

Of course, it still took another four years before this guilty plea. Woods will also face some jail time, have to repay the money, plus pay a fine of up to $100,000, and is barred from working in banking or finance. Of course, this was just small fry. $1 million to a tiny local bank, with about 40% of it being abused. Just imagine what some of the big banks did with the many billions they got. It's just they're a bit more sophisticated in how they went about spending the money.

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Filed Under: bailouts, banks, darryl woods, doj, tarp
Companies: mainstreet bank

20 Comments

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silverscarcat (profile), 28 Aug 2013 @ 5:55am

And yet...
the DoJ sure seems to be able to move quickly against people like Manning and Snowden.

Do I even need to mention the incredible "coincidence" that was Kim Dotcom's arrest?
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Ninja (profile), 28 Aug 2013 @ 6:37am

Inside Job. Watch it.

The bailout was a gargantuan sized scam where the clowns are the taxpaying citizens and the winners are the bankers. It's quite smart if you think about it for big banks.

1- Lobby the US Govt.
2- Put a representative of your sector into the Govt. Let's say, controlling the agency/ministry/department responsible for the economic measures and directions. Also put someone from your sector into the Central Bank or something.
3- Use those positions to relax oversight and scrutiny on the financial market and in credit concession.
4- Sell rotten titles as if they were the best thing with the blessings of risk classification outfits partnered with you.
5- Insure those rotten titles.
6- Watch hell break loose into the economy.
7- Claim the insurances causing even more havoc.
8- Influence the Govt to bailout "the economy".
9- ????
10- Profit. Get more cocaine, yachts and hookers.
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theOtherDude, 28 Aug 2013 @ 7:55am

Wow
He could have just pushed the board to give him that money in a bonus, then purchased his condo perfectly legally. He would have had to pay income tax of course, but still. See this is why he is running a bank in nowhere Missouri, instead of working on wall street where they know how to steal without breaking the law.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2013 @ 8:02am

when you think of the harm that was done by the banks and those operating them, on to the ordinary person, this is disgusting! people lost everything from their job, their home to their family and arse holes like this not only uses public funds to buy a luxury home elsewhere, he doesn't lose anything in the first place. had an ordinary person been guilty of a scam like this, the feds would have been on him like a rash. as stated in a previous comment, the feds managed to shift themselves over Snowden and Manning and even went to extortionate lengths to please the entertainment industries and Hollywood by screwing Dotcom. however, when it comes to sorting out crap like this, it takes forever. and bear in mind the outrageous fines and prison sentences that the bankers responsible for destroying so many lives have had levied against them! that's right! fuck all!! ruin a family, nothing. ruin a company, nothing, ruin a country, nothing, practically ruin the world, nothing! get accused of stealing a movie or releasing information that embarrasses a government, the sentence cant be swift enough or stern enough! guess we all need to move over and start living in a make-believe world. at least it appears we would be protected!!!
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out_of_the_blue, 28 Aug 2013 @ 8:08am

Oooh, Mike goes Populist! Not yet calling for tax on stock trades...
But it's a start. Baby steps: he has so much to unlearn from his college edumacation.

I'm pretty sure that Mike is finding hammering on NSA and various other criminals is bringing more traffic than trying to tear down copyright.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2013 @ 8:12am

The big banks get more money so it's much easier to bury relatively smaller amounts.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2013 @ 8:22am

We need a maximum wage.
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Ben S (profile), 28 Aug 2013 @ 8:25am

Part of the reason the DoJ isn't concerned with the way these bankers uses these funds is they are going to have to pay the money back, with interest, eventually. Some of the banks are constantly paying interest back to the government as well, so this is a bit of a cash cow for them. Would you care if you "bailed" some one out with your money, while constantly having them pay you back interest over the course of several years, knowing eventually you'll get back everything you spent and more, and the person you bailed out misused the money?
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2013 @ 8:30am

Probably profited in the end
Considering the real estate market has recovered substantially since 4 years ago, he'll probably be able to sell the condo, pay the 100k fine and the original amount and still have some profit left over at this point.

Savvy investor - using other people's money ;)
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anonymous hero, 28 Aug 2013 @ 9:03am

I moved my bank account to a small independent bank that did not get bail out money. Goodbye Wells Fartgo
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jackknife gypsy, 28 Aug 2013 @ 9:11am

Re: Wow
Oh they've not only broken laws, but have tricturated, liquidified, and gasified them.

Then they bought the Attorneys General, including Gonzalez, Ashcroft and now Holder.

That's the way you do it and get money for nothing and etc, etc, etc.
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jackknife gypsy, 28 Aug 2013 @ 9:14am

Re: paying it forward
Not really, since they are getting a hundred times more money each month. To the tune of $85 Billion EVERY MONTH.

When it comes in faster than they pay out, the notion of miniscule interest payment, is moot.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2013 @ 11:28am

His mistake
He should have called a bonus for brokering the TARP bailout for the bank.

At least that is how the big banks continued to reward the executives.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2013 @ 11:33am

Glad to see that the DOJ is respecting the 1000 mile exclusion zone for prosecutions around Wall St.
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FM Hilton, 28 Aug 2013 @ 11:47am

The others got away with it
Yes, indeed. A small bank's president gets nailed for appropriating all that money without disclosing what he was using it for.

I shudder to think of how many Wall St. corporations and financial institutions have houses in the Bahamas that have never been disclosed, bought with TARP funds.

Ooops. We won't mention that.

Then Wall St. wonders why everyone hates them.

Everyone but the government regulators, who turn a blind eye to all of it.
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Stuart, 28 Aug 2013 @ 12:24pm

Re:
Sure.
Lets make it less than you make right now.
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RD, 28 Aug 2013 @ 2:02pm

Re: Oooh, Mike goes Populist! Not yet calling for tax on stock trades...
"I'm pretty sure that Mike is finding hammering on NSA and various other criminals is bringing more traffic than trying to tear down copyright."

Yeah, because hammering on the NSA is just about trivial and unimportant traffic-grab.

This is why you are a fucking douchebag.
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PRMan, 28 Aug 2013 @ 2:14pm

Re: Re:
I would actually agree to that, because it would force greater equality in society and that would benefit everyone immensely.
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PRMan, 28 Aug 2013 @ 2:16pm

Re: Probably profited in the end
And barred from working in his chosen field. Not that good of a deal.
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M. Alan Thomas II (profile), 31 Aug 2013 @ 2:29am

What, no-one's trotted out the one about "It's not the crime, it's the coverup" yet?

Well, consider it trotted.
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