![]() It, however, does make one wonder if perhaps it is a bit over-the-top to have the family, with their loving but on occasion bickering and snappish temperaments, made out to be as endearing as the Baileys.Īt one point, the story of the 2003 run on Abacus is countered with a similar scene from It's A Wonderful Life and one thinks, 'you're going a bit too far here'. ![]() Sung sees himself as a George Bailey, or that James sees him likewise. We start the film with scenes from It's A Wonderful Life, and more than once is it either suggested or flat-out stated, mostly by Mr. ![]() Thomas Sung celebrates, and a little spark of political activism among the Chinese-American community is lit, with many believing that Vance went after Abacus not just due to their relatively small status, but because few would care or mount much protest over the defendants being Asian.Īt times, you would not be faulted for thinking director Steve James went overboard in portraying the Sungs as being almost saint-like. Finally, the jurors did come to a decision: not guilty on all charges. At the end of the trial, the jurors appear deadlocked, with the majority voting not guilty. The trial goes on, and it affects the Sungs, particularly the matriarch, Hwei Lin, who is displeased on how this affects her almost 80-year-old husband. As one lawyer observed, this is something Vance would never have done if the accused had been black, the connotations being too explosive. Vance is either deaf or disinterested in how his manner could possibly be seen as insensitive, such as when he has a group of ANSB employees paraded in front of the press chained together for the cameras. The long process drags itself out, as Abacus sees other, larger banks get off or pay a large fee. Sung went to meet them personally to calm them down. It was the second crisis the Abacus had faced, as in 2003 a previous employee had stolen money from the bank and caused a temporary panic among its depositors, who made a run on the bank until Mr. With that, began a five-year ordeal of investigations, accusations, and a 67-day trial. Moreover, it was convinced the Sungs themselves were in cahoots with all the financial shenanigans. Despite fully cooperating with the police, and despite the bank itself being the one to expose and report the crime, the NYCDA believed the bank itself must have known about the fraud. Yu was immediately fired and Jill Sung, one of AFSB's officers, reported the crime to the authorities. Moreover, he was deceiving the bank about loans made. In December 2009, one of AFSB's employees, Qi Bin (Ken) Yu, was exposed as a thief and money launderer. That same attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr., would become the Sung Family nemesis. Only another daughter, Chanterelle, opted not to join the family business, but to become a lawyer and work for the New York County District Attorney. ![]() ![]() Over time, Abacus Federal Savings Bank grew to respectability and prestige, and three of his four daughters came aboard to help run AFSB. With that, he founded Abacus, using the legendary Chinese calculator as inspiration for the name. Thomas Sung, a first-generation Chinese-American, saw a need for a bank to service his community. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail chronicles the Abacus trial, the effects it had on the family behind the bank, and on how Abacus Federal Savings Bank was almost made the scapegoat for a disaster not of their own making. It was small and from a community that was not seen as a threat politically. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail is a play on the idea that it was targeted because unlike the other major international corporations that were 'too big to fail', Abacus was easy pickings. Instead, it was a small family-run bank with a total of six branches that specialized in working with the Chinese-American community, primarily in New York's Chinatown. The 2008 mortgage crisis had many causes and villains, but in the banking industry, there was only one that faced any actual prosecution. It has been ten years since the world financial market teetered on the verge of total collapse. ![]()
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