ABACUS BANK CASE MOVIE

It was maddening,” says Vera about the spectacle surrounding the arrests. “It was just so damning and strips you of any presumption of innocence. The bank was charged on 184 counts, including mortgage fraud, conspiracy of mortgage fraud, grand larceny and security fraud. Reporters were then given a rare photo opportunity when 15 of Abacus’ former employees were handcuffed like a chain gang and led through the New York courthouse. He surrounded himself with federal agents who had come from Washington, D.C.

In 2012, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, led by Cyrus Vance Jr., held a press conference announcing the indictment of Abacus Federal Savings Bank. But meals were particularly revealing we found, which is why we made sure to film them eating frequently.” “It was a dynamic that we would see play out in all their interactions. “They were by turns irreverent toward each other, angry at the case that they were fighting, proud of their family legacy, while all the time acting like amateur food critics on the meal they were eating,” he says. James, known for his work on “Hoop Dreams” and “Life Itself,” was on board shortly after he met the Sungs, not only because he thought their story was important, but because he found them so entertaining. (This documentary was distributed by PBS and Frontline, which is owned by WGBH, the parent company of PRI.) All three are trained as lawyers, while their fourth sister, Heather, is a doctor.įor five years, the Sung family was embroiled in a fight against the government, which is the subject of Steve James’ 2017 documentary “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.” Producer Mark Mitten, a longtime friend of Vera’s, first suggested a documentary should be made when he learned that their bank was the only financial institution that was indicted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Chanterelle, the youngest of the family, is a former prosecutor who now works in pharmaceutical corporate security. Vera is the director of the board and Jill is the president and CEO. Vera and Jill work at Abacus Federal Savings Bank, a small bank in Chinatown, New York that their father Thomas Sung founded in 1984. “But my father’s side was very business-oriented, and we joke that my father’s side of the family suffocated any creativity that was left on my mother’s side.” “My mother’s side of the family was very creative,” says Jill Sung. Two of the sisters were named after actresses, Jill St. On March 4, they’ll attend the Academy Awards ceremony, where the film about their fight against fraud charges is nominated for Best Documentary Feature.īefore the documentary, the family's only connection to Hollywood was by name. Lewis Rosenberg is of counsel to Ginarte Gallardo Gonzalez Winograd.The Sung sisters, Vera, Jill and Chantrelle, still find it bewildering that they went from being accused of mortgage fraud to being the stars of an Oscar-nominated documentary. It seems a first-year law student, even before attending an ethics class, would realize the appearance of impropriety his actions presented, again demonstrating a lack of basic prosecutorial judgment. To his credit, Vance submitted this ethical question to a Columbia Law School body and in January announced a policy of no longer accepting contributions from lawyers whose clients are subject to prosecution by his office. Weinstein was also the subject of a recent Frontline documentary film.

ABACUS BANK CASE MOVIE

Vance, you may recall, suffered other embarrassment when it was disclosed before the election that he had accepted $50,000 for his campaign from movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers and of course failed to press sex offense charges against him. Although all of the dozens of counts charged were either dismissed by the judge or denied by the jury, which finding Abacus entirely not guilty, the D.A, ignoring the presumption of innocence, insists that Abacus was not found innocent but only not guilty.

Abacus bank case