Abandoned Tundra Village San Antonio development, now called Palo Alto Villas consists of 36 four-plex buildings with 44 units near completion

More than seven years after Mauro T. Padilla was sentenced to prison for lying to a bank to secure construction financing on a South Side townhouse project, the disgraced developer was back in San Antonio federal court. Padilla, went to trial in a civil lawsuit brought by 36 investors in his various residential development projects — including the ill-fated Tundra Town Home Village on Texas 16, near the Toyota plant — that he started but never completed. The civil suit, initially filed about nine years ago, accuses him of fraud, violations of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act and breach of contract. Padilla was sentenced to 12 years after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the bank to get construction draws on a loan and using some of the cash to pay for personal expenses. Padilla also acting as his own legal counsel because he can’t afford an attorney. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman denied Padilla’s various requests to have a lawyer appointed to assist in his defense. Defendants in civil litigation, unlike in criminal cases, are not entitled to court-appointed counsel, Pitman noted. Nevertheless, Padilla said he was confident he would show that the allegations against him are untrue. The court would be shown the “light and the truth,” he said. Dallas-based developer TVPA Partners is now trying to succeed where Padilla failed. TVPA acquired most of the lots from the FDIC and is in the process of repairing the structures in Tundra Village, now called Palo Alto Villas. There will be a total of 36 four-plexes, said Craig Glendenning, TVPA’s project manager. He hopes to have the first 15 done within a year. The plan is to rent the units and then sell them to investors. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom units start at $170,000. The three- and four-bedroom units with 2½ baths start at $210,000. A couple of sales are pending yet. Abandoned South Bexar County neighborhood getting second chance

Did the FDIC let former FNB Directors skate off for $1,500,000???

After losing approximately $650 million dollars and being shut down almost three years ago by the FDIC, it appears the former Directors of First National Bank Edinburg are skating away with having to fork over a mere $1.5 million as a "Settlement and Release Agreement"  was executed in July.  

Looks like the only problem now is a stomach ache the directors might have from laughing so hard!

How Time Goes By......

Almost three years ago, the FDIC closed down the corrupt and ineptly managed bank First National Bank of Edinburg.

In the majority of cases the FDIC has indicted directors (guys like David Rogers, Robert Gandy and Michael McCarthy) of failed banks  where fraud has been alleged, the indictments are typically served just prior to the three year statute of limitations on the three year annivesary of shutting down the institution.

(Of course, if the FDIC really suspects there is fraud, they can get it little more time).  

So what will that mean as the Tundra Village Lawsuit proceeds???

   

Coincidence or just another smelly FNB fish????

Does Something Smell here??

A Tale of Two Texas entities and 

First National Bank Edinburg:

Pelon, LLC  is managed by former FNB CEO Saul Ortega and Cielo Realty Partners, LLC  is managed by Rob Gandy Jr, son of Robert Gandy (Ortega's predecessor at FNB).

Did either of these two entities purchase or acquire properties from the substanital OREO list that FNB had prior to its September 2013 closure? 

 And if they did, what kind of terms to they get?  Was there preferential "pricing" that they received?  Was there a loan committee that approved these loans?  Did they go through the same underwriting that all loans do?

Is it coincidence that Ortega forced an Edinburg businessman to take 2 properties from the FNB OREO list and one that his entity owned in order to obtain a loan with 100% financing?  Does it make you wonder any more about how and why Jadon Construction out of Edinburg acquired a defunct development property about 300 miles away known as Tundra Village with 100% financing?

Wow, it would be fun to see how many properties from the former FNB OREO list made its way over to entities that were owned or controlled by former FNB officers or their families.....don't you think?!?!

Or maybe, just maybe, would any of these properties have any strings attached to them by Texas National Bank or Colorado Valley Bank? (You do the research and figure out why these banks are listed here)

Maybe soon we'll learn more about the extensive family of FNB......

FNB Director Dirty Business Just Won't Go Away and Plains Capital Bank plays along!

http://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/Edinburg-bank-found-guilty-of-defrauding-6816316.php

Jury finds Edinburg bank

defrauded businessman

When First National Bank of Edinburg agreed to loan $1.7 million to a Pharr businessman to build a cold-storage facility in 2011, it came with a catch.

Under terms set by First National, Ricardo Diaz Miranda had to purchase two apartment complexes and a house if he wanted the loan. The bank, though, would provide Diaz with 100 percent financing — almost $6.8 million — to buy the three properties in Hidalgo County. Anxious to get his business started, Diaz agreed to the bank’s conditions.

What Diaz didn’t discover until much later was that the bank pawned off on him the two apartment complexes, which were part of its burgeoning foreclosed real estate portfolio. He also would later learn the house he purchased was sold by a company headed by Saul Ortega, First National’s chairman and CEO, before federal regulators seized the bank and sold most of its assets to Dallas-based PlainsCapital Bank in 2013.

 (just get these damn apartments and this home off my books so I can screw you and cook my books....trust me, you'll get 100% financing! )

Last week, a Hidalgo County jury found First National, or FNB, guilty of defrauding Diaz on the loan transactions. The jury determined Diaz was not on the hook for about $7.4 million that PlainsCapital claimed it was still owed on the loans, though jurors declined to award him punitive damages.

Reynaldo Ortiz, Diaz’s lawyer, said PlainsCapital “went after” Diaz “knowing that these were rotten notes.”  “The fraud wipes out the deficiency, but (PlainsCapital) tried to collect anyway,” Ortiz said. “They don’t get to profit from FNB’s fraud.”

Charles Murray, a lawyer for PlainsCapital, declined to comment through an assistant.

Ortega and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

FNB, at one time Texas’ 12th largest bank with $3.4 billion in assets, was shut down by regulators one year shy of its 80th anniversary. It had been plagued by mounting losses, dwindling capital, bad loans and various legal troubles. Its closing cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s insurance fund $637.5 million.

Eight months following the bank’s demise, the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General outlined numerous problems in a postmortem audit looking at the causes of the bank’s failure and how the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency missed some of the bank’s troubles, including questionable banking practices.

Among them: The bank had masked problems in its foreclosed real estate portfolio by financing sales on “liberal terms,” including not requiring borrowers to put money down — just like with Diaz.

The bank also violated accounting rules in how it booked those sales, overstating earnings in the process.

First National required Diaz to buy the two apartment complexes in McAllen and Mission for a combined $6.5 million, even though he had no experience as an apartment manager, Ortiz said. Diaz was a lawyer in Mexico before he came to Texas. He is now a U.S. citizen, Ortiz said.

Diaz was never able to generate any income on the apartments. Within days of acquiring the FNB’s assets, PlainsCapital posted the two apartment complexes, the house and the cold-storage facility for foreclosure. Diaz subsequently filed suit against PlainsCapital and Ortega, and obtained a temporary restraining order preventing the foreclosure.

PlainsCapital moved to foreclose on the cold-storage facility even though Diaz was making payments because the property was used as collateral on the apartment complexes as well, Ortiz said.

As the litigation unfolded, Ortiz said, a judge granted Diaz permission to the sell the apartment complexes, which were sold for $3 million and $750,000, far short of what he owed on the loans. PlainsCapital countersued, seeking to collect on the unpaid balances.

As for the house in La Joya that Diaz bought from Ortega’s Pelon LLC for $270,000, Ortiz said Ortega agreed to buy it back for the same amount last year. Therefore, Ortega was dismissed as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Ortega was subpoenaed to testify at last week’s trial, but law enforcement officials couldn’t find him to serve the subpoena, Ortiz said.

State corporate records show Ortega is chairman of MNB Ventures Inc., the holding company for Texas National Bank in Mercedes.

As for Diaz’s Castelo Cold Storage, which receives produce shipped from Mexico before being transported to such grocers as H-E-B and Walmart, jurors found he owes about $1.5 million on that loan — less than the $2.2 million that PlainsCapital said Diaz owed, according to Ortiz.

Ortiz said he hasn’t heard whether PlainsCapital will appeal the jury verdict.

pdanner@express-news.net

The FDIC owns this! Abandoned - Tundra Village - Post Apocalypse (Creepy)

Ghost town eyesore - News 4 San Antonio

Full Video Link: CLICK HERE

Ghost town eyesore - Top Stories - woai - WOAI 4 San Antonio

By ANDREW LOFHOLM
News 4 San Antonio
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SOUTH BEXAR COUNTY-At first glance the Tundra Village had some promise. Thirty-plus would be luxury fourplexes. That dream, has turned into, broken windows, graffiti, and doorless houses.

It's only tenants are insects, as nature tries to reclaim what was once hers.

"It's an eyesore. Why they have it there? It ain't doing no good,” says Timmy Fields, the next door neighbor to the failed development.

His step dad first sold the, what he says used to be prime hunting land, about 10 years ago.

"The developer, he's in prison for doing this,” Fields says.

Mauro Padilla went ahead with the project in 2007, without the county approving a master plan, building on flood plains, with no roads, water or sewer line, the county ordered the project to stop.

It costs investors millions. He was sentenced in 2008 for lying to First National Bank to attain construction money. The project still sits as it was left almost 7 years later.

I asked Fields, “What do you see?”

He replied, “Trash. They've all been rained on. All the copper has been taken out, kids in there all the time."

The nearly 28 acres and 35 buildings were appraised at $859,220 by the county.

For Timmy, it's just part of life now.

I asked Fields, "Is it weird living next to a ghost town?”

“No, I sleep real good at night,” he says.

The property is for sale and Public Works tell me 5 or 6 buyers have shown serious interest, but once they learn it's likely a complete tear down, plus adding what Padilla left out, they're out.

Fields doesn't know what's next for the land, but he's got an idea to squeeze what little value is left out of the homes.

"What they could do is bring the volunteer fire department out here and burn down and train on these buildings one at a time.”

The FDIC owns the land. I’m told the asking price is under the appraised value.

Since the county doesn't own the land, there's very little they can do to fix the vandalism.

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Allegations of FRAUD by OCC Deputy against FNB????

Straight from the Horses Mouth!

In an April 2014 story in the San Antonio Express News by Patrick Danner, OCC Deputy Comptroller Gil Barker stated that only three national banks in Texas had been shut down since the great depression.  

Those three banks, 

La Coste National Bank (2010), 

First National Bank Edinburg (September 2013) 

and most recently,  

Texas Community Bank of The Woodlands (February 2014) were the institutions Barker was referring to.

However, Barker went on to state that in 

"Two of those situations, there was fraud".

So let's take a look and see just for shits and giggles if one can figure out which bank wasn't closed with elements of fraud.

In 2011, the President of La Coste Bank went to federal prison after pleading guilty to making a false entry in the bank's books with the intent to defraud and deceive banking regulators.  OK, there's one of the two fraud cases Barker referred to from his April 2014 statement.  One down, one to go!

Now, let's look at Texas Community Bank.  The Office of Inspector General's Material Loss Review was released this summer and there was no mention of fraud as to why the bank failed and was shut down.

Uh Oh!  

I think the music stopped and there's no more chairs!

OK, let's flashback to February 2011 and look at the OCC Consent order issued to FNB.  It states below:

ARTICLE VIII 

VIOLATIONS OF LAW

(1) The Board shall require and the Bank shall immediately take all necessary steps to correct each violation of law, rule, or regulation cited in the most recent Report of Examination (“ROE”), any subsequent ROE, or brought to the Board’s or Bank’s attention in writing by management, regulators, auditors, loan review, or other compliance efforts. 

So is one to assume that the good deputy of the OCC has confirmation of fraudulent violations of FNB and/or their officers/directors during their tenure??  

After all, it was only a cool $637,000,000 loss!

Just can't wait to get a copy of that ROE!!

Bank Executive Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges; Are FNB Exec's in the FDIC's cross hairs?

FDIC NOT LETTING DOWN ON 

EXECUTIVES OF FAILED BANKS

Criminal Charges more common

A former TierOne Bank executive has pleaded guilty to defrauding the failed bank's shareholders and federal banking regulators.  It is the first criminal charge filed in connection with the bank's financial collapse.  

Don Langford, who was a senior vice president and chief credit officer at the Lincoln bank, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and making false entries in a bank’s books and records, as well as one count of making false statements.

He faces as many as five years

 in prison on each count 

when he is sentenced Dec. 5. The criminal charge and pleading were filed in U.S. District Court of Nebraska on Tuesday. Langford also faced federal civil litigation in the case. 

“When the real estate market crashed, Don Langford, the chief credit officer and a senior vice president of TierOne Bank, worked with others to cook the bank’s books and cover up mounting losses,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell said in a news release. 

“This conviction is another example of 

the Criminal Division’s pursuit of 

corporate executives who commit 

fraud, no matter what their title or 

stature.”

According to the criminal information filed with his plea agreement,  Langford, 63, of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, and others who were not named falsely inflated the value of TierOne’s loan and real estate portfolio in its required reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Thrift Supervision in 2009 and 2010.

In January 2009, TierOne had executed a supervisory agreement with the Office of Thrift Supervision that required TierOne to report information about its performance and financial condition and to maintain a minimum capital position in relation to its loan portfolio and other assets. Langford and others intentionally used outdated appraisals on properties, and rejected new appraisals that would have adversely affected TierOne’s reportable assets, revenue and earnings, the Justice Department said.

In addition, they delayed seeking new appraisals to conceal the current value of collateral and restructured loan terms to disguise the borrower’s inability to make timely interest and principal payments, according to the filing. As a result, Langford and others were able to hide millions of dollars in losses from regulators and investors.

NOW CALL ME CRAZY BUT DOESN'T THIS SOUND LIKE THE GANG FROM EDINBURG???

LET'S PUT THEM ON THE STAND!!

Bank CFO waits in limbo over threat of criminal suit by FDIC!

Ex-bank CFO waits in limbo over 

threat of criminal suit

Cynthia Sabol, former chief financial officer at Bank of the Commonwealth, has been waiting 13 months for federal authorities to indict her. Or not.

"Ms. Sabol remains in jeopardy of broadly drawn criminal charges."

Bank of Commonwealth's CEO and EVP, "were convicted in federal court last year of orchestrating, with other defendants, a massive conspiracy to defraud the bank by hiding loan losses and committing other illegal banking practices." The executives "are serving lengthy prison terms."

"Sabol also was linked to the bank misconduct in the SEC's lawsuit." That suit accuses Sabol, the CEO and EVP "of securities fraud and claims their actions cost shareholders all their equity, in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

"HIDING LOAN LOSSES"????

WHERE HAVE WE HEARD THAT BEFORE????

(pages 4 & 12 in OIG Report)

 "OTHER ILLEGAL BANKING PRACTICES"????

IS THAT THE SAME AS "UNSAFE AND UNSOUND" BANKING PRACTICES??

(page 13 in OIG Report)

Coincidence or SOP by FNB?

Two excerpts from two documents.....

#1

 Examiners determined that the bank had masked its OREO problems by financing OREO sales on liberal terms, capitalizing property taxes, and advancing funds on borrowers’ other loans to cause the borrowers to remain current on OREO loans. The 2011 MRA expressed concerns over First National’s aggressive strategy to sell OREO without implementing proper accounting policies and practices, and directed the board to make accounting adjustments and file amended call reports.

#2

27.   Grantor represents that this deed of trust and the Note are given for the following purposes:

A portion (approximately $100,000.00) of the debt evidenced by the Note is being or has been advanced by the Beneficiary to or on behalf of Grantor in part payment of the purchase price of the Property and/or for ad valorem taxes paid as part of the acquisition of the Property from prior owner(s);  the debt is secured both by this deed of trust and by a vendor's lien on the Property, which is expressly retained in a deed to Grantor of even date.  This deed of trust does not waive the vendor's lien, and the two liens and the rights created by this instrument shall be cumulative.  Beneficiary may elect to foreclose under either of the liens without waiving the other or may foreclose under both.  The deed is incorporated into this deed of trust.

Who is going to be accountable????

Surely the FBI has already taken note of this!!

Who knew about FNB's OREO "Funny Business"?

Here's the scene, it's April 14, 2011.

Picture yourself in a jam packed courtroom listening to testimony so a Judge can decide how long to sentence Mauro Padilla for.  U.S. Assistant District Attorney Jim Blankinship calls up former FNB attorney Eric Sherer to the stand. Sherer, also a defendant in the Tundra Village scandal AND a former (and fired) attorney for several plaintiffs in that lawsuit is asked many questions about FNB and the details surrounding the foreclosure of the Tundra Village development, and what an OIG report purports as masking a huge loss on the property.

Q. (Blankinship)  Okay. And by not writing it down to its true value, they get the benefit of maintaining that value, kicking the can down the road a little bit, until the day the regulators make them come to grips with the true value of that property; is that right?

A. (Sherer)  That's my understanding, yes, sir.

So it is clear, that under oath, Mr. Sherer was well aware, back in 2011 about the "masking" of this loss.  But let's not forget that Sherer was the foreclosing attorney on this property in 2009 when Jadon Construction of Edinburg "acquired" this project in October 2009 for $9.3M (despite a $2M appraisal)!  

Somehow, the OCC did NOT discover this one either until 2013???