A Missouri bank executive has admitted to using bailout funds to
buy a luxury vacation condo in Florida:
In November 2008, during the depths of the financial crisis, Darryl Layne Woods, a bank executive in Missouri, applied to the United States Treasury for bailout money. His bank received $1 million.
Just days later, Mr. Woods used $381,000 of that money to buy a waterfront condominium in Fort Myers, Fla.
On Tuesday, Mr. Woods, the former chairman of Mainstreet Bank in Ashland, Mo., pleaded guilty to criminal charges in Federal District Court in Jefferson City, Mo.
From Tammy Dickinson,
United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri:
Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Columbia, Mo., bank chairman pleaded guilty in federal court today to misleading federal investigators about his use of $381,000 in bank bailout funds to purchase a luxury condominium in Fort Myers, Fla.
“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,” Dickinson said. “These federal funds were intended to help stablilize 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.”
Darryl Layne Woods, 48, of Columbia, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matt J. Whitworth to a federal information that charges him with making a false writing.
Woods was the chairman and chief financial officer of Mainstreet Bank in Ashland, Mo. He was also the chairman, president and majority shareholder of Calvert Financial Corporation, the bank holding company for Mainstreet Bank.
Full press release from the U.S. Attorney's office
here.
Surely they'll throw the book at him, right? RIGHT?
The maximum penalty Darryl Layne Woods faces is one year in prison and a fine of $100,000, according to the Justice Department.