A Chicago-area real estate developer was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5.9 million in restitution for his role in a conspiracy that embezzled millions of dollars from the failed Washington Federal Bank for Savings in Chicago.
Marek Matczuk was convicted by a jury in federal court last year of conspiring to commit embezzlement and falsify bank records and aiding and abetting embezzlement by bank employees.
Washington Federal was shut down in 2017 after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency determined that the bank was insolvent and had at least $66 million in nonperforming loans. For more than a decade, Matczuk was part of a conspiracy that embezzled millions of dollars in bank funds, which were disguised as purported real estate development loan disbursements to Matczuk and others. The conspirators were not required to repay these purported loans, and they never did.
The federal investigation into the collapse of Washington Federal led to criminal charges against 16 defendants, including the bank’s chief financial officer and treasurer, for conspiring to embezzle at least $31 million in bank funds. Matczuk and three others were convicted after jury trials, while 10 defendants pleaded guilty and two entered into deferred prosecution agreements.
Where were the bank regulators when these embattlements where taking place over a ten year period? I don’t see any bank regulators being charged for malfeasance.