Tonight, there are unprecedented claims of impropriety being made against a major commercial bank. And they come from Godfrey Smith, the attorney for ousted Stake Bank Developer Michael Feinstein.
It's part of the escalating hostilities between Feinstein and the Atlantic Bank
In a letter sent to the Governor and Chairman of the Central Bank today, Smith alleges that Atlantic Bank was playing fast and loose on the Stake Bank loan and, in so doing, running afoul of Central Bank regulations and putting depositors money at risk.
He alleges that Atlantic Bank's 60 million dollar loan to Stake Bank was not properly secured and alleges that the bank, quote, "created subsidiary credit facilities, under the guise of construction credit loans, amounting to roughly $21 mil to continue funding (Stake Bank) and to avoid CBB scrutiny." End quote.
Smith also alleges that the principals of Atlantic Bank had an interest in the Stake Bank investment and because of that brought Atlantic Bank into a related party transaction with Stake Bank, which is strictly prohibited under Banking regulations.
Smith asks the Governor of the Central Bank to urgently investigate these matters, and, if not, his client will go to court to force him to do so.
So what will the Central Bank Governor Kareem Michael do? Well, we reached out to him today - but up to news time he had not given us a comment.
Like we said, the letter is another attack in an escalating war, and credible sources tell us that the bank is also stocking up on ammunition by retaining foreign forensic accounting experts to review Feinstein's use of loan funds and fiscal incentives granted to the Company.
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