Former CertusBank directors fined by OCC

The OCC has issued personal consent cease and desist orders and orders to pay civil money penalties to three former directors of CertusBank, Greenville, SC. The agency found that each of the three caused the bank to violate 12 U.S.C. § 29 and 12 CFR § 7.1000 (both relating to national bank powers to hold real property) through its purchase of three condominiums in Greenville, SC, in August 2012 for executive officer use. Each the three was also found to have failed to present to the Board for decision certain strategically important contracts and/or contracts in amounts in excess of management’s authority to bind the Bank without Board resolution prior to their execution, including, but not limited to: (a) contracts for the construction of various capital projects, including, but not limited to, the buildout of the Bank’s executive and administrative offices in Greenville, South Carolina; (b) the lease contract for the Bank’s administrative offices in Greenville, South Carolina, and the lease for executive and administrative space in Atlanta, Georgia; and (c) contracts for the purchase of three condominiums in Greenville, South Carolina, for executive use.

The order issued to former executive chairman Milton Jones, directed Jones to pay a CMP of $3,500.

The order issued to former CEO and director Walter Davis, directed Davis to pay a CMP of $25,000.

The order issued to fromer president Kathy Angela Webb indicates the OCC also found that Webb facilitated improper payments by the Bank to Integrated Capital Strategies (“ICS”) totaling $230,000 that were outside the scope of the agreements between the Bank and ICS, Webb was ordered to pay a CMP of $27,000.