OneUnited Bank is now at the center of a congressional ethics investigation involving Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cali). She is accused of facilitating $12 million in federal bailout funds while her husband was affiliated with the bank, that the bank has failed to pay back.
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OneUnited Bank paid for a luxurious lifestyle for its chairman and CEO Kevin Cohee.........including a Porsche and a house on Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica......... despite Cohee's having a record of arrests and allegations of drug use.
Cohee's high-flying perks came despite his having been charged in 2007 with felonies after his arrest by the Santa Monica Police on suspicion of possessing cocaine, crack cocaine and concentrated cannabis, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. The case was dismissed the next year after Cohee completed a drug diversion program.
Cohee was also arrested in 2007 after a woman filed a complaint alleging that Cohee had forcibly sodomized her, according to public records. Prosecutors did not pursue the assault charge. The Boston Herald quoted Cohee as saying that the arrest was "utter and complete nonsense that went nowhere."
Kevin Cohee, Chairman & CEO of OneUnited Bank
” OneUnited Bank paid for a luxurious lifestyle for its chairman and CEO Kevin Cohee.........including a Porsche and a house on Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica “
For those who don’t know, there are only about a dozen homes here, and they rent for about 20,000 per month ;-)
Liz, pointing out that there was such abuse as this by a ‘minority bank’ is just “racist”! (/sarcasm)
I wonder how much of this information is actually going to be reported?
The largest African-American owned and run bank in the US, OneUnited Bank was formed by the 2001 merger of Boston Bank of Commerce, Founders National Bank of Los Angeles, and People's National Bank of Commerce in Miami. After acquisition of Los Angeles' Family Savings Bank in 2002, OneUnited Bank operates about 10 offices that serve urban communities in California, Massachusetts, and Florida.
Since 2003, the bank has financed more than $500 million in loans, with about half that amount devoted to the development of low- to moderate-income communities. Loans for multi-family residential properties account for almost two-thirds of the bank's portfolio.
OneUnited Bank opened the first black-owned Internet bank in the country in 2006, to expand its presence beyond the brick and mortar branches in communities in which it operates.
Board Members
Title | Name | Add'l Info |
---|---|---|
Chairman and CEO | Kevin Cohee | JD, Harvard Law School MBA, University of Wisconsin Member Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Board Member, Boston Bank Of Commerce fmr. with Salomon Bros, Inc. |
President and Director | Teri Williams | MBA., Harvard University Board Member, Greater Deliverance Ministries Inc. Board Member, The First Black-Owned Internet Bank fmr. with Blacks in Government |
Director | J. Alan Rosen | MBA, NYU School of Business. Chairman and Treasurer, Century City Chamber of Commerce Treasurer, Beyond Shelter Board Member, Foundation for the Preservation of Film Music |
Director | George A. Russell Jr. | MBA, NYU Stern School of Business Board of Advisors, Boston University State Street Corp. fmr. with City of Boston fmr. with Urban League stepped out from OneUnited board - March 2010 |
Director | Richard D. Carr | D.D.S. Board Member, Urban League Boston University School of Dental Medicine fmr. with Roxbury Medical and Dental Group |
Director | John L. Sims | |
Director | Walter B. Prince | |
Director | Melvin B. Miller | |
Director | Leander J. Foley |
State Street official left OneUnited. Resigned from board despite firms stake - BG, 2010 August 13, by Beth Healy
State Street declined to comment on OneUnited or Cohee but said its support for the institution had not changed. None of the other OneUnited directors contacted yesterday returned calls seeking interviews. Cohee, who has been on vacation and generally unavailable for the past two weeks as his bank was making national headlines, yesterday agreed to a lengthy interview, in which he defended his personal behavior and his banks reputation. He said the charges were dropped in the two arrests in a Santa Monica mansion the bank used to lease for him and insisted that he did nothing wrong. According to the police reports, Cohee was arrested in April 2007 for sexual assault after an encounter with a woman other than his wife, who is president of OneUnited and serves on its board. A few weeks later, 17 police officers and detectives with a search warrant went to the mansion to investigate the assault claim. After a maid let them in, they found Cohee in the master bedroom, and a desk drawer full of cocaine, pipes, and other drugs. Prosecutors dropped the assault allegations but not the drug charges. Cohee agreed to attend 12 of what he called drug classes in exchange for the charges being dismissed. He thought the deal would resolve the arrest quietly. Thats not what happened here, Cohee said. We made the decision as an expedient that I would go to these classes, ironically to avoid going to a trial. We certainly believe that we would have won the trial, he said, but he had hoped to avoid the publicity. I handled a difficult situation in the best way that I thought I could handle it at the time. ..... No sooner did Cohee finish dealing with his legal problems, his bank was flailing. In August 2008, the bank lost $50 million when the federal government took over the sputtering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage agencies. That September, the bank was asking Representative Waters for a meeting with the Treasury to ask for bailout money. By October, the bank was slapped with a cease-and-desist order by federal and state banking regulators for poor loan documentation and high pay and perks for executives. Still, State Street came through with the $17 million. And in December, OneUnited got $12 million from the Treasury, as part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Waters and US Representative Barney Frank both say they did not know about Cohees arrests in California. ..... Frank, a Newton Democrat who runs the House Financial Services Committee, helped author the bill that enabled OneUnited and banks like it to get bailout funds. But yesterday he appeared to distance himself from the troubled bank. I never told any regulator I wanted OneUnited or any other bank to get TARP money, he said, adding, At no point have I ever suggested any withholding of full regulatory scrutiny. Meanwhile, OneUnited has made only one quarterly dividend payment on its TARP funds, because its still struggling financially. The bank lost $283,000 in the second quarter and set no money aside for loan losses, even though its nonperforming loans continue to grow. ..... ..... State Street spokeswoman Carolyn Cichon said the company had been surprised by the recent string of controversies surrounding OneUnited. We had absolutely no knowledge of any of the allegations when we gave our investment, she said. She was referring both to the ethics charges against US Representative Maxine Waters for helping OneUnited gain access to Treasury officials while her husband owned stock in the bank and to media reports yesterday that OneUniteds chief executive, Kevin Cohee, had faced drug and assault arrests in California.