Lawsuit settled over Little Saigon bank failure

According to an article published by the Orange County Register on June 6, 2012 http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/06/06/lawsuit-settled-over-little-saigon-bank-failure/156261/ A federal lawsuit alleging fraud at failed First Vietnamese American Bank was quietly settled last week.

The settlement ended a three-way dispute among the bank, key customer AmeriNet LLC and Chatsworth businessman Masih Madani.
A detailed settlement agreement says that the bank’s insurer, Travelers, will pay $750,000 to AmeriNet and $100,000 to the attorneys for former bank officers Benjamin P. Palma-Gil and Robert Flores. The agreement says Travelers already “has paid $595,841.24 in excess of the $50,000 retention for defense fees and costs.”

Madani who has always denied any wrongdoing seems to have been exhonorated by the fact that the bank's insurers paid so much to settle.


The parties dismissed the case with prejudice,meaning it cannot be refiled.  With the dismissal, those accusations go away.

FDIC having consented, FVAB insurance pays to settle case the failed bank brought against innocent customers in 2008 to distract from its lending practices

On Monday, June 4, 2012, Judge Andrew J. Guilford of the United States District Court ordered the dismissal of the case first filed by FVAB back in 2008.  The case much publicized by the Orange County Register http://www.ocregister.com/articles/madani-279476-bank-first.html  was filed by FVAB in 2008 as a diversion and an attempt to blame others for its officers and directors lack of competence, its fail lending practices and failure to comply with banking regulations.  The fact which resulted in the California Department of Financial Institutions takeover of FVAB and appointing FDIC as the receiver of the bank in November of 2010 after a multitude of Cease and Desists and Consent Orders against the bank since it first opened its doors in 2005. 

The settlement agreement which was accepted by the Judge dismissed the consolidated case with prejudice.  The legal team representing FVAB collected more than $700,000 in legal fees from FVAB’s insurance company while losing the case.  At the end FVAB’s insurance company paid the defendants over $1.5 million to settle the case in an effort to avoid potential larger losses.   

The case against all the defendants including Masih Madani, David Kerlin, Terry Roddy, OPUS Financials, and Amerinet was dismissed with prejudice.  Although this is a vindication for the defendants, in reality it is somewhat bitter sweet.  The defendants have been living with the negative publicity hanging over their heads for the last four years.  Even though the defendants were never proven guilty in a court, they were guilty and were punished until proven innocent!  Although the law allows for the defendants to file claims against FVAB for the false accusations, FVAB no longer exists as an entity, so there is no one to go after.

Meanwhile, FVAB officers and directors continued to collect fat paychecks for the more than two years the case was pending before the banks failure. 

The whereabouts of the banks officers and directors are unknown. 

This further proves how broken the American legal system not to mention the banking system are.