Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

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Alec B @Alec97 01/05/2024 The most interesting thing here is the way the narrative frames the fallout from the '08 Financial Crisis. The public's desire for justice coupled with an unwillingness on the part of the Government to go after those who were really responsible meant that somebody had to be offered as a sacrifice and obviously they targeted people who couldn't really fight back. See more 01/20/2019 This doc, part of the superb PBS Frontline presentations, and directed by Steve James, gives us another infuriating example, at times, of the staggering hypocrisy of government prosecutors. Spending years and many millions of taxpayer dollars on building a mortgage fraud case against the family-owned Abacus Federal Savings Bank, in Chinatown, NYC. This, while giving the huge banks, "too big to fail" a $700 billion bailout for their fraudulent loan practices, costing the U.S. economy $22 trillion during the financial crisis beginning in 2008. Abacus Federal, the 2651st largest bank in America, with its "huge" network of 6 branches, still remains the only bank ever indicted as a result of the 2008 crisis. Yes, you can see the bank made some mistakes mostly in their compliance policies, but in the overall scheme of things it was trivial in comparison to what the giant financial institutions were doing. Overall, a most solid documentary which tried to present both sides' cases to the viewer. See more 06/15/2018 Overprosecution at its finest. Heartbreaking saga. See more 04/05/2018 While it brings nothing new to the table, "Abacus: Small Enough To Jail" is nonetheless a compelling documentation of a trial meant for the government to scapegoat a small bank for the more severe crimes of banks that are allegedly "too big to fail". See more s r @ScottR 03/22/2018 I want to go visit the bank next time I am in NYC. Despite its hints to try and tie this to the banking crisis, the true issue at risk comes out. Informative and well made narrative. See more 03/17/2018 Fascinating story about a small community bank in Chinatown during the 2008 collapse. So small, in fact, that the ownership was actually tried for crimes. The family which owned the bank were the only people directly charged during this process. You will root for this set of bankers. Fascinating story See more Read all reviews

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

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