NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — After a five week trial, the founder of First NBC Bank has been found guilty on 46 counts relating to bank fraud.
Ashton Ryan has been found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.
Over the years-long investigation, the FBI says they combed over 14,000,000 documents and conducted over 750 interviews.
Ryan founded First NBC back in 2006. His goal was to help rebuild the community after Hurricane Katrina.
Attorneys say Ryan did the opposite, claiming he wrote bad loans and used First NBC to fund a lavish lifestyle.
He allegedly hid losses to gain money for himself and business partners.
After a five week trial, jurors found Ryan guilty on all counts.
U.S. Attorney Duan Evans called it a theft of epic proportions.
“Ashton Ryan dominated First NBC,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana Duane Evans. “Ee subverted the Board of Directors and evaded oversight by auditors and FDIC examiners to give loans to borrowers who did not pay them back. He did this to give special treatment and to conceal bad loans that were destroying this bank from within.”
When the bank collapsed in 2017 more than 500 people lost their jobs and countless stockholers lost their investments.
Ryan is facing decades in prison.
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