What do you think I should apologize for? I tried to sell the bank so that customers could still use it. They would have a choice, either stay with the new owners, or withdraw their money. And yes I wanted to get some money out of the bank. I put in over 10 million dollars over the years. But since regulators blocked the sale, I lost the entire $10 million. Do you think I should apologize for that? During the ten years I was a shareholder in the bank I never received a dividend. As I was never an officer or an employee, I also never drew a salary. We never ignored any demands of regulators. The bank complied timely with everything regulators asked it to do. The IRS just wanted the bank closed, so they pressured OCIF to come up with an excuse. Also, since the bank had no debts made no loans, and had millions in cash above what was owed to customers, I offered to liquidate the bank myself. But OCIF insisted on appointing a Receiver. So I have had no authority at all during this process.
That's not true. Prior to this the Receiver had zero experience with banks.
That's correct. I was a 45% shareholder and director when 60 Minutes falsely accused me of using the bank to help customers lauder money and evade taxes. If customers are looking for parties to blame, there are several. 60 Minutes, The IRS, and OCIF. No one at the bank did anything wrong.
You are basically correct. However EPB is very different than Loyal. 100% of customer deposits were always and continue to be held in cash. The bank has no creditors other than depositors. So once this last legal hurdle is cleared everyone should receive 100% of their money in a matter of days. Fingers crossed that process will start next week.
Hi Peter, you say "no one at the bank did anything wrong" but the OCIF in their order of cease and desist say that the bank wasn't keeping the minimum amount of capital required to keep the license, which was 5 million dollars, they also claim that they asked EPB to submit a number of documents, and EPB didn't do it, basically the OCIF says that EPB ignored their multiple warnings.
So basically you blame them and they blame you, someone is not telling the truth, and I find it hard to believe that the OCIF is lying and they just closed a bank that according to you was 100% compliant, wouldn't that be illegal?
And please don't get me wrong, I completely agree that you were treated very harshly by the OCIF, and I also agree that the press conference given by the Commissioner and the J5 representatives was a show designed to create headlines, which ultimately ended up hurting the customers more than anyone else.
But the Commissioner at the press conference also said "no one is above the law" she was trying to say that had the bank complied with their demands nothing would have ever happened.
In my previous comment I said: "....while you tried to sell the bank so you could profit from it, and by the way there's nothing wrong with that..."
There is nothing wrong with trying to sell your bank so you could profit from it, but there is something wrong with trying to sell a bank that according to the OCIF wasn't 100% compliant.
You know you have made yourself a target, so more of a reason to not leave an opportunity for anyone to come along and screw you.
I have supported you and your dad all my adult life, I share many of your views, that's one of the reasons why I transferred all my life's saving to EPB, but as of right now, we the innocent customers are paying the price for everything that's happened. I am paying a massive price, this Easter week I will be moving into my older sister's home so I can sell the house where I've been living for the last 25 years; last year I had purchased tickets to fly to Mexico, we were going to retire there permanently, I had also rented a house for a year, we were scheduled to leave for Mexico the first week of July, right after the bank was closed, so I had to cancel everything, ultimately I lost the money of the tickets and the money I had advanced to rent the house in Mexico, and later on in August I had to go back to work, so I don't know about the rest of the customers but we are paying a huge price for something that we have nothing to do with, obviously someone screwed up massively and here we are with no end in sight.
Also, you were very naive to sat down to talk to 60 Minutes Australia, I'm not Australian but I know that all those tabloid reporting programs, there are many around the world, have an agenda and they don't care about the facts or the truth, they care about creating a program that fits their agenda even if everything they intend to report is completely false, Australian tabloid programs are a cheap copycat of the UK tabloids, they make a living from selling falsehoods, yes it's a disgusting business, and yes you should have done a little bit of research before you sat down to talk to them.
Having said that, I hope you make a bunch of millions from the defamation lawsuit, I really do, I would like to see 60 Minutes Australia go out of business, same goes for Four Corners.
Last but not least, if you still believe that EPB was 100% compliant at the time it was closed, then at some point you should consider taking legal action against the OCIF, I would happily testify in your favor about the consequences that the closing of EPB has had in my life.
