The United States has agreed to a settlement with the estate of Layton Stuart, the late president of One Financial Corporation, over his fraudulent taking of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds. The estate has agreed to pay the U.S. Government back $4 million to settle the lawsuit that the government filed earlier this year. The lawsuit alleged that Stuart had made misrepresentations to the U.S. Department of Treasury in order to get them to invest in his Arkansas-based company as part of the Department’s Capital Purchase Program. According to the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program this is the first time that a TARP bank was charged under the False Claims Act for making certain material misrepresentations to obtain TARP funds. The complaint also alleged that Stuart had used TARP funds to pay for personal and family expenses.
See Ben Lane, U.S. settles with deceased man’s estate, recovers fraudulently obtained TARP funds, Housing Wire, October 22, 2015.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
