Post by Catdaddy on Nov 5, 2007 11:54:40 GMT -5
Looks like a sign of the times. Later,
Catdaddy
Monday Business Roundup
Facing Life in Prison, Boulder Banker Chooses Death
By Richard Martin, 11-05-07
When it came down to face-the-music time, former Boulder banker Edward Mattar III took the traditional desperate-financier’s way out: a long walk off a short ledge. Newspapers around the country reviewed Mattar’s life and times after he plunged 27 stories to his death in downtown Denver just hours before he was to be sentenced for his role in the failure of BestBank. And it was not a pretty story.
At 67, Mattar faced spending the rest of his life in prison after being convicted in February of conspiracy, bank fraud, filing false bank reports and wire fraud. His personal fortune was decimated: he faced fines of $14 million.
“Depositors lost more than $200 million when regulators shut BestBank in July 1998,” reported the Denver Business Journal.
This was hardly the first time Mattar stiffed investors and customers. Named president of Central New England College in Worcester, Mass. in 1978, he pulled down one of the highest salaries of any college president in New England. Ten years later he was forced out; the century-old college went bankrupt and shut down with $14 million in debts.
“In 1984,” according to the Worcester Telegram, “he owned the Feel Fit Health Center of Leominster, which shuttered abruptly and left a number of area residents who had paid for memberships without recourse.”
Somehow Mattar was able to buy a bank in Colorado just a year after being dumped by CNEC. In a way the BestBank saga was a preview of the subprime mortage crash: he made money by selling credit cards to less-than-qualified customers, an even dodgier financial ploy.
Denver Post columnist Al Lewis, who has covered the BestBank implosion from its inception, was perhaps the least charitable commentator on Mattar’s ignominious end: “Mattar had been a deadbeat for much of his life,” wrote Lewis, and he was “a deadbeat until the very end.”
Catdaddy
Monday Business Roundup
Facing Life in Prison, Boulder Banker Chooses Death
By Richard Martin, 11-05-07
When it came down to face-the-music time, former Boulder banker Edward Mattar III took the traditional desperate-financier’s way out: a long walk off a short ledge. Newspapers around the country reviewed Mattar’s life and times after he plunged 27 stories to his death in downtown Denver just hours before he was to be sentenced for his role in the failure of BestBank. And it was not a pretty story.
At 67, Mattar faced spending the rest of his life in prison after being convicted in February of conspiracy, bank fraud, filing false bank reports and wire fraud. His personal fortune was decimated: he faced fines of $14 million.
“Depositors lost more than $200 million when regulators shut BestBank in July 1998,” reported the Denver Business Journal.
This was hardly the first time Mattar stiffed investors and customers. Named president of Central New England College in Worcester, Mass. in 1978, he pulled down one of the highest salaries of any college president in New England. Ten years later he was forced out; the century-old college went bankrupt and shut down with $14 million in debts.
“In 1984,” according to the Worcester Telegram, “he owned the Feel Fit Health Center of Leominster, which shuttered abruptly and left a number of area residents who had paid for memberships without recourse.”
Somehow Mattar was able to buy a bank in Colorado just a year after being dumped by CNEC. In a way the BestBank saga was a preview of the subprime mortage crash: he made money by selling credit cards to less-than-qualified customers, an even dodgier financial ploy.
Denver Post columnist Al Lewis, who has covered the BestBank implosion from its inception, was perhaps the least charitable commentator on Mattar’s ignominious end: “Mattar had been a deadbeat for much of his life,” wrote Lewis, and he was “a deadbeat until the very end.”
