Anatomy of a Banking Scandal

Robert Pasley

In the early 1990s, the First National Bank of Keystone in West Virginia began buying and securitizing subprime mortgages from all over the country, and quickly grew from a tiny bank with just $100 million in assets to over $1.1 billion.

Contents Preface Author's Note Acknowledgments Cast of Characters Entities Involved List of Acronyms 1 Burying the Documents 2 J. Knox McConnell and the Rise of the Bank 3 Billie Cherry, Terry Church, and the Town of Keystone, West Virginia 4 Death of Knox McConnell 5 A Train Wreck A Comin' 6 The Examinations of the Bank, 1990-1997 7 1998 Examination 8 The Last Year of the Bank 9 The Criminal Cases 10 The Civil and Administrative Cases 11 The Case Against the Attorneys 12 The Case Against the Bank's Accounting Firm-Grant Thornton 13 The Sad Story of Gary Ellis 14 Aftermath of the Failure of the Bank 15 Harbinger of the 2008 Financial Crisis 16 Lessons Learned 17 Consolidation of the Federal Banking Agencies 18 Conclusion Appendix A Additional Information Concerning the Criminal and SEC Cases Brought Against the Insiders of the Bank Appendix B Additional Information Concerning the Civil Cases Brought in Connection with the Bank Bibliography Index