General

Florida bank, largest ‘underfunded’ financial institution in U.S., sued by shareholders

Florida-based U.S. Century Bank has been sued by some of its minority shareholders, who are angry that the bank’s fortunes have plummeted dramatically as of late.

U.S. Century Bank is the largest bank in the country that is considered to be “underfunded,” meaning its assets are considered by some to be insufficient to conduct business. In addition, the Miami-headquartered bank still owes the federal government $50 million in funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The lawsuit, which is seeking class action status and would represent 400 or so minority shareholders, alleges that the directors of U.S. Century Bank wasted the TARP funds and conducted business in an unwise manner that depleted the bank’s coffers and set it on a course for financial ruin.

We do not know whether any of the lawsuit’s allegations are true, but we can imagine that the directors of U.S. Century Bank are probably feeling frustrated and very stressed. On top of their business floundering, they now have this lawsuit to deal with.

In many instances, such pressure-filled situations can be ameliorated by knowing that you have the counsel of an attorney whom you believe in and trust. In circumstances where you feel like you are fighting on many fronts, it can be very helpful to know that the legal elements of your present situation are being handled diligently and attentively.

Source: The South Florida Business Journal, “U.S. Century Bank, directors hit with new class action lawsuit,” Brian Bandell, Jan. 17, 2013

• In our Orlando office, we often work on lawsuits that pertain to businesses. For more information on what we do, we invite you to visit the Business Litigation portion of our website. We hope that the information you find there will be useful to you.

Thu Jan 17, 4:39pm