Jury deliberations have begun in the federal fraud and conspiracy case against four former executives of the only financial institution to be criminally charged in connection with the federal bank bailout program.
Jurors began deliberating around midday Wednesday after attorneys for the former Wilmington Trust executives finished closing arguments and prosecutors offered a brief rebuttal.
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Former bank president Robert V.A. Harra Jr., former chief credit officer William North, former chief financial officer David Gibson and former controller Kevyn Rakowski are charged with fraud, conspiracy and making false statements to federal regulators.
Prosecutors allege that in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis the defendants deliberately misled regulators and investors about the bank’s massive amount of past-due commercial real estate loans before the century-old institution was hastily sold in 2011.
