Ashton Ryan Jr., the former president and CEO of the failed First NBC Bank in New Orleans, was sentenced to 14 years in prison this week. In February, he was convicted of a series of fraud and conspiracy charges tied to the company's downfall in 2017.
Ryan, convicted of 43 charges in total after a five-week jury trial, was also ordered to pay $214 million in restitution to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which had covered losses from the First NBC failure.
During the trial, prosecutors told jurors that
Prosecutors walked jurors through bank records that showed Ryan defrauded the bank and shareholders from 2006 to 2017. They also convinced jurors that Ryan concealed the bank's deteriorating financial condition from directors, auditors and regulators. According to the charges, Ryan and other bankers received millions of dollars in compensation from the bank during the course of the conspiracy.
Ryan, 75, has said he founded First NBC in 2005, the year Hurricane Katrina struck, to help rebuild New Orleans. The bank grew to nearly $5 billion of assets by the time it was seized by regulators.
"Ryan and his accomplices spent years hiding their tracks, by using sophisticated means, all to maintain their house of cards," U.S. Attorney Duane Evans said in a press release on Sept. 6, the day the sentence was issued.
The bank's failure cost the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund about $1 billion. Ryan
Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FDIC Office of Inspector General and Federal Reserve pursued the case against Ryan and colleagues.
William Burnell, a former First NBC chief credit officer, and Robert Calloway, an executive vice president, were also convicted on fraud charges. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28. Fred Beebe, a former loan officer, was acquitted.
