Former top executives of a failed U.S. bank in Norfolk, Va., have been indicted by a federal grand jury on bank fraud and other charges for hiding loan losses in a scheme that allegedly led to the bank's demise, Reuters reported yesterday. Edward J. Woodard, former Chief Executive of Bank of the Commonwealth, was among those charged. He led the bank for more than three decades before being forced to retire in December 2010, prosecutors said. Bank of the Commonwealth, which once had $1.3 billion in assets, failed in 2011, costing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp an estimated $268 million, prosecutors said. The indictment alleges many of the bank's loans were made without regard to industry standards, and by 2008 its losses and foreclosed properties were ballooning. Insiders then hid the bank's troubles out of fear its declining health would hurt investor and customer confidence, according to the indictment.
