Federal regulators sued this week the long-time former chief executive of a small Georgia bank, accusing him of gross negligence that resulted in heavy financial losses before the lender’s failure in November 2009.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. contends in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta that Pierce T. Neese operated United Security Bank at times as a “one-man bank,” in total control of the institution’s lending. The suit said the bank went on an aggressive push into risky real estate acquisition and development loans, but that the United Security “suffered substantial damages from significant departures from safe and sound banking practices by Neese.”
United Security, based about 100 miles east of Atlanta in Sparta, fell into trouble after an expansion into metro Atlanta. The bank opened a branch under the name Bank of Woodstock in 2002.
Neese served as CEO and a director of United Security from 1974 until its closure, the suit said.
Attempts to reach Neese were not immediately successful.
The case is the 10th civil lawsuit seeking damages against officers or directors of a failed bank in Georgia, which leads all states in bank failures since mid-2008.
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