US bank chief pleads guilty to using bailout cash to buy home

BBC News, 27 August 2013 

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Mr Woods had said the money was
needed prop up a "bleeding patient".

A US bank chairman has pleaded guilty to using bailout money given to rescue his firm to buy himself a luxury home.

Darryl Woods used $381,000 (£245,000) of the $1m given to his Mainstreet Bank to buy the Florida waterfront property.

Following the US housing collapse and financial crash, Mainstreet needed to be propped up with taxpayers' money.

US district attorney Tammy Dickinson said: "At a time when many Americans were losing their homes, he was siphoning off public funds."

Bailout money was given to Mainstreet under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) established after the US financial crash.

Mr Woods had previously written to TARP regulators describing Mainstreet as a small community bank and saying the funds "will provide vitally needed infusions to a bleeding patient".

His wrongdoing was uncovered when regulators began examining how the money was used.

To date, some 140 criminal cases have been filed against individuals alleged to have misused funds.