IndyMac ex-chairman says he was told to backdate cash infusion

[bemildred]

Source: LAT

The former chairman of IndyMac Bank has alleged a key banking regulator "specifically directed" him to backdate $18 million in capital onto the Pasadena thrift's books to help prop up the company at the peak of the financial crisis.

Michael W. Perry, who is battling fraud allegations connected to the thrift's failure in 2008, said that cash was added to the balance sheet during the first quarter of 2008 even though the money arrived more than a month after the quarter closed. The regulator was Darrel W. Dochow, former Western regional director for the Office of Thrift Supervision, a U.S. Treasury Department agency that "had the final say regarding IndyMac Bank's capital levels," Perry said in a statement posted online.

After conferring with IndyMac's auditors on May 9, 2008, Dochow approved adding the $18 million to IndyMac's books, and "specifically directed Mr. Perry to amend the Bank's Thrift Financial Report for March 31, 2008," the statement said. IndyMac's first-quarter earnings report to investors, issued May 12, also included the extra dose of cash.

Dochow's approval of the cash infusion had been widely reported previously. But Perry's contention that Dochow "directed" its inclusion on IndyMac's books adds a new twist to his defense by suggesting that the action was required by regulators. The statement from Perry was first reported by the New York Times.




Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-indymac-dochow-20111124,0,4024131.story