Judge Won’t Revive Case Against Ex-Bank Officer

0

A judge last week denied requests to reopen a fraud case against the former chief marketing officer of Wilshire State Bank.

Saeid Aminpour, who had worked for the Koreatown bank for nearly a decade before leaving in late 2010, had been accused of using his bank credentials to convince a carwash owner to take out a loan with Aminpour’s outside business partner, forcing the carwash to be sold under duress and then fraudulently demanding a fee to broker the sale.

In a mixed ruling last summer, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White found that Aminpour had fraudulently brokered the sale without a license, but she also required the carwash owner to repay more than $1 million owed on the loan he had taken out. The judge declined to rule on a number of the fraud accusations.

Since then, a lawyer for the former borrower said she has learned of additional former bank clients who claim to have been defrauded by Aminpour, prompting the request to White for a new trial.

Jimmy Philip Mettias, a Victorville attorney who represents Aminpour and several of his associates, said the new accusations are both unfounded and irrelevant to the original case. He called the motion for a new trial little more than a smear campaign.

“It’s meant just to harm credibility,” Mettias said. “The motion that they brought for new trial, it is completely devoid of any new evidence. This was (a) shot in the dark.”

Kimberly Olson, the attorney representing the former borrower, said she plans to appeal the judge’s decision.

Processing Purchase

Green Dot Corp., a prepaid debit card provider and bank holding company in Monrovia, announced an acquisition last week that is expected to strengthen its transaction processing and reduce costs.

Green Dot, the market leader among prepaid debit card providers, paid $2.5 million in cash to acquire processing and hardware assets of eCommLink, a Las Vegas company specializing in prepaid card processing.

The deal represents the latest move by Green Dot to bring operations in-house. Last month, the company bought Provo, Utah’s Bonneville Bancorp, which will be renamed Green Dot Bank and issue most of its cards.

Green Dot currently outsources portions of its transaction processing, and executives said fees to outside companies account for roughly one-third of processing expenses.

“Green Dot expects to benefit from faster speed-to-market for product development, more flexibility in serving its customers and reduced operational expenses,” Chief Executive Steve Streit said in a statement.

C-Suite News

Green Dot announced that Mark Troughton has resigned as president of cards and network for the company. His duties will be split between Kostas Sgoutas and Eric Duerhing, who were each promoted to executive vice president. … The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco announced that Keith Smith was appointed chairman of the L.A. branch. … Downtown L.A. bank holding company City National Corp. announced that David Acosta moved from the bank’s New York office to become a senior vice president in its Beverly Hills entertainment division. … Cove Street Capital LLC, an investment adviser in El Segundo, has hired Greg Farber as director of institutional marketing and client service. … Union Bank has hired Stephen Sherline as regional managing director of its private bank in Beverly Hills. …Downtown L.A.-headquartered 1st Enterprise Bank has promoted David Plourde to executive vice president.

Staff reporter Richard Clough can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 251.

No posts to display