Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Directed by: Steve James
Documentary - 88 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 22 Jun 2017
Documentary - 88 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 22 Jun 2017
Steve James’s new documentary, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, slides in as a worthwhile companion piece to the 2015 dramatized non-fiction financial explanatory phenomenon that was The Big Short. Hollywood A-listers described to the movie audience as best they could in layman’s terms why and how the housing market collapsed almost taking with it the entire world economy. Rather than face indictments and criminal charges, the behemoth mortgage-lending banks such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and CitiCorp were deemed “too big to fail” and were pumped full of bailouts instead. The only bank charged after the crisis was the small-time Abacus Federal Savings Bank, the 2,531st largest bank in the country. James explores why the Manhattan DA chose to make an example of them. Was their loan department a vast money laundering conspiracy or was it more electioneering and perhaps a cultural bias? Abacus is minor Steve James (Life Itself) but stokes feelings of injustice and corruption. It is a vivid reminder of who the law in the United States really works for.
Thomas Sung, Abacus’s founder and Chairman, compares himself to good ol’ George Bailey from It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). Both gentlemen shepherd community-oriented banks through tough times and are preyed upon by external predators either looking to make a deceitful profit, as in Capra’s version, or looking to bolster their reelection chances by appearing tough on white-collar crime in the case of Cyrus Vance, Jr. Vance and his higher echelon legal team tell their side of the story as well, but in this David vs. Goliath underdog story, our sympathies do not automatically fall on the law and order end of the spectrum. James shows Abacus as a family-run institution with a patriarch supported by his fiercely protective four daughters, three of whom are lawyers.
Thomas Sung, Abacus’s founder and Chairman, compares himself to good ol’ George Bailey from It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). Both gentlemen shepherd community-oriented banks through tough times and are preyed upon by external predators either looking to make a deceitful profit, as in Capra’s version, or looking to bolster their reelection chances by appearing tough on white-collar crime in the case of Cyrus Vance, Jr. Vance and his higher echelon legal team tell their side of the story as well, but in this David vs. Goliath underdog story, our sympathies do not automatically fall on the law and order end of the spectrum. James shows Abacus as a family-run institution with a patriarch supported by his fiercely protective four daughters, three of whom are lawyers.
Vance and his Major Economic Crimes Bureau Chief, Polly Greenberg, paint the picture of a mortgage loan office creating deceptive loans off the backs of trusting and ignorant credit seekers. They set Fannie Mae up as the top-line victim who gets saddled with all these duplicitous loans. Most of these black and white, good and evil accusations emerge as solid as Swiss cheese once the investigative reporters examine them. Matt Taibbi, who made a national name for himself raking big banks over the coals, David Lindorff, and the New Yorker’s Jiayang Fan, are incredulous Abacus is the bank the government chose to strong arm at the end of the day. “Too big to fail turns into small enough to jail” is the perfect tweet-worthy epigram one of the journalists sums up the masquerade with.
James takes us on a stroll through the Abacus safety deposit box room of 8,000 boxes which, I learned, is an immigrant indicator. First generation immigrants live in tight quarters and have no secure place to store their valuables. Historically, banks are happy to take their deposits and hold their valuables, but would not lend them credit to start businesses or purchase houses. Thomas Sung claims he started Abacus to service his Chinatown community comprised of folk just like him, first generation arrivals looking to achieve the American Dream. The Dream goes up in smoke when the dozen or so defendants are publicly paraded chain-gang style, mobbed by press, through the hallways. Nobody interviewed had ever seen anything like it and quickly point out if it were a dozen African Americans, this scenario never would have taken place. Vance and Greenberg deny any and all knowledge of setting up the photo opportunity.
James takes us on a stroll through the Abacus safety deposit box room of 8,000 boxes which, I learned, is an immigrant indicator. First generation immigrants live in tight quarters and have no secure place to store their valuables. Historically, banks are happy to take their deposits and hold their valuables, but would not lend them credit to start businesses or purchase houses. Thomas Sung claims he started Abacus to service his Chinatown community comprised of folk just like him, first generation arrivals looking to achieve the American Dream. The Dream goes up in smoke when the dozen or so defendants are publicly paraded chain-gang style, mobbed by press, through the hallways. Nobody interviewed had ever seen anything like it and quickly point out if it were a dozen African Americans, this scenario never would have taken place. Vance and Greenberg deny any and all knowledge of setting up the photo opportunity.
James turns Abacus chronological when the trial begins. Titles inform us what trial day it is, we listen to reenactments of key speeches, and James, perhaps succumbing to the limitations of no cameras in the courtroom, relies too much on the same courtroom drawing as voiceover sums up the day’s revelations. Vance would have achieved his goal of looking like he was locking up Wall Street perps and combatting the infamous credit default swaps, but Matt Taibbi shatters the ‘what could have been’ reverie with reality; there is “how we deal with a certain kind of offender vs. everybody else.” Some corporations appear to be above the law, wink-wink. If you’re going to go after someone for a public conviction, “going after a family owned company wedged between some noodle shops in Chinatown is about as easy a target as you can pick.” Abacus is full of these catchy one-liners when it’s in investigatory mode rather than in family quarrel time. Once again, Vance denies any cultural bias.
Goliath says Abacus Bank was a leach on the community and swindling innocent borrowers. An incredulous Thomas Sung and family of Davids proclaim they are community acolytes leading the way toward prosperity through loans and credit. The truth, probably found in the murky middle, was up to the jury to decide and James even found two jurors willing to go on camera. Abacus loses its momentum after the explanations are over and the courtroom proceedings begin. It descends to its lowest point during jury deliberations. Watching people wait for the jury to come back is about as interesting as reading about credit default swaps some more. However, I pass a hearty thank you on to Steve James for shedding light on who the Manhattan DA office eventually chose to throw its legal weight at. All those devious buffoons you remember from The Big Short skated off to Easy Street while Thomas Sung, his family, and Chinatown, shouldered the fight.
Goliath says Abacus Bank was a leach on the community and swindling innocent borrowers. An incredulous Thomas Sung and family of Davids proclaim they are community acolytes leading the way toward prosperity through loans and credit. The truth, probably found in the murky middle, was up to the jury to decide and James even found two jurors willing to go on camera. Abacus loses its momentum after the explanations are over and the courtroom proceedings begin. It descends to its lowest point during jury deliberations. Watching people wait for the jury to come back is about as interesting as reading about credit default swaps some more. However, I pass a hearty thank you on to Steve James for shedding light on who the Manhattan DA office eventually chose to throw its legal weight at. All those devious buffoons you remember from The Big Short skated off to Easy Street while Thomas Sung, his family, and Chinatown, shouldered the fight.
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