Bank of the Year

BALTIMORE (CN) - Bank of America repeatedly lied in court proceedings to hound a destitute and abandoned wife with five children, driving her to attempt suicide, and demanded millions of dollars from her though the bank knew, and had sworn testimony to the fact that her husband had embezzled from the bank without her knowledge and had spent the money on mistresses, the now-divorced woman claims in City Court.

Lynne Gibbons' husband worked as a financial adviser for the bank. Thomas Gibbons embezzled $1.6 million from 1999 through March 2005, and was sentenced for bank fraud in August 2006, according to the complaint.

Lynne Gibbons says the first she knew of her husband's misdeeds was when he called her from New Orleans in April 2005 to tell her he had been fired, that he had embezzled, and that the bank was suing them both.

She says her husband abandoned their home and their five young children in April 2005, and never returned.

She says Bank of America lied repeatedly and recklessly by accusing her of conspiring in the embezzlements and of squandering the money on herself. She claims the bank lied repeatedly in legal proceedings against her, even after learning that its statements were false, and even while accusing one of her husband's mistresses, an exotic dancer, of squandering $450,000.

She claims the bank froze her bank account, seized half of her house and tried to force her to sell it though she knew she was destitute. The stress caused her to lose 22 lbs. and drove her to try suicide.

She says the bank knew from her statements, from her husband's statements and from its own records that she did none of the things it accused her of doing, but it continued to lie to her and about her, causing her to incur more than $200,000 in legal bills.

She says that despite being put on notice by her attorney that it was ruining her life by its wrongful conduct, Bank of America insisted she pay it $1.8 million for it to dismiss its lawsuit against her. She says BofA continued to lie in court - stating, for instance, that she had spent $306,112 of the embezzled money on herself, and lived a "lavish lifestyle" - though it knew that was not true.

After she tried suicide, and was confined in a mental hospital, BofA settled its case against her husband for $31,000, but continued to hound her, and tried to force her to sell her home to settle its lawsuit, she says. The bank instructed her to look for a "White Knight" to buy her children food and clothing and to pay the bank the money it demanded, she says.

Then, she says, the bank continued to hound her for money because, as it explained, "L. Gibbons is directly responsible for significant legal fees (the Bank) had to incur. ... Neither the 'stripper' nor 'her mom,' as you phrase them, caused the Bank to incur material legal fees. The 'stripper and her mom' had no material equity in the stripper's mom's house. L. Gibbons has serious equity in her house."

The bank finally stopped hounding her in October 2007, and moved to dismiss its claims without prejudice, according to the complaint.

Lynne Gibbons demands punitive damages for abuse of process, malicious process, slander of title and conversion. She is represented by Kristine Sendek-Smith with Beveridge & Diamond of Washington, D.C.

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