SEC Charges Colonial Bank Officer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) - The SEC on Wednesday charged the former operations supervisor of Colonial Bank's mortgage warehouse lending division with participating in a $1.5 billion securities fraud.

Teresa Kelly, 35, of Ocoee, Fla., is the fourth high-ranking officer charged in the sale of "fictitious and impaired mortgage loans and securities" from Colonial Bank's largest mortgage customer, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp.

The SEC charged Taylor, Bean & Whitaker's former Chairman Lee Farkas in June 2010; charged its former Treasurer Desiree Brown in February this year; and charged the head of Colonial Bank's mortgage warehouse lending division, Catherine Kissick, earlier this month.

"For nearly seven years, Kelly abused her access to Colonial Bank's accounting systems, allowing Farkas and TBW to defraud the bank and its investors out of more than $1.5 billion," said the associate regional director of the SEC's Atlanta Regional Office said in a statement Wednesday.

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