Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Documentaries may be about true stories, but that doesn't mean they can't stir up emotional responses in the viewer. The last documentary I read, about first responders in Aleppo, Syria, made me feel anger against the callousness of governments, and sympathy for the strong and courageous men who have to deal with the consequences. This movie, too, made me rail against not just the enormous insensitivity of my own government, but also just how incompetent it seems to be.

"Abacus" is the name of a small federally chartered savings bank, with just six branches, operating in New York's Chinatown. It was founded by a Chinese man, born in Shanghai, who immigrated to the United States as a child with his parents. He went to law school and practiced law for a while and then decided to help his native community by operating a bank that could provide credit to other Chinese immigrants who have a native mistrust of banks, government, and pretty much any institution who wants a share of their money. In addition, to operating his bank, successfully for many years, he, with his devoted wife, also raised four amazing daughters, three of which also became lawyers and the fourth, a physician. In short, this was an impressive family - smart and hardworking.

The documentary camera spends a lot of time with this family, in their offices, and frequently in Chinese restaurants eating big, and appetizing, Chinese meals. We learn that the family is close-knit, loving, and commanding a sense of humor, in addition to being smart and committed to both their family and their community.

They had to have those qualities, in order to survive an ordeal that lasted five long years and would threaten their bank, their reputations, and their freedom. Abacus Federal Savings Bank was not just the first, but the only bank in all of America that was charged and prosecuted with felony charges as a result of all the financial misbehavior that created the 2008 financial collapse of America. You have to think about that a bit. If, like me, you've been waiting for ten years now for leaders of America's biggest banks (like Chase, Goldman-Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Citibank) to actually pay for the suffering they caused Americans because of the greedy deals they fraudulently packaged and promoted, then this documentary will do nothing except make you angry.

Instead of going after the banks that were 'too big to fail', instead, Cyrus Vance, the D.A. For the Southern District of New York, instead took the incredibly easy and cowardly approach of trying to punish a small community bank that had, at worst, committed some omissions of proper oversight over some of its employees. The Sung family, and the managers they employed, were definitely guilty of failing to adequately oversee several of their mortgage processors, because, frankly, they trusted them more than they should have. But, after five years of building a case, the assistant district attorney couldn't connect all the dots to prove criminal intent on the part of the owners, she instead developed absurd theories based on cultural misunderstandings and career advancement goals. No doubt she had encouragement from Vance who was desperately looking for an example that would pretend to show that they were indeed doing something about the financial crisis. They found a bank that was "small enough to jail!"

I've been concerned for some time now about the lack of leadership in our political institutions. It seems we have embraced leaders who are not only just plain stupid, but who also are motivated by the basest of impulses. This movie does nothing to alter that opinion. I give the movie 8 stars for so effectively making me angry!

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail is a suspenseful David v. Goliath documentary of family loyalty and stubborn courage facing a gigantic government agency and an ego to match. As follows: Tom Sung emigrated from China at 16 and became in time a citizen, a successful lawyer and a resident of upscale Connecticut. Nevertheless he noticed that 'establishment' banks were happy to take his deposits, but when it came to getting a loan, he didn't, as the saying went in the hateful days of the racist Exclusion Act, 'have a Chinaman's chance.' Sung then took a chance and started his own bank—Abacus Federal Savings. His timing was perfect: new immigration laws in the 1960s meant Chinatown soon had a] plenty of customers for Abacus and b] something besides Cantonese restaurants. He was a genuine positive force among the Chinese population, admired and respected by all. Then about a decade ago low-ranking Abacus personnel were caught falsifying mortgage applications; they were immediately sacked and their misdeeds reported to feds, as required. Mistake, as it turned out. The subprime- mortgage crisis was big news: until then, few Americans used the word 'trillion' for anything but the national debt or the distance from here to Alpha Centauri. Villains included Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and while some were fined, no one went to jail and most bonuses were paid as usual. Unfortunately for Abacus, new-minted New York D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr., who was as hungry for publicity as NY's Sen. Charles Schumer, saw a chance for headlines and photo ops. Seeking a halo as the sole public avenger of the crisis, Vance charged Abacus with 80 counts of criminal wrongdoing, launching a court battle that ran five years and cost $10 million. Although the major villains had got off lightly as being 'too big to fail,' Vance's target was indeed 'small enough to jail': in size, Abacus was 2600th among U.S. banks. About the size, as it turned out, of David. This is an excellent documentary, suspenseful but lightened with some bursts of humor among the Sung family as they fight for the reputations and their principles.

I don't know if you've heard, but the American justice system is probably too cozy with the Big Banks. The beauty of this little doc is that it puts a personal face on the decidedly impersonal numbers, giving a portrait of a family unjustly taking the fall for corporations much worse than them. Especially love the natural comparison it makes to It's a Wonderful Life...because maybe it's not always that wonderful.

Steve James is a very famous documentarian who was robbed when his master work "Hoop Dreams" was inexplicably ignored by the Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature category in 1994. His later films included "Stevie", "The Interrupters" and the moving record of Roger Ebert's last days, "Life Itself". And now finally the film that brought James his first nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

"Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" is an excellent documentary that centers on the Abacus Federal Savings Bank, a family-owned community bank in Manhattan's Chinatown which became the only bank to actually face criminal charges following the 2007 mortgage crisis - and only because it was deemed not 'too big to fail', an incredible injustice by the U.S. Justice Department merely looking for a scapegoat. But the film is not primarily socio-political; it is, in fact, a 'David vs. Goliath' story of the court battle of the Asian family's defense for their honor against the gigantic U.S. government, and, without shying away from showing the family's internal squabbles and moments of weakness, the film documents the difficult daily sacrifices necessary for them to stand up for their principles.

Perhaps some will find this too much a 'standard' documentary, but I feel the story and characters interesting enough not to necessitate a stylistic 'hyping up', and, as is, the film perfectly captures its time and place while keeping us on the edge of our seats until the final verdict. Critic Matt Zoller praised the director for "finding the universal within the specific", and for the film creating a portrait of Chinatown as a thriving community that "defines itself in relation to...American culture... but never entirely comfortable or accepted." It is also an inspiring film of an immigrant family who struggles to survive through a conflict that they know is virtually impossible over which to prevail - but still they find they cannot submit to what they see as an injustice they did not come to America for. This is a film I truly loved. Don't miss it.

This documentary shows you how politically motivated are the justice system. Rather than picking on banks that defrauded American trillions of dollars, they choose to indict a small family bank in Chinatown. T's disgusting when you understand the scope of what the mortgage crisis did to America and not surprising that the only ones prosecuted were Chinese-American.The DAs in this film looks like pompous legal heavy hitter-wannabes tainted by self-righteous vain-glories.