THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180367
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE GEARAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Signet Banking Co.'s directors were negligent and should reimburse the bank for money allegedly lost in a fraudulent loan scam, a shareholder lawsuit claims.
A former Philip Morris employee is accused of defrauding Richmond-based Signet, NationsBank of Charlotte and other banks of millions of dollars.
``This action arises from Signet's making of an $81 million loan, in breach of its own policies and procedures, without adequate security, to an individual who created a scheme to defraud Signet,'' the suit filed by shareholder Eugene P. Gold said.
The suit filed April 1 in Fairfax County Circuit Court accuses the 12-member Signet board of directors of ``gross recklessness and waste of corporate assets.''
Norwood H. Davis Jr., one of the board members, said Tuesday he could not comment on the suit in detail.
``We as directors will defend the suit aggressively and are confident when the facts are fully understood at the appropriate time, the case will be dismissed,'' Davis said.
Signet spokeswoman Teri Schrettenbrunner said she had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
The directors of the Richmond-based bank knew or should have known about problems at the bank ``but failed to take any reasonable or adequate steps to remedy the known problems,'' the suit said.
The bank could sue its own directors on the same ground but almost certainly will not, a lawyer for Gold said Tuesday.
``It takes a shareholder suing on behalf of the bank,'' lawyer Steven J. Toll of Washington said. ``The bank and the board are very heavily intertwined.''
The suit asks that the directors pay whatever the bank lost in the alleged fraud. Gold also asks for his court and attorney costs.
The FBI said Edward Reiners got the loans by convincing Signet and the other banks that he still represented Philip Morris, which needed computer equipment for a top-secret cigarette research project.
The project was fictitious, and Philip Morris did not know of the scheme, the FBI said. Reiners and an alleged accomplice, Judy Bachiman, have been charged with bank fraud.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT by CNB