LANSING, Mich. and PHOENIX, Aug. 17
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Capitol Bancorp Limited announced today
that a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge awarded it more than
$14,748,000 in compensatory damages
and $30,000,000 in punitive damages.
The defendants were a mortgage broker, Tom Alexander and his employers, and several
escrow officers and their former employer, Capital Title Agency,
Inc. The court found that the defendants knowingly falsified
loan applications, down payments and bank account verifications to
induce Capitol's subsidiary, Mesa Bank, to make over 40 residential
construction loans. The judge awarded the Bank all of the
damages it claimed and assessed $10,000,000 in punitive damages against Capital
Title stating, "The court has never seen such intentional,
outrageous, and fraudulent conduct by a fiduciary that did so much
damage to its principal." The court also awarded $20,000,000 in punitive damages against mortgage
broker Alexander.
Mesa Bank has since been merged into another subsidiary of
Capitol, Sunrise Bank of Arizona,
which continues to serve the community banking needs of
Phoenix and the surrounding areas.
This press release is for informational purposes only and is not
an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell any
securities.
About Capitol Bancorp Limited
Capitol Bancorp Limited (NYSE: CBC) is a $4.7 billion national community banking company
with a network of separately chartered banks in 15 states. Founded
in 1988, Capitol Bancorp Limited has executive offices in
Lansing, Michigan, and
Phoenix, Arizona.
Forward Looking Statement
Certain statements in this announcement contain forward-looking
statements that are based on management's expectations, estimates,
projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects,"
"anticipates," "plans," "believes," "scheduled," "estimates" and
variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to
identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These
statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve
certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict.
Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially
from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a
variety of factors.
All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this
press release. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking
statements attributable to the company or any person acting on the
Corporation's behalf are qualified by the cautionary statements in
this press release. The Corporation does not undertake any
obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to
forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or
changes in expectations after the date of this press release.
SOURCE Capitol Bancorp Limited
Copyright . 17 PR Newswire