They came close to losing everything that the bank’s founder, Thomas Sung, worked since 1984 to build, as relayed in the documentary film “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” screening at the Wing Luke Museum. This week, New Mexico in Focus speaks with Vera and Chanterelle Sung, whose family owns the Abacus Federal Savings Bank in Manhattan. Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: This content is currently not available in your region.
Jill Sung’s sister Vera Sung, a director for the bank, elaborated that the family was so badly shaken by the case, they’ve become, outside of their scope as bank officials, advocates for improvements in the justice system. According to two of the founder’s daughters, though, the perils of the case and its aftermath weren’t only professional ones.“I’m a very private person,” commented Jill Sung, president and CEO of Abacus. Abacus was founded thirty years ago by Thomas Sung, a lawyer and a real-estate investor who had come from China in his teens. Sung, 46, is a daughter of the bank’s founder—her younger sister Jill is Abacus’s chief executive officer. That includes Jill Sung and Vera Sung, the English-speaking, Connecticut-raised sisters who had inherited day-to-day operations from their father, one of the bank's … Vera Sung, Abacus’s lawyer, was in and out of the meeting. We were in a very precarious position where potentially we could lose, right? After the financial collapse a decade ago, relatively tiny Abacus was the only bank to face criminal sanctions. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! People who are not guilty, who went through the fight, can actually be vindicated.” It is one of a dozen or so community banks in … We rely on readers like you to uphold a free press. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Because I think it’s important for us to be able to share our experience with other people.“The various different screenings we do, I think we’ve been able to help show how the justice system works, and how people perceive it and what they see as possibilities, of being vindicated. Another, Vera, serves as the bank… From the ground up, you’re not gonna get any unfair advantage, from me. One of his four daughters, Jill, later took over as CEO and president. We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. [That] made it easier for me, in a strange sense.”“I think Vera’s point is right.” Jill Sung continued, “What is a family issue, versus what is a business issue. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. It was very entertaining [having] the transcript read back… [but] it would have been wonderful to have the not guilty verdicts filmed, because that was 80 counts of not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, and then repeated by the court clerk, and the other two defendants, for a total of 240 not guiltys.”Jill Sung’s sister Vera Sung, a director for the bank, elaborated that the family was so badly shaken by the case, they’ve become, outside of their scope as bank officials, advocates for improvements in the justice system.The two Sung sisters are both attorneys, as is their father Thomas and their third sister, Chanterelle, who does not hold a formal position at the bank, but who will appear at the Wing Luke Museum to present the documentary.Vera Sung said, “We’re advocating for financial reform, but stepping outside of what the bank does, advocating for criminal law reform. The very things that keep us strong, and that people noted in the movie, can also be very tiring at times — which is having the family as a unity, and having the strength of the family.“In the end, everything worked out, and we’re happy, I’m happy with being documented. We can see how unfair the criminal justice system is, especially for those who don’t have resources.“That’s not part of the bank’s mission, per se, but we individually are going out and speaking about how discrimination is not only alive and well, it is thriving… trying to understand things such as implicit bias, subconscious bias, all these issues that are going on here and everywhere.”The sisters admitted that working with a parent as a boss isn’t always smooth sailing.“When I first came to work for my father,” said Vera, “I remember looking at him and thinking, ‘Please define who you are, are you my father, are you my boss?’ It becomes interchangeable at times.“But he always told me that if you decide to come work here, this is your own choice, and you cannot expect to have it easy, just because you’re my daughter. “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” shows for free at 11:45 a.m. on May 20, at the Wing Luke Museum, 719 South King Street, Seattle. Hear from the Sung sisters—Jill Sung, President and CEO of Abacus Bank, Vera Sung, member of the Board of Directors of Abacus Bank, and Chanterelle Sung ’00, ironically a former Assistant District Attorney within the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that prosecuted the case, as well as Mark Mitten, the film producer. And that would be quite disturbing and who knows what that would look like?”Sung elaborated that she liked the finished film well enough, but she did wish that the cameras could have gone into the courtroom, to demonstrate more fully what she describes as the ludicrousness of the prosecution’s side.“As the trial went on, it was pretty incredible to us how bad the case was, on the D.A.’s side, and it’s very hard to capture that. The money will allow the school to improve the multimedia teaching tools and ultimately benefit all the students.
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I always felt there was a downside to this (the film). Thomas Sung founded Abacus in 1984 to cater to the Chinese and Chinese American community. “I don’t like being probed, or having to show any part of myself on camera.