Sonoma Valley Bank executives settle with FDIC over bank’s collapse

Three officers at the failed Sonoma Valley Bank have settled a lawsuit from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for about $5.4 million.|

Three officers at the failed Sonoma Valley Bank have settled a lawsuit from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for about $5.4 million.

The agreement reached earlier this month falls short of the $12 million originally sought after the bank’s collapse in 2010 following a series of risky real estate loans.

It calls for payments from the bank’s former president and chief executive officer, Sean Cutting, as well as former CEO and director Mel Switzer and vice president and chief loan officer Brian Melland.

The money, which will come from an insurance policy, will go into the federal fund insuring nationwide deposits and will not be used to recoup the losses of more than 1,000 shareholders who invested in the bank.

“The sad thing is I don’t see how they will get any money back,” said Ralph Hutchinson, a former federal banking regulator and consultant who is familiar with the case.

A limited number of shareholders took part in a $2 million settlement in 2013.

Neither the FDIC nor the bank officers’ attorneys would comment publicly on the settlement Friday. The men admitted no wrongdoing under the agreement.

Cutting and Melland face separate criminal charges for their roles in authorizing $55 million in loans to the late Marin County developer Bijan Madjlessi, who died two years ago in a car crash. They await trial on federal fraud charges along with a third defendant, Sonoma County attorney David Lonich. A trial date is not set.

Check back later today for more details.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.

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