The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two former bank executives at Illinois-based Mercantile Bancorp with failing to recognize in financial statements a probable loss on one of the bank’s largest troubled loans. Former CEO Ted Awerkamp of Amarillo, Texas, and former CFO Michael McGrath of Quincy, Ill., agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying penalties of $100,000 each and being barred from acting as an officer or director of a publicly traded company. The SEC alleges that prior to the end of the third quarter in 2010, Awerkamp knew that the borrower in a shared national credit loan for a large residential real estate development to be built in Colorado Springs was unwilling or unable to contribute the necessary funds to complete the project, which served as collateral for the loan. He also knew that the collateral had declined significantly in value. After the third quarter but still weeks before the bank’s quarterly report was filed, Awerkamp and McGrath also
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