Eagle Bancorp CFO Faces SEC Probe
Eagle Bancorp CFO Charles Levingston seems to have the help of the company’s board as he faces a possible enforcement action by the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee.
The SEC has indicated its employees produced a preliminary perseverance to recommend rates against Levingston by sending him a so-called Wells observe. The guardian company of EagleBank disclosed the observe Wednesday in an earnings launch.
But Eagle Bancorp CEO Susan Riel said Thursday that the board experienced made the decision to have Levingston keep on to provide as CFO.
“The board’s major priority is, as it always has been, to act in the most effective curiosity of the company and the company’s stockholders, and we, and the board, continue to be self-confident in the company’s disclosure controls, accuracy of its monetary reporting, and the professionalism of the company’s finance functionality and staff,” she said in an earnings connect with.
Levingston has been with the Bethesda, Md., financial institution given that 2012 and previously worked as a financial institution examiner for the Federal Reserve Banking institutions of Atlanta and Philadelphia.
The earnings launch did not specify what allegations Levingston may well be struggling with but said he experienced been given the Wells observe in link with an SEC investigation that Eagle first disclosed in July 2019.
The financial institution has “initiated conversations with the employees about a prospective resolution or settlement of the staff’s investigation with respect to the company” and “any existing personnel and directors,” the launch said.
According to American Banker, the SEC has been investigating Eagle’s ties to previous District of Columbia Councilman Jack Evans, who allegedly lobbied for legislation that would be favorable to Eagle soon after the financial institution employed him as a guide. He also owned Eagle shares.
Eagle’s co-founder and previous CEO Ron Paul abruptly retired in March 2019, citing overall health problems.
“The company believes [the investigation] relate[s] to the company’s identification, classification and disclosure of similar social gathering transactions the retirement of sure previous officers and directors and the relationship of the company and sure of its previous officers and directors with a nearby community formal, amid other issues,” the earnings launch stated.
