Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

In ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL, Abacus Bank was taken to trial by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in 2015, charged with dozens of counts of conspiracy, larceny, and systematic fraud. Abacus, a small community bank serving Chinatown in New York City, was started by first-generation Chinese immigrant Thomas Hung, who works with his four daughters to oversee the bank's operations. When they discovered that lower-level employees were engaged in questionable practices, they fired the employees, and the Hungs went to the government to inform them of what happened, even presenting documentation showing the illegal activities and how they rectified the situation. No matter. Abacus, not even in the top 5,000 largest banks, was taken to trial, its employees taken out handcuffed to each other and paraded before the media in a manner many veteran attorneys had never seen. This was also in the wake of the much larger banks being "too big to fail" despite committing far more damaging crimes that nearly sunk the economy; Abacus was the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges. The arrests and prosecution of many of the employees reminds them of the persecution they faced while still living in China, and while the Manhattan District Attorney denies the racist and immigrant-bashing subtext of his office's zeal, the residents of Chinatown, the Hungs, and many experienced legal observers don't see it that way. The Hungs fight back, and in the trial must prove their innocence and restore the good name of their family as well as the bank they created in the interests of serving the Chinese-American immigrant community.