Fraud Helped Extend One Bank’s Solvency, Hunt Company’s Lawsuit Alleges

Michael Heald

An injection of $17.3 million in U.S. Treasury TARP funds five years ago saved Little Rock’s One Bank & Trust from insolvency.

A lawsuit against the bank’s parent company, One Financial Corp., alleges that deception was deployed to obtain that money.

The complaint, filed by BHL Financing LLC, alleges that One Bank officials committed fraud to make the TARP loan happen in June 2009.

The lawsuit specifically accuses Mike Heald, the bank’s chief operating officer at the time, of mispresenting One Bank’s true financial condition to induce Johnelle Hunt to sign off on paperwork needed to gain approval for the TARP funds.

Back then, Layton “Scooter” Stuart owed Hunt’s BHL more than $15 million, and that debt was secured by Stuart’s 99.9 percent stake in OneFinancial Corp.

Without her signature, no TARP funds for OneFinancial could flow into One Bank for equity capital.

Those funds also were used to help hide gross mismanagement and unauthorized insider transactions at the bank, the BHL complaint alleges.

The lawsuit, pending in Benton County Circuit Court, seeks more than $10 million in damages. It also alleges breach of contract and violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.