Orion Bank's Williams indicted

Prosecutors unveiled a federal grand jury's indictment of Jerry Williams, 51, the former chairman, CEO and president of Orion Bank, charging him with bank fraud and deceiving state and federal bank examiners.

Before regulators shut it down in late fall 2009, Naples-based Orion was the second-largest bank headquartered on the Gulf Coast.

The grand jury indicted Williams on 13 counts, including bank fraud, misapplication of bank funds, making false bank entries, making false statements and wire and mail fraud. The indictment alleges that Williams orchestrated a complex scheme in 2009 to fraudulently raise capital and falsify bank records to mislead regulators as to the true financial condition of the bank.

Williams grew Orion from a tiny bank based in the Florida Keys when he took it over in 1987 to one of the largest banks in the state during the recent building boom. By 2007, Naples-based Orion's assets totaled $2.6 billion with branches stretching from Sarasota to Naples and West Palm Beach.

As Orion rode the real estate and construction boom on the Gulf Coast, Williams' stature grew among his peers. He was elected chairman of the Florida Bankers Association in 2006 and vice chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta in 2007.

American Banker magazine, the influential trade publication, named Williams Community Banker of the Year in 2006 at a ceremony at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. The Business Review named him Banker of the Year in 2003.

But the real estate downturn exposed Orion's aggressive loans to developers and builders. State regulators shut down Orion Bank on Nov. 13, 2009, selling the deposits and most of the assets to IberiaBank of Lafayette, La.

The Business Review wrote about Williams' fall in a November 2009 issue.