Orion Bank directors say they're not at fault

Where were the regulators?

The directors of Orion Bank, the Naples-based bank that failed after CEO Jerry Williams orchestrated fraudulent loans to conceal the bank's true financial condition, say in a court filing that they're not at fault because regulators didn't uncover the fraud at the bank, either.

Still, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is suing Orion Bank's directors for $53 million. The directors include Earl Holland of Fort Myers, Alan Pratt of Vero Beach and Keys businessmen James Aultman and Brian Schmitt.

“In a search for a scapegoat, the FDIC refuses to look in the mirror,” the federal court filing says.

The directors say in their filing that the regulators found the bank operating with seasoned management and acceptable board oversight during the boom years, according to the regulators' own examination reports from that period.

What's more, regulators permitted the bank to operate with a high concentration of real estate and development loans in the years leading up to the collapse.

“The FDIC's allegations that the board could have somehow foreseen, stopped or completely reversed the effects of the greatest collapse of the U.S. economy since the Great Depression on the bank's 'aggressive growth strategy' ignores economic realities, exaggerates the directors' powers as directors and oversimplifies the issues faced by Orion Bank in the year leading up to its seizure on November 9, 2009,” the filing says.