Ramon Rasco, chairman of US Century Bank, finally resigns … by gimleteye

It's about time … Rasco is one of Miami-Dade's top apparatchiks who mightily profited from the models of growth that sowed sprawl across the county. He was the organizing architect of the failed Homestead Air Force Base redevelopment (along with assistants like lead GOP attorney/lobbyist, Miguel De Grandy) and a banker/ attorney who founded US Century Bank with Sergio Pino. The bank's fortunes were built on the shaky political foundations of the housing boom and barely managed to stay afloat during the bust. US Century Bank was the insider piggy bank of Miami-Dade County. A ProPublica investigative report wrote, "The rise and fall of U.S. Century, while certainly more extreme than most banks, exemplifies the fast-and-loose banking culture that led to the financial crisis, which continues to drag down the global economy. It also epitomizes both the failure to regulate the banking sector during the pre-crisis boom years and the slipshod approach to the bailout that followed the bust. Above all, it's about losers and winners. The losers are taxpayers and local residents grappling with the ill effects of suburban sprawl. The winners appear to be a group of wealthy and politically connected businessmen who created a bank that served as their own corporate ATM, funneling tens of millions of dollars to ventures in which they had a stake."

An Eye On Miami's anonymous commenters once wrote that if you were a middle level manager at Miami-Dade County or anyone with a connection, you could get a "special" expedited loan. That's all gone, now. The bank was the largest recipient of TARP (that's federal) aid in Florida. Complaining about the Perez/ Genting Art Museum recently, collector Rosa de la Cruz said, along the lines, that people in Miami are afraid to speak out.

Federal bank regulators should have shut this bank down, years ago. Why regulators didn't demand Rasco's resignation, long ago, is a mystery.