Branch Banking and Trust Co. plans to appeal a ruling by a judge who said that the company aided a North Carolina fraud scheme.
The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based institution announced yesterday an unfavorable ruling by an administrative law judge.
At issue is a mountain development known as the Village of Penland, which BB&T Corp. claims caused it $20 million in losses.
The judge was presiding over a Department of Labor hearing in which a “Ms. Stroupe” was appealing a 2007 ruling against her by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which found her claims lacked merit. The bank’s statement said the earlier ruling was based on the administration’s review of thousands of documents in a six-month investigation.
In overturning OSHA’s ruling, the judge made a statement on April 1 that BB&T “somehow ‘aided'” in the fraud scheme.
“To the contrary, BB&T was a victim of the fraud,” the news release stated. “BB&T and its Code of Ethics require all employees to report any violations of law and unethical behavior.”
The company claims it launched an extensive investigation once it learned of the fraud and made numerous efforts to alert other impacted financial institutions.
“BB&T plans to appeal the administrative law judge’s ruling and is hopeful that the decision of OSHA will be reaffirmed,” the announcement said.
