Part 3/14:
On Thursday, two major U.S. regional banks—Zion’s Bank and Western Alliance—announced significant loan losses stemming from fraudulent activities involving commercial mortgage investments. Both banks had provided large credit facilities to the same borrowers, who were later found to have engaged in widespread fraud, transferring assets and properties to evade repayments. Zion’s had to write off nearly $50 million of a $60 million loan after discovering that the collateral had been illegitimately transferred or foreclosed on.