Former bank CEO convicted on bribery, fraud charges

A former CEO of Noah Bank in Elkins Park, Pa., has been convicted on charges that he accepted bribes in connection with loans made through the Small Business Administration.

A jury found Edward Shin guilty of charges that include bank bribery, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of funds by a bank officer that each carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Two other charges have sentences of up to five years each. 

Shin, who was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, will be sentenced at a later date. 

Shin was accused of soliciting and receiving bribes tied to SBA-backed loans between 2009 and 2013. He was also charged with causing Noah Bank to make SBA loans to companies where he had secret ownership interests. He was arrested in 2019. 

Prosecutors cited an instance in June 2010 where the $303 million-asset Noah Bank made a $950,000 SBA loan to a New York company that Shin owned, along with the broker and another unnamed individual. The company defaulted and the bank lost about $591,000.