Bank wants $2 million from bail-bond firm's owner
By Dan Kelly
Reading Eagle
Wachovia National Bank has filed a $2 million judgment in Berks County Court against the owner of a Reading-based bail-bonding company.
Wachovia wants a judge to order Vincent J. Smith and his wife, Sheila, both of the 100 block of Maple Grove Road, Cumru Township, to immediately pay $2,015,910.
The bank loaned the money to Smith's company, Capital Bonding Corp., and the couple signed as guarantors of the loan, according to court papers.
Vincent Smith is president and chief executive officer of Capital Bonding.
When Capital stopped making payments on the loan, Wachovia demanded on Oct. 21 that the amount be paid in full. When Capital did not respond, the bank filed the action against the Smiths, records show.
Smith said he has made arrangements to pay the bank and declined further comment.
Wachovia spokesman James A. Baum declined to comment while the matter is pending.
The court action by Wachovia comes two months after Berks Solicitor Alan S. Miller filed seven judgments totaling $525,000 against an insurance company that underwrites bail bonds for Capital.
Miller said he took the action because Capital owes the county more than $1 million in forfeited bail.
Miller declined to comment on the Wachovia judgment.
The county had been allowing Capital to pay bail forfeitures in $100,000 monthly installments, but the company fell behind on those payments, Miller said.
The county judgments seek immediate payment of forfeited bail bonds underwritten by Sirius America Insurance Co. of New York.
Capital, a national bail-bond corporation with headquarters at 525 Penn St., wrote bail bonds insured by Sirius.
The judgments relate to cases in which defendants bought bail bonds from Capital, then failed to appear in court and have been fugitives for at least a year, according to court papers.
Smith's attorney, Robert E. Kirwan of Reading, has appealed the county judgments and asked that they be consolidated in one court and heard by one judge. A hearing on the appeals is pending.
Contact reporter Dan Kelly at 610-371-5040 or
dkelly@readingeagle.com.
