Four former officers of Delaware bank Wilmington Trust were accused on Wednesday of helping to conceal the impact of the real estate market crash on the bank’s portfolio.

David Gibson, Wilmington Trust’s former CFO; Robert Harra, the former president and COO; Kevyn Rakowski, the former controller; and William North, the former credit officer were each named in a complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in federal district court in Wilmington, Del.

“Corporate officials bear important responsibility for ensuring that corporate filings provide the investing public with accurate information about the company’s financial condition,” Andrew M. Calamari, director of the SEC’s New York regional office, said in a statement. "We allege these defendants doctored a key financial metric to make it appear to investors that the bank was financially sound, when the reality was quite the contrary."

In a Wednesday release, the SEC alleged that Gibson, Rakowski and North omitted approximately $351 million of matured loans 90 days or more past due from Wilmington Trust’s disclosures in the third quarter of 2009, and disclosed only $38.7 million of such loans. In the fourth quarter of 2009, all four officers allegedly omitted approximately $330 million, so that the bank’s annual report disclosed just $30.6 million in matured loans 90 days or more past due.

In addition, the SEC’s complaint alleged that Gibson, Rakowski and North schemed to misreport the same category of past due loans in the first half of 2010. Gibson is also alleged to have understated the amount of non-accruing loans in the bank’s portfolio in the third quarter of 2009 and the bank’s loan loss provision and allowance for loan losses in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The SEC charged Gibson, Harra, Rakowski and North with violating or aiding and abetting violations of the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws. The four men were also charged with aiding and abetting violations of the reporting, record-keeping and internal controls provision of federal securities laws. 

The SEC said it will seek to have all four return allegedly ill-gotten gains with interest and pay civil monetary penalties, and wants to have Gibson and Harra barred from serving as corporate officers or directors.

In addition, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware also announced charges against Rakowski and North on Wednesday in a related action.