Alan Levan returns as BBX chairman and CEO

Alan B. Levan got his old job back as chairman and chief executive officer of Fort Lauderdale-based BBX Capital Corp. after stepping down in December 2015.

His reappointment by the company’s directors as chairman and CEO follows a successful appeal of a 2014 judgment by a federal district court against BBX and Levan.

His son Jarret S. Levan, who had been acting chairman and CEO of BBX, will continue to serve as president of the company.

In reversing the district court’s judgment late last year, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals also reversed monetary penalties of $4.55 million that the district court imposed against publicly held BBX and $1.3 million against Levan.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which had initiated the case against Levan and BankAtantic, also sought to bar Levan from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

A jury trial in the district court ended in 2014 with a verdict that Levan and the corporate predecessor of BBX, an FDIC-insured bank called BankAtlantic, made fraudulent statements in 2007 about the bank’s loan losses.

BankAtlantic sold its network of bank offices and other assets in 2012  to regional bank holding company BB&T, and its remaining assets, including real estate holdings, are now owned by BBX.

“It is truly unbelievable that the enforcement division of the SEC sued us for securities violations it claimed arose during 2007,” Levan said in a prepared statement released last week.”We did not participate in the reckless lending and investment decisions that ballooned the housing market and led to the market collapse when the bubble burst. BankAtlantic did not make subprime loans, did not need or take federal bailout funds, and always met its capital obligations.”