Taxi Drivers Attend Board Meeting Saying the NCUA 'Sold Us Out Today'

The NCUA could not give a New York taxi medallion task force more time to prepare a plan to purchase troubled loans without risking a deal that already was on the table, board member J. Mark McWatters told taxi drivers Thursday.

Speaking at a board meeting attended by dozens of drivers, the three NCUA board members tried to assure the drivers that Marblegate Asset Management LLC, which purchased thousands of loans this week, would work with drivers to renegotiate loan terms.

But the drivers said they remain skeptical of that assurance.

“I think it’s a lot of BS,” Homero Sanadres, an owner-driver, said. “I don’t think that they could get that in writing.”

He added that Marblegate “is in it to make money.”

The NCUA announced Wednesday evening that it had sold thousands of taxi loans to Marblegate, rejecting a request from New York City officials, House members, CUNA and the drivers to delay a sale in order to give city officials time to cobble together a public-private partnership that would purchase the loans.

A New York City Council Taxi Medallion Task Force recently asked the NCUA to give it time to form a public-private partnership that could purchase the loans and renegotiate the terms so that taxi drivers would not be required to pay more than $900 a month.

McWatters said the NCUA has been working with advisors over an 18-month period in an effort to find a purchaser for the loans that the agency had as a result of the failure of two large credit unions, Melrose and LOMTO Federal.

He said the agency was on the verge of signing a deal when the task force issued its report and recommendations.

Senior agency staff then traveled to New York to meet with task force officials.

“Unfortunately, at the time you were not able to fund the acquisition,” McWatters said, adding that agency officials felt an obligation to accept the Marblegate offer because they had a responsibility to preserve the agency Share Insurance Fund.

“It seemed inappropriate not to accept the deal,” he said.

Board member Todd Harper said he preferred the public-private partnership, and that he would be watching carefully to ensure that all consumer protection requirements are followed.

Chairman Rodney Hood said the agency had rejected some bidders because they would not give that assurance.

Drivers clearly were not satisfied, as one threw agency handouts on the floor as he exited the meeting room.

“They basically sold us out today,” Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance said.

She accused agency officials of issuing a gag order by sending many drivers to an overflow room and by confiscating posters they brought to the meeting.

She said that board members refused to talk with the drivers after the meeting.

The board immediately went into closed session following the meeting, so the meeting room was cleared.

She said that her organization will seek to talk with Marblegate about renegotiating the terms of the loans, but that those talks may not succeed.

“By selling these loans early, the NCUA undermined our leverage,” she said.

Driver Julio Sibri said his loan already has been sold to another company and that the company is preparing to auction it off since he cannot afford his loan payment.

He said he fears that drivers whose loans were purchased by Marblegate will suffer a similar fate.

“They want all of my money,” he said. “The same thing is going to happen now.”