Bala Cynwyd

State and federal regulators Friday closed Allegiance Bank of North America, of Bala Cynwyd, making it the first bank in Pennsylvania to fail this year and the second in the region. The Pennsylvania Department of Banking has appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver. The FDIC has, in turn, entered into an agreement with VIST Bank, of Wyomissing, to assume Allegiance Bank's $92 million in deposits and virtually all of its $106.6 million in assets. VIST Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.50 percent to assume all of the deposits of Allegiance Bank, according to FDIC spokesman David Barr.

The owner of an athletic club and rehab facility in Hatfield admitted his guilt yesterday in federal court in connection with a scheme to bilk Independence Blue Cross out of $1.9 million. Mark Levin, 64, of Bala Cynwyd, who pleaded guilty to one count of health-care fraud, is to be sentenced in September. He could face up to 24 months behind bars under advisory sentencing guidelines. Authorities said Levin and Michael Karp owned Hatfield Athletic Club and Rehab One, a rehab facility inside the club.

To Joe Watkins, it's no surprise that three Bala Cynwyd businessmen he knows would bet a lot of money on the long-shot gubernatorial campaign of a Democratic state senator from Philadelphia. Watkins recalls attending a charity fund-raiser in Fairmount Park a year or so ago where the senator, Anthony Hardy Williams, spoke passionately about a favorite issue: education reform and school choice. One of the businessmen was there, Watkins said, and he left no doubt that he and his partners shared Williams' views.

Three Bala Cynwyd investment moguls who say they share State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams' passion for charter schools and education reform have given his gubernatorial campaign as much as $1.5 million. The eye-popping amount, given through political action committees that support charter schools and school choice, elevates Williams to a legitimate contender for the state's top office and could make school choice a major issue in the election. The money came from Jeff Greenberg, Arthur Dantchik, and Jeff Yass, managing directors and three of six founders of the Susquehanna International Group, a Bala Cynwyd investment firm formed by college friends in 1987, according to its Web site.

When Mantria Corp., of Bala Cynwyd, solicited investors for environmental projects, it told them their money was backed by land in Tennessee that was worth twice their investments. It turns out some of the land, supposedly destined for lucrative residential developments, has serious water-contamination problems from strip mining, making it difficult to develop, according to the mayor of Van Buren County, where three of Mantria's housing projects are. This was among the stories gathered by Securities and Exchange Commission officials and filed this week in federal court in Colorado to support their request for a preliminary injunction freezing the assets of Mantria's cofounders, Philadelphians Troy B. Wragg and Amanda E. Knorr, and their codefendants.

On leisurely walks through West Laurel Hill Cemetery, George Frank and his wife, Carole, never saw on a headstone a name that sounded Jewish. The couple, who live within blocks of the cemetery, figured the memorial park was a place where only Christians found eternal rest. As Jews, the Franks did not see themselves reflected in the granite monuments they passed. That image of exclusivity has continued to haunt West Laurel Hill despite its nonsectarian roots and openness, said Pete Hoskins, the cemetery's chief executive officer and president.

Jason Wu's life definitely changed when Michelle Obama showed up in his one-shouldered, snow-white inaugural ballgown complete with shimmer and over-the-top embellishments. In fact, the 26-year-old has reached household-name status. And not many designers other than Oscar de la Renta, Kenneth Cole, and Donna Karan know that kind of brand recognition. In the fashion industry, that's priceless. "I was in London recently and people recognized me," the designer said yesterday morning, surrounded by local matrons wearing Wu. "I was in Asia and people recognized me. This is amazing for the brand.

James J. Maguire had his first success in insurance by using sign language to sell life insurance to deaf people in the late 1950s. Now, he is selling what he built into a publicly traded insurance company in Bala Cynwyd to a Japanese insurance giant for $4.4 billion in cash, one of the largest deals ever by a Japanese buyer in the United States, according to Standard & Poor's. Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. said yesterday that it would pay $61.50 per share for Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp.

The handsome movie star stands by the apartment window without a shirt, in Diana Holquist's award-winning romance novel. The shy seamstress encircles his waist with a measuring tape. Her heart is beating so fast she can't focus. His is, too. "She smelled like roses and Ivory soap," reads the passage in Sexiest Man Alive. "Her closeness thrilled him no matter how much he tried to fight off the sensation. " Will the seamstress conquer her shyness? Will the movie star win her love?

LOUISA IS TOO embarrassed for me to use her real name. Like many victims of con artists, she is ashamed of being stupid and greedy, when she is really neither. Louisa - scalpel-sharp at 73, after a long career as a medical secretary and administrative assistant - was worked over by two fast-talking pros. In the early afternoon two weeks ago, as Louisa was piling groceries in her car outside the Acme in Bala Cynwyd, she was approached by a 40ish African-American woman in smart business attire holding a black clutch bag. Diana, she said her name was. Diana said she had found the handbag and asked Louisa if it was hers.