Daniel Chu and Origin Bank: director of a Tricolor lender

analysisOrigin Bancorp's stockholders elected Chu a director at the annual meeting of April 27, 2022. Its 2024 proxy statement lists him as an independent director since 2022 on the compensation and the nominating and corporate governance committees, paid $46,000 in cash and $40,025 in stock awards ($86,025) for 2023, one of two directors who attended fewer than 75% of board and committee meetings that year, and holding 2,469 shares on February 23, 2024. The SEC complaint states that during the period of its complaint Chu was also a director of Origin Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: OBK) and of its wholly owned subsidiary Origin Bank, and that he resigned those positions in September 2025, around the time Tricolor filed for bankruptcy; Origin reported that he resigned from both boards with immediate effect on September 7, 2025 with no disagreements. The indictment says Chu sat on the board of the bank it calls "Lender-1" but does not name that bank, and this dossier does not match it to Origin Bank. ^{1 2 3 4}

analysisThe same proxy statement lists BlackRock, Inc. as holding 2,459,491 Origin shares (7.9%) at December 31, 2023, based on its Schedule 13G/A of January 26, 2024, and reports about $71.1 million of loans outstanding and $13.5 million of unfunded commitments at that date to directors and officers, their immediate families and affiliates, none of them nonaccrual, past due or restructured. The proxy does not name the related-party borrowers or say whether Tricolor's loans were among them, and no record links BlackRock's Origin shareholding to its investment in Tricolor. ²

analysisOrigin Bancorp reported in September 2025 that Origin Bank had total loan commitments to Tricolor Holdings, LLC of about $30.1 million, secured primarily by notes receivable rather than by vehicles or warehouse collateral; the filing does not say whose notes receivable were pledged. The loans were performing, but the bank placed them on non-accrual after the Chapter 7 filing of September 10, 2025 and said it was evaluating the status and valuation of the collateral. It recorded net charge-offs of $28.4 million on the relationship in the third quarter of 2025, citing suspected borrower fraud, and $29.5 million for the full year, with a $29.6 million increase in provisions, and said the Tricolor fraud cut its diluted earnings per share of $2.40 by $0.77. The relationship was charged off in 2025 and the bank said it was pursuing all possible recovery outcomes; the annual report mentions no recoveries. ^{1 2 3}

analysisA real-estate news report of March 2026 said that Chu bought a home in Beverly Hills for $2.7 million in August 2025, days before the bankruptcy, with $2.1 million of financing from Origin Bank, according to legal documents; the SEC gives the price as $2.65 million. The trustee's adversary complaint, which the report also cites on Chu's other properties, is not retained, and its allegations have not been adjudicated, the proceeding being stayed. ^{1 2}