BankUnited backdated capital in 2008: source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BankUnited FSB, a troubled Florida lender seized and shut down by regulators, backdated capital contributions in 2008 with the approval of a top U.S. government official, a Democratic congressional aide familiar with investigations of the matter told Reuters on Friday.

BankUnited, a unit of BankUnited Financial Corp, was the unnamed "Thrift 1" cited in a report on Thursday from the U.S. Treasury Department's inspector general, the aide said.

The report charged that senior regulators at the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), a unit of the Treasury Department, knew about and in some cases condoned thrifts inappropriately backdating capital contributions, which allowed them to make their financial books look healthier.

"In the case of Thrift 1, the OTS senior deputy director directed the regional office to instruct the thrift to infuse capital and backdate the transaction," the report said, citing documents provided to the inspector general by OTS.

The Coral Gables, Florida-based thrift recorded an August 2008 contribution by its holding company as thrift capital for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, the report said.

In March, OTS Director Scott Polakoff was placed on administrative leave pending a review of capital backdating allegations. Polakoff was senior deputy director before becoming OTS acting director in February.

Regulators have seized BankUnited. It is being sold to a group of private equity firms including WL Ross & Co, Carlyle Group, Blackstone Group and Centerbridge Partners. The firms are putting up $900 million of capital to rescue the bank, the biggest independent bank in Florida.

The failure is the largest this year, and will cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp an estimated $4.9 billion.

Bank failures have accelerated in 2009. The 34 bank seizures so far compare to 25 in 2008 and just 3 in 2007.

Representative Dennis Moore, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said on Thursday he was "deeply troubled" by the findings of the inspector general's report.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh and Karey Wutkowski, with Dan Wilchins in New York)