Still, Camner shrugged off warnings about the loan portfolio's risks, repeatedly insisting the bank followed conservative underwriting standards.

In a January 2008 conference call with Wall Street analysts, for instance, Camner stressed the bank wasn't like others that were getting into hot water, because it didn't make subprime loans, it didn't piggyback second mortgages along with first mortgages, and its loans were based on whether customers could afford the full monthly amounts, not the optional minimums.

But a recent federal class-action lawsuit filed by BankUnited shareholders, based in part on interviews with former employees, paints a picture of a bank that was anything but conservative. The suit accuses executives of engaging in reckless lending with shoddy underwriting and says the company made ''false and misleading statements'' -- reporting big profits long after loan problems started to surface and failing to set aside enough reserves for the tsunami that was coming.

The company, however, blames the market. ''The bank was brought down by adverse conditions in the residential market that affected the entire banking system,'' said C. Thomas Tew, BankUnited's attorney. ``Some banks got bailouts. We didn't.''

A net loss of $25.5 million in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, 2007 was eclipsed by a $65.8 million loss in the March 2008 quarter and a $117.7 million loss for the next one. After that, with so much uncertainty about its financial condition, BankUnited quit reporting earnings altogether.

In June 2008, BankUnited tried to raise $400 million in a public stock offering, but it flopped. The financial markets were collapsing all around. Camner's super-voting rights, which left public shareholders impotent, made the stock even less attractive. After the failed offering, Camner agreed to put his stock on equal footing with the class A shares that traded publicly.

By then the company was too deep in the hole to attract investors. A parade of investors and private-equity firms peaked under the hood, but no one could make the numbers work without government aid.

CEASE AND DESIST

In September, the Office of Thrift Supervision, which had been steadily stepping up pressure on the company amid alarm at its downward spiral, imposed a cease and desist order, sharply restricting BankUnited's lending and operations. But by then, the bank had already made enough option-ARM loans to sink the Titanic.

The same month, a BankUnited shareholder filed a federal class-action lawsuit, since amended, alleging investors weren't warned about its risky loan portfolio and ``sketchy appraisal process.''

Soon afterward, the SEC's Miami office cranked up an informal inquiry into BankUnited's troubled loan portfolio and other matters.

Efforts to raise capital weren't going well either. Other banks that had bet big on option ARMs were similarly in a death spiral.

By October 2008, several BankUnited board members decided Camner had to go, according to people close to the situation. Faced with his ouster from a once-compliant board, he negotiated a retirement agreement and bowed out Oct. 20.

The retirement pact amounted to a pittance compared to his golden parachute, which was barred by the federal cease and desist order. Still, it called for one year of compensation and cash for his restricted stock. BankUnited agreed to give Camner the honorary title of ''chairman emeritus.'' He and the company agreed in writing to refrain from saying anything disparaging about each other.

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