Power: It’s Not Easy Being the Greens

Marla Green decided to get into the family business in 2003. Her goal, insiders say, was to make Firstrust the sort of bank her friends would use. “It was all about setting it up for the next generation,” explains a former business associate. It was then that she began working with Jim DiDio, a 50-year-old Bucks County resident who had started working at First Federal in the 1970s, in the mailroom.

“When he would talk to some women, they would just melt near him,” says an individual familiar with the charming DiDio from the Council Rock school board, on which he has served.

Meanwhile, Marla marketed the bank’s name at charity functions, and at benefits for charitable organizations like the Variety Club and City Year. The bank sponsored the Devon Horse Show, and put on a lavish reception to honor its board chair, Leonard King, with a Firstrust volunteer of the year award. When Marla became friendly with Patti LaBelle, the bank sponsored the entertainer’s LaBelle Community Football League. Her efforts were not universally appreciated; some saw the Horse Show sponsorship as out of sync with the bank’s niche of small-business owners.

But by 2004, the Greens had bigger problems. Their marriage was in trouble. Though the details are sealed in court records, a recent filing by Marla in Richard’s civil suit against her claims that she discovered her husband “had long been involved in liaisons, including sexual liaisons, outside of the marriage,” with what her lawyer floridly terms “tarts” and “strumpets.” She claims in court documents that the two agreed to stay married for the sake of their family and the bank’s public image. In April 2004, they decided to separate. Still, they continued to live together.

Around that time, Firstrust explored the possibility of offering wealth management services, to attract tony clients like the Greens’ friends. A private banking and wealth management firm called Legacy Capital LLC was conceived. In late June 2004, Richard sent his staff an e-mail thanking Marla for her “hard work, insights and dedication,” and “welcoming her to a new role” at Legacy.  

The possibility remained that Legacy would become a friendly partner to Firstrust, since wealth managers that aren’t banks themselves still need banking services for their clients.

By then, according to Richard’s court filings, Marla and DiDio were in the throes of their own business-love venture.

“My world has become centered around you,” Marla wrote to DiDio, whom she’d nicknamed “Gadget Boy,” in a June 5, 2004, e-mail that Richard filed in Montgomery County court. “We can still be lovers without the business ties, but I love working with you because you are perfect for me. Pretty special to be perfect for me personally and professionally. I am truely [sic] blessed.”

Richard claims in court that Marla “intentionally and fraudulently concealed” her relationship with DiDio. Marla counters that her husband knew she was dating DiDio. In a court filing, she says she and her husband even communicated about it in writing.