🌳 Durham Energy Firm Files Bankruptcy Over $1.1B Fraud Fine
TL;DR — 3 Things to Know This Week
- M&F Bank, Durham's 119-year-old Black-owned bank, is merging with South Carolina's Optus Bank, moving the combined company's headquarters to Columbia and eventually retiring the M&F name, though CEO James Sills is staying in Durham.
- American Efficient, the downtown Durham energy firm FERC accused of a $1.1 billion fraud scheme, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy listing only $1 million to $10 million in assets.
- Water from the 1-billion-gallon Teer Quarry was set to begin flowing to Durham's Williams treatment plant Wednesday, an emergency backup expected to buy the drought-stressed city about 200 more days as reservoirs sit at historic lows.
Durham's Oldest Black-Owned Bank Is Moving to South Carolina
M&F Bank survived the Great Recession and became a magnet for deposits after 2020, and now it's merging away from the city that built it.
- The merger with Optus Bank creates the nation's largest Black-owned bank, with about $1.3 billion in assets across 10 branches in North and South Carolina, but the combined headquarters lands in Columbia, S.C., not Durham.
- Seven of the 10 combined branches are current M&F locations in North Carolina, and the M&F name stays on them for about two years before Optus replaces it.
- CEO James Sills becomes chief executive of the merged bank and told Axios he's staying in Durham, and three M&F directors join the Optus board.
Why it matters: M&F Bank was founded in 1907 as a pillar of Durham's Black Wall Street. Its name disappearing from local branches within two years marks the end of a Durham institution, even as the business itself grows.
Durham Energy Firm Files Bankruptcy Over $1.1B Fraud Fine
American Efficient owes more than a billion dollars and says it has, at most, ten million to pay it with.
- The Foster Street firm filed Chapter 11 on Saturday listing current assets of just $1 million to $10 million against FERC's $1.13 billion penalty order, its largest listed liability.
- FERC ordered the company in April to pay $722 million in civil penalties and return $410 million in profits, saying it bid energy-efficiency capacity it didn't control into regional power markets over a decade starting in 2014.
- Durham bankruptcy attorney Ed Boltz said the gap between the company's assets and FERC's demand will likely shape the case, adding he doesn't know how the company reorganizes around that amount.
- American Efficient denies wrongdoing, hasn't paid FERC, and is still fighting the ruling in federal court while three affiliated businesses tied to the same holding company were also named in the filing.
What to watch: Chapter 11 shields the company from creditors while it seeks a repayment plan, but courts rarely pierce the corporate veil to reach individual executives, so the case may hinge on whether FERC ever collects anything close to $1.1 billion.
School Board Approves Pay Scales, Leaves $19.22 Wage Fight Unresolved
Durham Public Schools Board of Education · July 21, 2026
The board approved next year's teacher and staff pay scales built on an $18.22 minimum wage, a dollar short of what Durham County already pays its lowest earners.
- A first motion to send the salary scales to finance committee for more study failed on a voice vote; the board then approved member Gabby Rivero's motion to adopt the scales as amended, committing the full $7.5 million pool to positions structured around $18.22 an hour.
- Board member Millicent Rogers pushed for a firmer commitment to $19.22, the wage floor Durham County paid its lowest-paid workers last year, but Rivero said hitting that number would require finding new money beyond what's approved. The question moves to the finance committee, tentatively set for August 19.
- CFO Jeremy Teter said the state's late budget forced DPS to build its own budget blind, and the eventual state raises, averaging 8% for teachers and a minimum 3% for classified staff, worked out to a 4.28% local impact, below the 5% DPS had budgeted.
- The board also approved parking lot paving at Southwest Elementary and a six-classroom modular expansion at Lyons Farm Elementary, which is enrolling roughly 100 students over its design capacity; boundary-adjustment talks move to a new facilities committee.
What to watch: The finance committee takes up the $19.22 wage floor on August 19, but no funding source for it has been identified yet, and Lyons Farm's overcrowding won't get modular relief until fall 2027 at the earliest.
Quick Hits
- Durham Public Schools' year-round calendar started Monday for more than 4,000 students, with Superintendent Anthony Lewis naming attendance the district's top priority after 37.3% of students were chronically absent last year. Traditional-calendar schools return Aug. 24, bringing nearly 30,000 students back.
- Water from Teer Quarry was expected to begin flowing to the Williams Water Treatment Plant on Wednesday, tapping a billion-gallon emergency supply that took 18 years to fill. Water use is down 12% against a 30% goal, and the city has logged more than 250 restriction-violation complaints.
- Durham's 410 Medical raised $12 million to expand its LifeFlow infuser, already used in more than 500 hospitals and EMS agencies to treat nearly 80,000 patients, and to fund a next-generation device set to launch in 2027.
- Duke Energy Carolinas agreed to cut its residential rate-hike request from 18% to 9.5% in a deal with state regulators, months after the original ask packed Triangle hearing rooms. The N.C. Utilities Commission still has to approve it.
- GoDurham Routes 4 and 4B move to 15-minute service from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday, starting August 22. Route 4B drops its afternoons-only limit, giving North Durham all-day buses to Duke Regional Hospital, Northern High School, and the Durham Center for Senior Life.
- NCCU enrollment climbed from 8,600 to 9,300 as Chancellor Karrie Dixon cited a clean audit and an A3 Moody's rating in her first-year review. Her next push is Research 2 status, a tier only Howard has reached among HBCUs.
Events
AfterHours: Adult Summer Camp
Thu, July 23 · Museum of Life and Science
Buju Banton
Thu, July 23 · Red Hat Amphitheater
Live Music at American Tobacco Campus Tower: Jake Richter Jazz Band
Fri, July 24 · American Tobacco Campus Tower
Still Sober: A Live Listening Experience
Fri, July 24 · Durham Central Park
Grrrlbands Showcase
Sat, July 25 · Cat's Cradle, Carrboro
Hank, Pattie and The Current
Sat, July 25 · Stanczykis Durham
Summer Concert Series with Damion Rashad
Sat, July 25 · Forest Hills Park
BELMONT - Performing 10 Years of Between You and Me
Tue, July 28 · Motorco Music Hall
Bob Dylan
Tue, July 28 · Red Hat Amphitheater
O.A.R.
Wed, July 29 · Red Hat Amphitheater
Eleni Mandell w/ Dawn Landes
Wed, July 29 · Cat's Cradle Back Room, Carrboro
CLUB XCX : CHARLI XCX + HYPERPOP NIGHT
Fri, July 31 · Motorco Music Hall
The Mavericks & Friends
Fri, July 31 · Carolina Theatre
Derek Hough
Sun, August 2 · DPAC
Real Estate
804 Lancaster St
$699,900 · 4 bed, 4 bath, 2,500 sqft
A 1920 fourplex in downtown Durham, a short walk to Duke's East Campus and ready for renovation.
1 Timbercreek Ct
$579,000 · 4 bed, 3 bath, 2,714 sqft
A classic 1989 two-story Colonial on a 0.28-acre corner lot.
210 Hico Way
$549,900 · 5 bed, 3 bath, 2,862 sqft
Five bedrooms tucked onto a heavily wooded 1.15-acre lot in Brightleaf at the Park.