All week long, officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. watched with growing dismay as a YouTube video ricocheted around the Internet. In four minutes, 26 seconds, the clip asserted that the agency's sale last year of the assets of the failed bank IndyMac to a group of private investors was a sweetheart deal. Finally, FDIC officials decided they had had enough. 'It is unfortunate but necessary to respond to blatantly false claims in a Web video that is being circulated' about the creation of OneWest Bank out of the assets of IndyMac, the agency's chief spokesman, Andrew Gray, said in a written statement late Friday. In the statement, he went on to say that the video 'has no credibility' and was replete with 'falsehoods.' Gray expressed particular alarm about the video's claim that 'the FDIC just announced it needs to start borrowing money from the Treasury.' Nonsense, Gray retorted: 'We continue to be funded by the banking industry through assessments, not by taxpayers as claimed in the video.' The FDIC has not borrowed from the Treasury since 1992, but officials have said it might have to do so, as a last resort, because bank failures have caused losses to its insurance fund. The unusual statement by the FDIC was not only an effort at rumor control and a nod to the power of online media but also a defense of the agency at a time when Congress is contemplating a broad overhaul of financial regulations. It was also the latest episode in the tangled afterlife of IndyMac Bancorp, which the government seized after a run on the bank in July 2008, in one of the largest bank failures ever. IndyMac, based in Pasadena, Calif., specialized in so-called alt-A mortgages, which allowed borrowers with good credit to take out loans without having to fully document their income and assets. The loans were rated a rung above subprime mortgages. Last March, the FDIC sold IndyMac's assets for $13.9 billion to a consortium of investors led by Steven T. Mnuchin. Other members of the OneWest consortium included firms run or founded by the financiers J. Christopher Flowers, Stephen Friedman, Robert L. Leeds and John A. Paulson. Those men are alumni of Goldman Sachs -- a fact emphasized by the video. It insinuates that favoritism played a role in the FDIC's choice of buyers. 'Whoever said it's good to have friends in high places wasn't kidding around,' the video states. The FDIC says that OneWest was selected over rival bidders through a competitive process. The video was produced by Think Big Work Small of Fairfield, Calif., a provider of online video marketing services for mortgage loan officers and real estate agents. The president of the company, Bill Hillestad, said it made the video because 'a housing recovery is impossible as long as there are these artificial forces dragging down home prices.' He said the FDIC's statement did nothing to reassure him. 'They've created a huge, sweetheart deal for OneWest -- in which OneWest has every incentive to go out and sell homes way below market value,' he said. The video's criticism centers on the FDIC's agreement to share in future losses OneWest might experience as a result of defaults among the loans it bought. The FDIC began using so-called loss sharing in 1991, as part of its response to the savings-and-loan crisis. Officials say the program makes it easier to sell troubled assets without having to offer enormous liquidity and risk discounts. Loss sharing also prevents the FDIC from having to hire staff to manage the loans of failed banks, said Andrew C. Hove Jr., who was deputy chairman of the FDIC from 1990 to 2001. 'When it all washes out, the cost to the FDIC, and consequently to the banks that pay the premiums, is less than if the FDIC took the loans and worked the loans themselves,' he said. Even so, the video suggested that loss sharing could put taxpayers on the hook for future losses -- a claim the FDIC hotly disputes. 'Here are the facts: OneWest has not been paid one penny by the FDIC in loss-share claims,' Gray said in his statement. 'The loss-share agreement is limited to 7 percent of the total assets that OneWest services, and OneWest must first take more than $2.5 billion in losses before it can make a loss-share claim on owned assets.' Under the terms of the sale, OneWest must negotiate loan modifications with homeowners if the recovery on the loan is determined to be higher than the recovery from a short sale or foreclosure. And loss-share coverage 'cannot be factored' into that determination, the FDIC says. But OneWest has, in fact, been accused in some cases of doing all it can to avoid modifications, which involve reducing the interest rate, extending the loan term or forgiving part of the principal amount owed. A judge in Riverhead, N.Y., went so far as to cancel a Long Island couple's loan obligation in November, saying OneWest had failed to cooperate in efforts to avoid foreclosure and calling the bank's actions 'harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive.' The video picks up this theme, stating, 'The next time you ask yourself why is it so hard to get a loan modification, the answer is because there's too much money to be made with short sales and foreclosures.' The FDIC has been sensitive to such criticism. Last September, the agency's chairwoman, Sheila C. Bair, urged its loss-share partners to 'consider' temporary forbearance plans for loans in which the primary cause for default is unemployment, or underemployment, on the part of the homeowner. OneWest announced in late December that it would suspend foreclosure and eviction proceedings over the holidays, and create a $10 million charity to support community development. The bank declined to comment for this article. Whatever the accuracy of the video's claims, its impact has been felt. 'A friend who had seen it sent it to me and wanted my reaction to it,' said Hove, the former deputy chairman, who is now retired in Lincoln, Neb. 'They really have a lot of inaccuracies in this video.' 