Ahead of the recession, Fort Lauderdale-based BankAtlantic was a place where employees feared disagreeing with longtime leader Alan Levan — and investors suffered as a result, Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys argued Friday.

“This was Bank Levan,” SEC lawyer Russell Koonin told federal jurors to close the agency’s six-week trial against Levan and BBX Capital, which sold the bank in 2012. “You don’t cross Alan Levan.”