Tag: fraud

I’m Not The Only One Who Believes The Banks Don’t Have The Documents.

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime3 Comments

William K. Black and L. Randall Wray call for putting the Bank of America into receivership!

How about that! Seize the bank and the government go through their books to find out what’s really going on. That’ll stand some CEO’s hair on end. It might get their attention. I’d like to see that.

I’ve talked for the last several days about my suspicion now hardening into belief that the banks do not have proof of ownership tens of thousands of foreclosures. I am not the only one who believes that.

Read –

Nothing short of removing all senior officers who directed, committed, or acquiesced in fraud can be effective against control fraud. We repeat: Foreclosure fraud is the necessary outcome of the epidemic of mortgage fraud that began early this decade. The banks that are foreclosing on fraudulently originated mortgages frequently cannot produce legitimate documents and have committed “fraud in the inducement.” Now, only fraud will let them take the homes. Many of the required documents do not exist, and those that do exist would provide proof of the fraud that was involved in loan origination, securitization, and marketing. This in turn would allow investors to force the banks to buy-back the fraudulent securities. In other words, to keep the investors at bay the foreclosing banks must manufacture fake documents. If the original documents do not exist the securities might be ruled no good. If the original docs do exist they will demonstrate that proper underwriting was not done — so the securities might be no good. Foreclosure fraud is the only thing standing between the banks and Armageddon.

I can’t say it better.

James Pilant

Iraq Not Rebuilt – $Billions Wasted

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Privatization

Just wonderful! Of course, it’s not much of surprise, there were already news stories and photographs of disastrous building projects and corporate contractual malfeasance. But here we are, billions in the hole, no doubt costing American lives as the Iraqis looked around and waited for us to fulfill promises our private contractors had little intention of doing in the first place. As long as the money rolled who cared about results. Here’s the lead in from the AP report –

A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children’s hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted — more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.

That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects.

Rating Agencies Were Part Of The Disaster On Wall Street

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Rating Agencies Were Part Of The Disaster On Wall Street

If the rating agencies were key players in the financial mismanagement that destroyed eight million jobs and threatened the world’s economy, why are they not included in the financial reform bill now before the Senate? Alain Sherter wants to know why. So do I.

This is a report from “Now” – a PBS program. In this particular episode an insider from a credit rating agency explains what happened.

Here is Alain Sherter explaining more about this ratings disaster –

The ratings agencies business model is based on a flagrant conflict of interest — they’re paid by the firms whose credit they evaluate. That makes them vulnerable to pressure from investment banks and securities issuers, which naturally want a bullet-proof rating in order to attract investors.

In the years leading up to the housing bust, Moody’s, S&P and Fitch passed out AAA ratings like candy bars at Halloween. In mid-2007 and early 2008, with the real estate market in free-fall and mortgage delinquencies soaring, they suddenly started downgrading scads of formerly top-rated securities. In January of ‘08, for instance, S&P lowered ratings on more than 6,300 and 1,900 CDOs — in a single day. Then, the deluge. The bottom fell out of the secondary market for subprime loans, and the rest is history.

Without the credit rating industry giving triple A ratings to these risky investments, the tragedy that has engulfed and continues to damage the lives of so many Americans would not have been possible.

What are these people not being called on the carpet or prosecuted for conduct that seems to many observers to look very similar to fraud?

James Pilant