A federal grand jury indicted mortgage broker Joshua S. Goldberg today, alleging he helped steal $2.5 million from various lenders through a mortgage fraud scheme in Baltimore. City Paper first outlined the scheme in this 2008 story. As the financial crisis worsened Goldberg and his husband, Bayardo Alvarez, continued to get big mortgages and...
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A federal jury on Tuesday found the flamboyant founder and CEO of bankrupt Florida mortgage lender Taylor Bean and Whitaker guilty of fraud. Lee Farkas appears to be the first CEO convicted of a crime in the five-year-old mortgage crisis. He faces life in prison at his July sentencing. Farkas, a college dropout, founded...
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So the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Thursday that the cost to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, The People’s two mortgage guarantors, could top $363 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported early in the day. That’s about the cost of a year’s worth of The Most Powerful Military in the History of...
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Picture every occupied house in Baltimore city. Now picture them empty. That’s the situation we have now, all spread across the country.
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Go with the fraud and make big bux or fight & get fired, earning the right to battle for your job back in court for five or six years, with a less-than-10-percent shot at winning.
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(via Ocala Star-Banner; HT Robb Strupp) Florida-based Taylor, Bean and Whittaker, formerly the nation’s 12th-largest loan originator and servicer, has filed for bankruptcy reorganization amid new sanctions by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, the Ocala Star-Banner reports: In a news released issued Monday, TBW said it believes the investigations surrounding the closing...
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The Chief Financial Officer of Freddie Mac apparently committed suicide this morning or last night. The New York Times says there is no way to know yet whether his death is related to an ongoing investigation of Freddie’s finances. Meanwhile, Fannie and Freddie have reported a 70 percent surge in delinquencies of prime mortgages...
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Who are Fannie and Freddie?: Fannie and Freddie are private corporations implicitly (until Saturday; now explicitly) backed by the federal taxpayers. Congress chartered both companies (Fannie in 1938, Freddie in 1970) to “create liquidity” in the mortgage market. What’s Liquidity?: When you borrow $200,000 to buy a home and promise to pay that back...
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OC Alternatives Sizzlin’ Summer Calendar: Assateague Island National Seashore, North Point State Park, Rehoboth Beach, and more 5/15/2013
Real-Life Embarassing Sex Stories Feature: Submitted by City Paper readers 2/13/2013
Murder Ink Murder Ink: Murders this Week: 5; Murders this Year: 77 By Edward Ericson Jr. 5/15/2013
Crazy Horse Film: Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman puts his focus on Le Crazy Horse de Paris, the French cabaret By Lee Gardner 4/4/2012
Sizzlin’ Summer Sizzlin’ Summer: Summer in Baltimore is a sensory explosion, from the scent of Old Bay-smothered steamed crabs and the taste of marshmallow-topped chocolate snoballs to the smell of Ocean City salt water mixed with sunscreen and the vision of fireflies. 5/15/2013
How to Throw a Louisiana Style Crawfish Boil! Sizzlin’ Summer: Ordering 1. Figure out how many people you have attending. I usually do this by selling tickets for $25 each via Paypal. 2. Once you know how many people will be attending, you can figure out how many pounds of crawfish you need to order. The suggested a By Ben Claassen III 5/15/2013