Fraud at IndyMac

[harry123]

This is a must read. Here is the synopsis:

The original piece was published by Vernon Martin at the Appraiser's Forum (http://appraisersforum.com). His story is utterly fascinating, and it deserves wider distribution.

Martin was the chief commercial appraiser for Indy Mac from October 15, 2001, to when he was terminated six months later for failing to look the other way or actively engage in fraud. Most of the details below are culled from the public record of his wrongful termination litigation, which was eventually settled in Martin's favor.

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/07/appraisers-wows.html

[Warpy]

1. Indy Mac was set up to be the dumping ground

for all the funny jumbo mortgages Countrywide and others (Countrywide being the main player) were extending as liar loans in California.

IndyMac then marketed the bad paper to hedge funds, who turned around and marketed it to institutional investors of all types.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae generally didn't deal in jumbo loans, those over $450,000. They also didn't deal in creative financing like balloon payment mortgages. Indy Mac did.

This was an institution deliberately set up to legitimize fraud and spread the pain beyond the main players, IMO.

[flashl]

2. At which point in his and others stories who came forward you said, "create a fingerprint database"

to solve this problem?

Our fearless leaders did.

Housing bailout bill creates national fingerprint registry

Now it may be time to add privacy advocates to the chorus of voices urging President Bush to veto the bill, which could put taxpayers on the hook for billions of bailout dollars in new taxes or deficit spending.

Buried in the text of the revised legislation, approved by the Senate Banking Committee by a 19-2 vote this week, is a plan to create a new national fingerprint registry. It covers just about everyone involved in the mortgage business, including lenders, "loan originators," and some real estate agents.

[Hydra]

3. This was a great article, thank you for posting

And welcome to DU! Enjoy your stay.