Countrywide whistleblower reveals rampant mortgage fraud part of ‘everyday business’
Source: Raw Story
Countrywide Financial was one of the subprime lenders at the heart of the financial crisis; its predatory lending practices resulted in disgustingly large payouts for executives while sticking low-income borrowers with explosive mortgages they hadnt a hope of paying back. The New York Times Gretchen Morgenson called Countrywide, Exhibit A for the lax and, until recently, highly lucrative lending that has turned a once-hot business ice cold and has touched off a housing crisis of historic proportions.
Eileen Foster was an investigator in charge of Fraud Risk Management at Countrywide when the ticking time bomb of its bad loans detonated. The practices she discovered shocked her and have also shocked those whove heard her storyincluding the producers of 60 Minutes, who asked her on the program last December to discuss the lack of prosecutions of any of the bankers responsible for the crisis. But instead of cleaning house and admitting guilt, Bank of Americawhich purchased Countrywide as the financial crisis grew, in what the Wall Street Journal calls one of the worst deals ever struck in corporate Americadrove Foster out and tried to discredit her findings.
In 2011, the Department of Labor ruled that Foster had been illegally fired. It said that her firing was retaliation for her whistle-blowing and ordered that she be reinstated and paid compensation. There have still been no prosecutions, and no officials have asked to hear Fosters storyso shes taking it public. Earlier this year, she was honored with a Ridenhour prize for truth-telling from the Nation Institute and the Fertel Foundation, and this week she spoke with AlterNet in an exclusive interview discussing what she saw at Countrywideand what happened to her as a result.
Rampant Fraud
This is a mountain that people think is a molehill, Foster told AlterNet. As far as this type of financial crime, things are far worse than I would have ever imagined. In my furthest imagination I would have been challenged to come up with the things I have seen play out.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/21/countrywide-whistleblower-reveals-rampant-mortgage-fraud-part-of-everyday-business/
bluedigger
(17,090 posts)How about "confirms"?
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Po_d Mainiac
(4,183 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)It would distract him from keeping America safe from Medical Marijuana Users
and the dirty OWS protesters.
PRIORITIES, People!!!
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)It would probably distract him from walking guns to Mexico too...
DCKit
(18,541 posts)If the DOJ were the least bit interested, just that group could keep them busy for a decade.
Yeah, I'm talking about YOU Chris Dodd.