Credit Services and Intermediation

Bank of America Slammed With Federal Lawsuit For "Doing the [Mortgage Fraud] Hustle"

In more long-awaited fallout from the mortgage crisis, Federal prosecutors today sued the Bank of America and Countrywide Financial for a scheme to defraud the government via a program called "The Hustle." Yes, they called it "The Hustle." Its purpose: allegedly to process home loans at high speed ... More >>

Putting A Face On Americans One Step Away From Foreclosures

Foreclosures rates are rising--and will continue to rise--across the US, and for the past few weeks, The Voice has been visiting homes that are about to, or have been, sold at foreclosure auctions, in an effort to put a face on the crisis and allow them to tell their story. A recent project by New ... More >>

Wanted: Brooklyn Bank Robber

​A bank robber has recently hit two Capital One branches in Brooklyn, and cops want your help finding him. The New York Police Department says the suspected perp (pictured here), walked into the Williamsburg bank, at 185 Broadway, around 5:41 p.m. on Dec. 29. He demanded cash and then fled o ... More >>

CIA Connection in Libya?; Tropical Storm Lee to Hit Gulf Coast; Government Sues Banks

​Documents tying the CIA to the Qaddafi-led Libyan government were found in an abandoned office in Tripoli, the New York Times reports. The findings, which have not been verified for authenticity, allude to the practice of the American intelligence agency handing over terror suspects to the Li ... More >>

Huge Email Hack Reveals Customer Info From Target, JP Morgan and 50 More Big Brands

​The digital marketing firm Epsilon told its clients on Friday of "an unauthorized entry into Epsilon's email system," insisting it "was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only" and that no other information was at risk, but it's only now becoming clear just how widespread the ha ... More >>

Foreclosure Documents Now Have To Be Sort of Accurate

On the heels of recent disclosures that mortgage lenders have been using "robo-signers" to foreclose on homes without sufficient information, New York is instating a requirement that is meant to add a layer of accountability in the flawed system. Lawyers representing banks or mortgage lenders will h ... More >>

12th-Graders Handle the Money in Harlem

​Students at Harlem's Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change just got some after school job opportunities handed to them. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Capital One Bank branch on the school's campus was held this morning, the third branch in the tri-state area to b ... More >>

Serve This! Debt-Ridden New Yorkers May Actually Catch a Break

People who hunt down New Yorkers are finally being served papers themselves. Process servers — and by extension the debt collectors who hire them — face new restrictions and requirements after a City Council vote last week and an expected signing into law by Mayor Mike Bloomberg. For ba ... More >>

Feds plan to battle foreclosure crisis with social awkwardness

​Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly announced Saturday that the Obama administration plans to step up their efforts to pressure mortgage companies receiving government bailout funds to modify loans and keep homeowners from defaulting. Along with slowing payments to uncooperative mortgage lender ... More >>

We've Bailed out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind our Financial Collapse?

41 Arrested in Mortgage Fraud Sweep

Forty-one people in the New York area were arrested today, charged by U.S. Attorneys in connection with mortgage fraud schemes totaling $64 million dollars -- one of the biggest such sweeps ever. The alleged scam artists profited off the housing crisis by running fraudulent foreclosure rescue oper ... More >>

Have You Seen... University Place Bank Robber

​Someone robbed the Capital One Bank at University Place and East 8th Street on Saturday around 10 a.m. Here's a surveillance photo of the schnook, with his cell out, like he has to tell his mom why he's not home for breakfast. He's thought to be between 25 and 35 years old, 5'6", and between ... More >>

Fannie Mae Auction of Screwed S. Bronxites' Apartments Cancelled

Foreclosed apartments in 19 South Bronx buildings that were going to be sold off in an online auction next week were saved today. The city announced that Fannie Mae canceled the auction. Financed by Deutshe Bank, the Ocelot Capital Group -- a real estate firm that was started by wealthy Wall Stree ... More >>

An Unlikely Rescuer from the Jaws of Debt

Gov, Cuomo Tell Debt Collectors: Quit Calling and Send US Money

Have you gotten behind on bills, and find debt collectors calling you every few hours? Albany, which has undoubtedly noticed many voters are in the same boat, offers a bit of relief. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been dishing out subpoenas to companies that do illegal, harassment-grade debt col ... More >>

As D.C. Cuts Their Power, Card Companies Psych Customers into Paying

The poor credit card companies! All those newly-destitute customers are defaulting on their debts, forcing companies like Advanta out of lending altogether. And the Senate is speeding ahead with legislation to restrict their power to jack up rates whenever someone sneezes. Fortunately they still h ... More >>

Freddie Mac CFO Found Dead; Wife Says Suicide

Trilateral Commission Alert! David Kellermann, Acting Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of the troubled mortgage lender Freddie Mac, has been found dead in his home. His wife is said to have reported him a suicide. Previously the company's Principal Accounting Officer, the 41-year-ol ... More >>

Trillion-Plus Fed Investment Raises Dow About 90 Points

The Street sorta liked the Federal Reserve's idea to invest over $1,000,000,000,000 of your money into your economy, which sounds like a wash but still makes us feel as if we've been gypped. $300 billion will go to buy T-bonds -- which news quickly drove demand up and yields down. The Fed will also ... More >>

Debt Collectors Rise to New Yorkers' #1 Nuisance, Says Consumer Affairs

New Yorkers complained more about shady debt collectors than about any other shady business last year, says the city's Department of Consumer Affairs. The agency published its annual ranking of top consumer complaints today, and consumer debt collection fraud complaints topped the list for the first ... More >>

Debt Buyers*, Unlicensed and Unregulated, Thrive in NYC

In this economic crisis, there's no shortage of people who thrive by taking advantage of other people's misfortunes. At a City Council hearing held last Wednesday, lawmakers and citizens lambasted the unlicensed debt collection agencies that collectively filed 300,000 collection cases in New York Ci ... More >>

Obama's Billions: $75B for Housing Market

The new, transparent White House sends out the text of speeches ahead of time, so we don't have to watch the President announce in Phoenix this afternoon that he'll ask Congress for up to $75 billion to bail out the housing market. First, they'll remove existing restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddi ... More >>

Gary Ackerman's phony bluster: He and Congress pals deserve blame; his own district hard hit by Bernie Madoff

It's time to stop pinning the "news" tag on Gary Ackerman's angry outburst at the SEC yesterday for not stopping Bernie Madoff. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the House hearing, yes. But while the New York Democrat yelled at the SEC, whistleblower Harry Markopolos spoke more softly but cut d ... More >>

Obama Caps Compensation at TARP Companies at $500,000

Bad news for high rollers: the President says he and his Treasury Secretary agree that companies receiving TARP funds from the Feds will be instructed to cap executive compensation at half a million dollars. That's half a million per exec, not half a million total. Obama had previously expressed ... More >>

What Cooked the World's Economy?

It wasn't your overdue mortgage.

FDIC Sells IndyMac, Will Share Losses

The FDIC's work on IndyMac, which it seized in July, has not been in vain! Today it announced that it will sell the troubled lender to IMB HoldCo LLC, a consortium including honchos of Paulson & Co, Dune Capital, and other financial companies, and buyout specialist J. Christopher Flowers. Former Mer ... More >>

Credit Crisis: The Story So Far

McCain Campaign: NY Times Not a News Organization

Mayor On MTP: Taxes to Preserve Our "Future"

Daily Flog: The Dow of panic; stocks and bondage; U.S. snatches gold

Daily Flog: Wall Street's broken brokers go for broke; McCain's lie is buried by meltdown news

Daily Flog: 'No one convicted!'; nationwide search for Obama's mojo; McCain wallows in blood of Christ

Daily Flog: Bailing out the planet's investors; a swift boot to Olbermann

State's Subprime Bill Leaves Borrowers Bamboozled, Broke

Daily Flog: Crime, kvetching, corporate looting --and tanks for nothing, 'Times'

Daily Flog 8/7/08: Hamdan acquitted but papers dance around it; the best anthrax stories; Mary-Kate isn't talking; there's a war in Afghanistan

Andrew Cuomo and Fannie and Freddie

How the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history gave birth to the mortgage crisis

More People I Hate. . .

The State Of the Union Ignores the State of Sub-prime

'Weekend at Bernie's' Check Scam Foiled

Quantifying the Taxi Strike's Effect

Wolfowitz at Work: The Blind Leading the Blind

Wolfowitz Leaves Pentagon Without Causing Further Casualties

Loan Wolves

Congress Preys on Local Subprime-Lending Protections

From the Subprime to the Ridiculous

Mayoral Candidates Huff and Puff on Predatory Lending

Nation

Let Us Prey

One Church in the HUD Rehab-Loan Scandal Says It Was a Lamb Led to the Slaughter

Seduced and Abandoned

What HUD Knew—and Didn’t Do—About the Mortgage-Loan Scandal

In the Land of Milk and Money

Lazio Has Made Mortgages Pay Off Big Time for His Campaign

Dam Shame

Activists Target Global Financiers of Chinese Eco Disaster