High profile mortgage industry lawsuits will continue for some time and I’ll continue covering them. Here are three lesser known suits that have bubbled up. (1) Taylor, Bean & Whitaker: the gift that keeps on giving. Most, if not every, mortgage company has an accounting firm. In what could be a very closely watched case, [...]

Lee Farkas, the former chairman of Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corp., was found guilty on all 14 charges stemming from a seven-year, multibillion-dollar fraud scheme that led to the collapse of his firm and Colonial Bank. Even the photo can make you cringe. At this point Mr. Farkas is probably not interested that Cantor [...]

Fannie Mae Relief For Homeowners Near Oil Spill CitiMortgage will suspend all foreclosure sales and filings for 90 days on its 1st mortgages within 25 miles of the Gulf coast. Fannie Mae said that servicers of Fannie-backed loans may immediately suspend or lower payments on mortgages for borrowers whose income or property were affected by [...]

“Talk like a pirate day” isn’t until this weekend, on the 19th, but lock desks all over the nation are already practicing: “Hello, Lock Desk? You know that loan I locked in two weeks ago? Well, the borrower said that if I don’t get a better rate, she’s going to pull it and go elsewhere. [...]

If your stock portfolio is going up in value, do you save less? Probably. People generally feel wealthier when their stocks are rising, or their house is appreciating: they will spend more and save less. When the reverse happens, they spend less and save more, which is exactly what is happening now, or at least [...]

I am not smart enough to be involved in a mortgage fraud scheme. And I guess the smartest schemers are not caught, unlike the latest “well-known” figure to be apprehended. Eugene Lockhart, who was a Dallas Cowboys football player, and 8 other defendants are accused of running a scheme in which they located single-family residences [...]

When I was growing up, no one that I knew of wanted to be a “purchasing manager”. (Or, for that matter, a mortgage banker, but look where that got us!) Anyway, purchasing managers are surveyed, and the results can make the financial markets move. What exactly is a purchasing manager? Whether for use by their [...]

Once again, things turned grim in mortgage banking. First, Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker went belly up. Not only did this impact their own employees, but its warehouse problems were widespread. In addition to that, it is rumored that hundreds of smaller banks either use/used TBW’s website help in originating mortgages on their website, or sold [...]

I like attorneys, and feel that jokes about them are mean-spirited and unnecessary. (Like, “What happens when you give a lawyer Viagra? They get taller!”) Attorneys are certainly finding fruitful grounds in handling all of the recent mortgage fraud cases. Of course it takes the government a while to prosecute, and thus many of the [...]

Last week, not only did they extend the program, but we found out that the Toyota Corolla became the most traded-in car as part of the “Cash for Clunkers” program. After hearing about it, the C.E.O. of General Motors said, “Oh my God, don’t tell me Toyota makes even a better clunker than we do.” [...]