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Jury convicts exec in $3B mortgage fraud case
Foxnews/AP ^ | April 19, 2011 | MATTHEW BARAKAT

Posted on 04/19/2011 4:44:11 PM PDT by driftdiver

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A jury on Tuesday convicted the majority owner of what had been one of the nation's largest mortgage companies on all 14 counts in a $3 billion fraud trial that officials have said is one of the most significant prosecutions to arise from the nation's financial crisis.

Prosecutors said Lee Farkas led a fraud scheme of staggering proportions as chairman of Florida-based Taylor Bean & Whitaker. The fraud not only caused the company's 2009 collapse and the loss of jobs for its 2,000 workers, but also contributed to the collapse of Alabama-based Colonial Bank, the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

The jury returned its verdict late Tuesday after more than a day of deliberations.

Colonial and two other major banks — Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas — were cheated out of nearly $3 billion, prosecutors estimated. Farkas and his cohorts — six of whom entered guilty pleas to related charges and testified against him at the two-week trial in U.S. District Court — also tried to fraudulently obtain more than $500 million in taxpayer-funded relief from the government's bank bailout program, the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: banks; colonialbank; farkas; leefarkas; mortgage; tarp; taylorbean
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but but but they are a bank, they must be honest
1 posted on 04/19/2011 4:44:16 PM PDT by driftdiver
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To: Chunga85

ping


2 posted on 04/19/2011 4:46:06 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

He looks like he could be Mozzila Gorillas son.


3 posted on 04/19/2011 4:49:04 PM PDT by nkycincinnatikid
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To: nkycincinnatikid

I’d like to know whats going to happen the bankers. They had to know what was going on.


4 posted on 04/19/2011 4:53:12 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

I want to highlight one paragraph from the OP:

“As the hole grew to well over $100 million, Taylor Bean and a handful of Colonial executives concocted a scheme in which Taylor Bean sold hundreds of millions in worthless mortgages to Colonial, mortgages that had already been sold to other investors. More than $1 billion in such phony mortgages were eventually sold to Colonial, which listed them on its books and on its quarterly reports as legitimate assets, prosecutors alleged.”


5 posted on 04/19/2011 4:54:07 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: nkycincinnatikid

Farkas exploited that leverage, telling a colleague: “If I owe you $100, I have a problem. If I owe you $1 million, you have a problem.”


6 posted on 04/19/2011 4:54:26 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

Waiting for the bank groupies to pile on with....
“So everybody gets to screw the poor honest bankers and get free houses now”.
“It’s the end of capitalism”
“Commies on the jury”
I can’t wait to hear the latest.


7 posted on 04/19/2011 4:55:33 PM PDT by nkycincinnatikid
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To: NVDave

How many people lost everything they had because of these people? 2000 people lost their jobs just with this company.

If there was any justice he would have to face those people.


8 posted on 04/19/2011 4:56:20 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

I have no idea.

But it is obviously more than a couple here or there.


9 posted on 04/19/2011 5:00:16 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: driftdiver
If there was any justice he would have to face those people.

If there was any justice, those people could view his body on a gibbet.

10 posted on 04/19/2011 5:01:04 PM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on its own.)
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To: driftdiver

“After The Fall” New book about how this developed starting in the eighties, and idea of “too Big To Fail” became prevalent.


11 posted on 04/19/2011 5:01:27 PM PDT by tommix2
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To: driftdiver
Prosecutors said Lee Farkas led a fraud scheme of staggering proportions as chairman of Florida-based Taylor Bean & Whitaker.

I wonder if he is any relation to Scut?

12 posted on 04/19/2011 5:05:14 PM PDT by calex59
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To: calex59

Well, I think Ralphie Parker is gloating, wherever he is.


13 posted on 04/19/2011 5:18:43 PM PDT by Erasmus (I love "The Raven," but then what do I know? I'm just a poetaster.)
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To: driftdiver

I heard that one back in the 80s. It’s a truism of lending.


14 posted on 04/19/2011 5:18:47 PM PDT by Defiant (When Democrats lose voters, they manufacture new voters instead of convincing the existing voters.)
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To: Defiant

Apparently its how he was able to get the bankers to join him him in his fraud party.

How did these people live with themselves knowing they were in the hole for a couple of billion? I guess after the first hundred million its all the same.


15 posted on 04/19/2011 5:23:49 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: NVDave; Chunga85
When will you learn its all the ‘Dead Beats’ fault! There will be the ‘experts’ along in a bit to reeducate you both!
16 posted on 04/19/2011 5:35:10 PM PDT by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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To: driftdiver
"How did these people live with themselves knowing they were in the hole for a couple of billion?

You are correct! Who and the hell didn't they think they were, THE GOVERNMENT?
17 posted on 04/19/2011 5:37:18 PM PDT by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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To: driftdiver

Out of proportion. Jury couldn’t comprehend, and a Florida court makes a house of mirrors look like a cathedral. So they pin everything on one man, cuz that’s what useful idiots do.


18 posted on 04/19/2011 5:40:14 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (Markets don't lie. People do.)
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To: Kartographer

I’ve worked a lot with bankers in IT Security. Time after time I’ve had them say they’ll accept the risk of a data loss or govt audit rather then fix their problems.

It has nothing to do with whats right or their commitments. Its only about the $$.


19 posted on 04/19/2011 5:45:48 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

It can’t be true. I don’t believe it. /s


20 posted on 04/19/2011 5:55:07 PM PDT by Chunga85 ("Foreclosure Fraud", TARP, "Mortgage Crisis", Bailout)
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