Mortgage Settlement Makes “Fraud a Business Expense”
Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Thursday, March 1, 2012, 1:39 PM
2 Comments
Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture Blog, lays out the $26B mortgage fraud – robo-signing settlement with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia in a context that we can all understand. Barry authored a much talked about column last weekend in the Washington Post.
This is interview required viewing for anyone connected with real estate and mortgages. Here are a few choice snippets:
“We’ve made fraud and perjury just a business expense.”
“Felony, fraud, perjury on a mass scale.”
“It wasn’t Jamie Dimon…or the $8 burger flippers…the process was too institutionalized…what we don’t know is who the mid-level bank execu who said too hell with 700 years of property law…just rubber stamp it and get it through…”
“It’s the Ford Pinto approach…eh some will burn to death, we’ll write a check later.”
Spoken with amazing clarity – always love Barry’s insights and delivery of his views.
- WashPost Columnist: Mortgage Settlement Makes “Fraud a Business Expense” [Bloomberg Law/YouTube]
- The Robosigning Deal is a Useless Embarrassment [The Big Picture]
- Foreclosure settlement a failure of law, a triumph for bank attorneys [Washington Post]
Wow, Jonathan, Barry was spot on!. Really laid it out well.
Cost vrs benefit was taught in business school when I attended college. Business ethics was also a class option, however, my business law class still considered fraud illegal.