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Fraud*
According to the Collins English Dictionary 10th Edition fraud can be defined as: "deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage".[1] In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain
*As defined in Wikipedia

Friday, June 10, 2011

Goldman Sachs Gets Rid of Encumbering Litton

Goldman Sachs has just paid its latest petty cash settlement of $10 million here. You can see for yourself that Goldman Sachs's interests towards its clients is very hierarchical in nature: When GS "huddles" with its clients it considers the most important client first, its next most important client second, and the least important client is not even in the running.

Goldman Sachs has also disgorged itself of Litton Loan Servicing. You can find some background information on Litton Loan Servicing here and here. As Goldman Sachs itself admits, it does not deal well with retail business. There are many dissatisfied Litton homeowners whose complaints have yet to be heard and dealt with. See here.

Goldman Closes the Door on Subprime
The sale of a mortgage servicer marks the end of a misadventure
By Karen Weise and Christine Harper - Bloomberg Businessweek

When Goldman Sachs (GS) bought Litton Loan Servicing, a firm that collects mortgage payments from homeowners, in 2007 for an unannounced price, it seemed like a simple way to get an on-the-ground view of the subprime market. The insight would help Goldman Sachs figure out how much to pay for loans, and Litton would work with borrowers to get them back on track. Other sophisticated investors, including billionaire Wilbur L. Ross and private equity firm Centerbridge Capital Partners, bought mortgage servicers with a similar strategy in mind.

It didn't work out as planned. While there were plenty of distressed mortgages and lots of eager buyers, the loan holders had little incentive to mark down prices because that would mean taking a big loss on their books. "The distressed-asset market never got as hot as people were hoping it would," says Dean H. DeMeritte, an executive vice-president at Phoenix Capital, a Denver brokerage for mortgage servicing contracts.

On June 6, Goldman Sachs agreed to sell Litton to another mortgage servicer, Ocwen Financial (OCN), for $263.7 million. The sale comes two months after Goldman Sachs wrote down the value of the business by about $200 million. "It really makes sense for them to sell it," says David B. Hilder, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. "They bought it at a time when the business was easier, and it looked like there might be some insights to be gained in the mortgage market from having a servicer." Neither Goldman Sachs nor Litton would comment.

Founded in 1988 by Larry B. Litton Sr. in Houston, Litton was one of the first mortgage servicers to specialize in working with troubled loans, sometimes called "scratch and dent" servicing. It developed that skill during the savings and loan crisis, when it was hired by Resolution Trust Corp. to handle mortgages that were orphaned by failed banks.

Larry Litton Jr., who now runs the company, is known in the industry for his Texas drawl, straight talk, and vocal support for working with struggling borrowers before they get too far behind. Bruce A. Gottschall, the founder of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, a nonprofit that worked with Litton a decade ago, says the company "seemed to me a little bit more flexible in terms of modifications early on." Litton Jr. currently is a member of the Federal Reserve's Consumer Advisory Council, where he has been vocal about foreclosure prevention. Ocwen would not comment on whether he will stay with the company after the sale.

Litton's business grew with the subprime market. In 1995 it serviced $1.2 billion in loans, according to Fitch Ratings. By 2007 its portfolio had ballooned to almost $54 billion; it's about $41.2 billion today. As the boom gave way to the bust, Litton was forced to hire more staff to deal with rising defaults. The company became the target of class actions alleging excessive fees and violations of consumer-protection laws as well as investigations by state and federal regulators. It has agreed to settle at least one of the lawsuits while denying liability; others are pending. It says it is cooperating with government investigations. Goldman Sachs will remain liable for fines and penalties that could be imposed by government authorities relating to Litton's foreclosure and servicing practices before the deal closes.

Read the entire article here

3 COMMENTS:

Anonymous said...

The Bankruptcy of Corporate America

June 10, 2011 (Mobile version)


The bankruptcy of Corporate America has seeped into the society and those who toil in its machinery.

Corporate America is profoundly bankrupt. Not in a financial sense, of course; the Federal Reserve's slow destruction of the U.S. dollar has boosted corporate profits most handsomely as the majority of their earnings and profits are obtained overseas; when stated in dollars, those outsized profits swell even higher.

No, the bankruptcy of Corporate America is not found on the bottom line; it is measured by altogether more profound metrics than mere money. Corporate America is bankrupt on levels which are difficult to describe; morally and spiritually bankrupt, not just in the pathologies that guide corporate goals and behaviors, but in the Potemkin shell of free enterprise they present to the world in ceaseless propaganda, and in the manner in which they have cut America loose from their corporate souls.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune11/corporate-america-bankrupt6-11.html

Anonymous said...

Listen to this carefully...overlay the Sorkin post with this...we need truth tellers..for our own preservation.

MSM vs RT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN7BEYhMNA0&feature=youtube_gdata

Anonymous said...

The Bankruptcy of Corporate America

June 10, 2011 (Mobile version)


The bankruptcy of Corporate America has seeped into the society and those who toil in its machinery.

Corporate America is profoundly bankrupt. Not in a financial sense, of course; the Federal Reserve's slow destruction of the U.S. dollar has boosted corporate profits most handsomely as the majority of their earnings and profits are obtained overseas; when stated in dollars, those outsized profits swell even higher.

No, the bankruptcy of Corporate America is not found on the bottom line; it is measured by altogether more profound metrics than mere money. Corporate America is bankrupt on levels which are difficult to describe; morally and spiritually bankrupt, not just in the pathologies that guide corporate goals and behaviors, but in the Potemkin shell of free enterprise they present to the world in ceaseless propaganda, and in the manner in which they have cut America loose from their corporate souls.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune11/corporate-america-bankrupt6-11.html

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