#Wells Fargo mortgage fraud

[mfi-miami]

Latino Wells Fargo Employees Accuse Bank Of Anti-Latino Bias

Here We Go Again! Latino Wells Fargo Employees Accuse Bank Of Anti-Latino Bias In A Predatory Lending Scheme A group of current and former Latino Wells Fargo employees has filed a federal lawsuit against Wells Fargo. The employees from the company’s bilingual mortgage sales team are alleging race-based discrimination.  The suit alleges:  “Wells Fargo forces its employees on the Bilingual team…

[vaspider]

I knew that Andor had managed to truly capture the banality of evil when they put wannabefash mctryhard, whatever his name is, in the Imperial Cube Farm, and they pulled back and showed how big that fucking cube farm was, and I legitimately had a panic attack bc I felt like I was drowning in working in the financial sector again and trying so hard to do the best I could for every person whose mortgage I touched but knowing that the deck was stacked against me and nothing I did was going to change the world or make the predatory shit stop, and they were draining away my health and life and making me complicit in their shit bc like Wells Fargo literally has a whole division about investing in military shit, like every major bank does, and everyone who touches a major bank is helping them fund the massive fraud that is the US military even if we don't consent to it and we don't really have a choice, barely even the illusion of choice

Anyway, that scene had very effective cinematography.

[beardedmrbean]

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A former Portland lawyer was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison Monday after defrauding over 100 clients out of millions of dollars in insurance proceeds, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.

Lori E. Deveny, 57, was also ordered to pay over $4.5 million in restitution to her victims.

“It’s hard to overstate the extraordinary impact Ms. Deveny’s crimes had on the many innocent and vulnerable victims who trusted her. As a former attorney, she had a special responsibility to her clients and to the public, but she repeatedly abused this trust and prioritized her own needs. This is a just sentence for serious crimes,” said Ethan Knight, Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“The cruelest thing of all is knowingly providing false hope. Having already suffered losses, Ms. Deveny’s clients deserved an attorney who represented their best interests. What they got instead was someone who inflicted more loss,” added Special Agent in Charge Bret Kressin, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Seattle Field Office. “Today, Ms. Deveny is receiving what she never provided her clients: a picture of reality that those who choose to defraud will face the consequences of their actions.”

Court documents say that between April 2011 and May 2019, Deveny defrauded at least 135 of her clients out of over $3.8 million in insurance proceeds by stealing clients’ identities, forging insurance checks, depositing client funds into her personal bank account and deceiving clients continually by telling them they would eventually receive compensation for their injuries. Many of her victims were particularly vulnerable due to their severe brain and bodily injuries, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Deveny’s scheme also cost Oregon State Bar Client Security Fund, Wells Fargo and the IRS, according to investigators. Due to the state bar making partial restitution payments to some of Deveny’s clients, their security fund lost $1.2 million, one of the largest losses in the organization’s history. Wells Fargo reportedly lost $52,000 due to a forged check and the IRS lost over $621,000 when Deveny didn’t report the money she stole on her tax returns.

Deveny used the proceeds to pay more than $150,000 on foreign and domestic airline tickets, more than $173,000 on African safari and big game hunting trips, $35,000 on taxidermy expenses, $125,000 on home renovations, $195,000 in mortgage payments, more than $220,000 in cigars and related expenses, $58,000 on pet boarding and veterinary costs, $41,000 on recreational vehicle expenses, $50,000 for a Cadillac vehicle, and $60,000 on stays at a luxury nudist resort in Palm Springs, Calif.

“While serving as an attorney, Ms. Deveny brazenly stole money that should have gone to pay for health care for her clients for serious injuries and ailments. Instead, that money funded things like big game hunting trips to Africa and home remodeling. She took advantage of people who were physically and emotionally hurting by forging insurance checks, stealing the funds and lying to her clients about the payouts,” said Kieran L. Ramsey, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Portland Field Office. “These actions not only got her disbarred but are now putting her behind bars. The FBI applauds our partners at IRS-CI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as we continue to bring to justice those who commit this kind of unconscionable financial fraud that harms the people in our shared community.”

A grand jury returned a 24-count indictment on Deveny on May 7, 2019, charging her with mail, bank, and wire fraud, as well as aggravated identity theft, money laundering and filing a false tax return. She pled guilty to one count each of mail, wire, and bank fraud, and also plead guilty to money laundering, filing a false tax return and two counts of aggravated identity theft on June 27, 2022.

[photon-insights]

Wells Fargo Case

Overview: This report provides a high-level overview of how Photon Insights can unearth early signs to mitigate disasters for your firm! In particular, we explore the Wells Fargo account fraud scandal (costing them nearly $3 billion dollars), and how signs were evident years before everything came to the public light.

From 2002 up until 2016, Wells Fargo put immense sales pressure on its employees, encouraging and causing workers to create millions of fraudulent savings and checking accounts on behalf of Wells Fargo clients without their consent. News of the fraud became widely known in late 2016 after various regulatory bodies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), fined the company a combined $185 million as a result of the illegal activity. The company faced additional civil and criminal suits reaching an estimated $2.7 billion by the end of 2018. The creation of these fake accounts continues to have legal and financial ramifications for Wells Fargo to this day, as well as the immense (likely irreparable) reputational damages and breach of trust.

With billions of dollars at stake, and this scandal taking place over so many years, could we have preemptively determined something was amiss? Many indicators were certainly there, surfaced by Photon Insights — we collected data in 2013, and below are AI generated insights (combining the viewpoints of 1000s of employees, based off of data from Indeed, Glassdoor, etc.) which were flagged by our sentiment and anomaly detection algorithms, just to list a few (there were many more!) …

Jan 16, 2013: Great hands-on training, great pay and incentive program. Great first restaurant job. Bad training. Bad location. No consistency. Not worth your time to work there. Very high turnover. All about money — did not care about employees or customers. Very unethical. The best part of the job was working at the bank.

Mar 5, 2013: Really bad management cares more about bottom line than meeting customer needs. They oversell products that don’t fit client needs. If you get a manager that doesn’t like you best resign because you will never grow. Personal Banker — Learned to maintain proper customer checking balances.

Mar 12, 2013: Wells Fargo treats employees with no dignity or respect. Unethical sales practices are in a class of their own. The bank treats their employees like second class citizens and customers like second-class citizens. The supporting staff is great but the company is not great in Kennesaw. Fast pace. Management and pay.

May 8, 2013: Wells Fargo has a culture of fear, the fear of employees, says ex-employee. Bank hours are off by 2 on Saturdays and every Sunday off. Good benefits but no work/life balance. Mortgage fraud is alive and well at the company. Wells Fargo only cares about their sales.

Jul 26, 2013: Ehhh. I didn’t like the attitude of my manager, he couldn’t multitask and his temper would get the best of him. The sales were crazy and unethical. Selling credit cards to people who didn’t even qualify for them. Always short staffed and had to take on a workload of three people.

Sep 10, 2013: Stressed. Underpaid, customers get fees from every direction. Management is the bullying kind. Will threaten to fire you in front of other co workers. Poor moral they push sales on customers who don’t need it. Horrible work environment. Back-stabber who gossiped about everyone.

Oct 6, 2013: Wells Fargo has low pay and low work/life balance. 30 bankers were recently let go over unethical sales practices. I worked as a phone banker for Wells Fargo and loved my coworkers. The bank has unrealistic sales expectations for every employee. Okay place to work, but no benefits and long hours.

Clearly evident from the selected Photon Insights, the signs of the unethical sales were highly evident through employee sentiment — Wells Fargo were likely privy to these practices, but from the perspective of federal regulators (or investors/shareholders, etc.), such information provided a sign that not all was ok, years before the massive penalties!

[dan6085]

The Big Four auditing firms—Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), and KPMG—have been involved in numerous scandals over the years. Here are 20 of the most controversial scandals involving these firms and how they handled them:

### Deloitte

1. **Autonomy Scandal (2012)**:

- **Details**: Deloitte audited Autonomy, a UK software company acquired by HP. After the acquisition, HP accused Autonomy of inflating its value by $5 billion through fraudulent accounting practices.

- **Handling**: Deloitte faced scrutiny and criticism but defended its audits, claiming it had followed proper procedures. HP filed lawsuits, and Deloitte settled with the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) without admitting liability.

2. **Patriot National (2017)**:

- **Details**: Deloitte was sued by investors for allegedly failing to identify fraud at Patriot National, a company that later filed for bankruptcy.

- **Handling**: Deloitte denied wrongdoing, arguing that it conducted its audits appropriately. The lawsuit was settled confidentially.

### PwC

3. **Colonial Bank and Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (2009)**:

- **Details**: PwC was accused of failing to detect a $2.3 billion fraud at Colonial Bank, which was tied to mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

- **Handling**: PwC settled with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for $335 million and reached a separate settlement with Taylor, Bean & Whitaker's bankruptcy trustee for $25 million.

4. **Satyam Scandal (2009)**:

- **Details**: Satyam Computer Services, an Indian IT company, confessed to inflating its earnings by $1.7 billion. PwC was the auditor and faced allegations of gross negligence.

- **Handling**: PwC partners were arrested in India. PwC paid $25 million to settle US shareholder lawsuits and $6 million to the SEC.

5. **MF Global (2011)**:

- **Details**: PwC was accused of failing to spot risky accounting practices that led to the collapse of brokerage firm MF Global.

- **Handling**: PwC settled with MF Global’s trustee for $65 million without admitting wrongdoing.

### EY

6. **Lehman Brothers (2008)**:

- **Details**: EY was Lehman Brothers' auditor and faced allegations of approving misleading financial statements before Lehman's bankruptcy.

- **Handling**: EY settled with New York State for $10 million and faced several lawsuits, including a $99 million settlement with Lehman investors.

7. **Wirecard (2020)**:

- **Details**: EY audited Wirecard for a decade before the German payment processor collapsed after admitting a €1.9 billion hole in its accounts.

- **Handling**: EY faced lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. It admitted that fraud was sophisticated and committed by Wirecard management, emphasizing it had been misled.

8. **Healthcare Locums (2010)**:

- **Details**: EY was accused of failing to detect fraud at Healthcare Locums, a UK recruitment company.

- **Handling**: EY faced legal actions and regulatory investigations, leading to increased scrutiny of its auditing practices.

### KPMG

9. **General Electric (2008)**:

- **Details**: KPMG was accused of failing to detect accounting irregularities at General Electric.

- **Handling**: KPMG defended its audit work but faced significant reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny.

10. **Carillion (2018)**:

- **Details**: KPMG was the auditor of Carillion, a UK construction giant that collapsed with £7 billion in liabilities.

- **Handling**: KPMG faced intense criticism and regulatory investigations, and several partners were fined. KPMG admitted shortcomings and implemented audit quality reforms.

11. **Wells Fargo (2016)**:

- **Details**: KPMG audited Wells Fargo during a period when the bank was creating millions of fake accounts.

- **Handling**: KPMG faced criticism but argued it had no responsibility for detecting fraud perpetrated by bank employees. No significant penalties were imposed on KPMG.

12. **Gupta Family and South Africa (2017)**:

- **Details**: KPMG South Africa was implicated in the Gupta family corruption scandal.

- **Handling**: KPMG withdrew its audit opinions, several senior partners resigned, and KPMG faced regulatory penalties and reputational damage. It committed to extensive internal reforms.

### Combined Big Four

13. **Parmalat (2003)**:

- **Details**: Parmalat, an Italian dairy giant, collapsed due to a €14 billion fraud. Deloitte and Grant Thornton were auditors.

- **Handling**: Both firms faced lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. Settlements were reached, and reforms were implemented to improve audit practices.

14. **Olympus (2011)**:

- **Details**: EY and KPMG audited Olympus, which admitted to a $1.7 billion accounting fraud.

- **Handling**: Both firms faced criticism for failing to detect the fraud, leading to legal actions and regulatory investigations. Settlements were reached, and audit quality measures were enhanced.

15. **Steinhoff (2017)**:

- **Details**: Deloitte audited Steinhoff, a South African retailer that admitted to accounting irregularities worth billions.

- **Handling**: Deloitte faced lawsuits and regulatory investigations. It implemented audit quality reforms and settled with various stakeholders.

### Individual Cases

16. **Tesco (2014)** (PwC):

- **Details**: Tesco admitted to overstating profits by £263 million. PwC was the auditor.

- **Handling**: PwC faced criticism and regulatory scrutiny but was not found legally liable. It implemented changes to improve audit quality.

17. **Colonial Bank (2009)** (PwC):

- **Details**: PwC was accused of negligence in its audit of Colonial Bank, which was involved in a major fraud.

- **Handling**: PwC settled lawsuits for significant sums and faced regulatory action, leading to internal reforms.

18. **BT Italy (2017)** (PwC):

- **Details**: PwC audited BT Italy, which admitted to accounting irregularities amounting to £530 million.

- **Handling**: PwC faced criticism and regulatory investigations, resulting in increased scrutiny and audit quality improvements.

19. **1MDB (2015)** (KPMG):

- **Details**: KPMG audited 1MDB, a Malaysian state fund embroiled in a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal.

- **Handling**: KPMG faced legal actions and regulatory scrutiny. It cooperated with investigations and enhanced its audit procedures.

20. **VBS Mutual Bank (2018)** (KPMG):

- **Details**: KPMG South Africa audited VBS Mutual Bank, which was found to be involved in a large-scale fraud.

- **Handling**: KPMG faced significant criticism, regulatory penalties, and legal actions. It committed to major reforms and partner resignations followed.

### Conclusion

These scandals highlight the challenges and responsibilities faced by the Big Four auditing firms. In response to these controversies, the firms have often implemented internal reforms, faced regulatory penalties, and settled lawsuits to address the issues and improve audit quality.

[nadiasindi]

Just like our Oregon Criminal Officials such Gov. Brown, Rep. Nathanson, Sen. Floyd Prozanski etc.. with the help of Wells Fargo. who are covering up for the most criminal Official: Late Frohnmayer, late Rep. Bob Ackerman who stole my Fully paid Condo!

My social Security # is BLOCKED at the Employment office, for more than Three years NOW. I can't sign in to look for a job! This had happened after my name was cleared from the fabricated criminal record that was done by the criminal late Dave Frohnmayer!

Gov.Kate Brown Appointed 100 Judges.She made sure before she leaves, she appointed TWO more Judges to cover her back!

Arrest Gov. Brown, Rep. Nathanson & the Rest of Oregon Criminal Officials who are complicit with the Most Criminal Officials late Frohnmayer, late Rep. Ackerman!

OR. late A.G. Frohnmayer had deleted all records in L.C. It shows I'd changed my name to Nadia Sindi.Left old name Faika Sindi.Changed letters to Saika Findi! Frohnmayer has trapped me in a criminal record since 1987!

[tgreg2022]

Safeguard Your Home From Wrongful Foreclosure

Loan modification mistakes are one of the leading causes of wrongful foreclosure When homeowners seek their loans modified to meet their current economic realities, occasionally the mortgage servicers who deal with these applications make crucial mistakes, which in turn result in wrongful foreclosures Occasionally, mortgage servicers make an incorrect calculation regarding a mortgage loan. In 2018, for example, Wells Fargo admitted that it wrongfully failed to give modifications to about 625 mortgage-loan borrowers due to a computer glitch. The bank used a modification tool that automatically miscalculated attorneys’ fees when evaluating borrowers for a potential loan modification. Wells Fargo eventually foreclosed on 400 of the 625 homeowners affected.😥 If your home is at risk of foreclosure for any reason, it’s important to have a professional carefully comb through your documents in order to determine whether or not fraud is an issue in your particular case. Don't hesitate to contact us and if you require assistance with foreclosure. 🥰🥰⁩

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Wells Fargo can't stop criming

Wells Fargo is America’s third-largest bank. It used to be the largest, but it committed a string of terrible frauds that it was never truly punished for (it made more from crime than it paid in fines).

Its crime spree did result in one meaningful punishment: Wells was forced to downsize to #3, with a mere $1.77 trillion in assets.

Have no fear: Wells Fargo is down but not out, and despite its reduced stature, it is still engaged in egregious acts of fraud.

The latest scam? “Forex transposition.” Say you have an account with Wells where you get income in euros but need to spend dollars. Historically, Wells would have defrauded you with “Range of Day” pricing.

That’s where Wells converts your euros to dollars using the best rate (for Wells, AKA the worst rate for you), on the day you ordered the currency conversion. Currency prices move around a lot during the day, and this scam could easily double Wells’ commission.

But the Range of Day scam is a grift for the little people, not suited to kings of con like Wells Fargo.

Wells just paid $76m to settle a federal investigation into a much more ambitious and brazen scam.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-09-28/wells-fargo-swapped-some-digits

As Matt Levine writes for Bloomberg, the new scam involved simply “making up prices,” while maintaining plausible deniability.

Here’s how that worked: say the W Range of Day exchange rate (an already crooked number) was 1.0241. Wells Fargo’s forex trader would exchange your funds at 1.0421. On big trades, that could cost you hundreds of thousands��— even millions of dollars.

But you were unlikely to catch the error, and if you did, Wells’s trader would just apologize and say that they transposed the digits accidentally.

As crimes go, this is pretty unambiguous. It’s fraud. It made them a lot of money, and they only had to give some of it back.

That means they’ll do it again.

Of course they will! This is Wells fuckin’ Fargo, we’re talking about. They cannot stop criming.

In case you’ve forgotten about Wells’s crime-spree (it’s been a minute), here’s some highlights:

During foreclosure bonanza of the Great Financial Crisis, Wells led the pack. They literally broke into peoples’ homes, stole all their worldly goods and changed the locks, all without bothering to check whether they had the right house.

https://theintercept.com/2015/08/28/wells-fargo-contractors-stole-family-heirlooms/

Around then, Wells began to pressure its low-waged, young, precarious tellers to meet quotas on new accounts opened by existing customers. Its managers taught tellers how to fraudulently open these accounts. 2,000,000 customers were affected.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/what-you-need-know-if-you-were-harmed-wells-fargo/

These new accounts racked up millions in fees and penalties. Victims’ credit scores were tanked, costing them mortgages, access to student loans, and jobs. The executive who ran the program was given a $125m bonus.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/09/wells-fargo-ceos-teflon-don-act-backfires-at-senate-hearing-i-take-full-responsibility-means-anything-but.html

The CEO — who took a $200m bonus himself — blamed low-level employees for the crimes. What he didn’t say was that low-level employees who blew the whistle on the scam were illegally fired.

https://money.cnn.com/2016/09/21/investing/wells-fargo-fired-workers-retaliation-fake-accounts/index.html

They fired a lot of whistleblowers.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-09-22/whistle-blowers-and-good-activists

They didn’t just fire kids for blowing the whistle — they ruined them. After Wells fired a whistleblower, they’d add them to an industry database of bankers who’d been fired for doing crimes — people on that list can never work in the industry again.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/26/495454165/ex-wells-fargo-employees-sue-allege-they-were-punished-for-not-breaking-law

Eventually, John Stumpf, the CEO who oversaw the crimes, resigned. The Wells board appointed a successor who insisted that the bank had no problems with its culture.

https://consumerist.com/2016/10/13/new-wells-fargo-ceo-recently-denied-overbearing-sales-culture-that-created-fake-account-fiasco/

Naturally, some customers who’d been stolen from sued. Wells asked a judge to throw out the case, because those customers signed away their right to sue when a Wells Fargo employee forged their signature on the paperwork to open a fraudulent account.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wellsfargo-accounts-lawsuit-idUSKBN13J1WX

The judge agreed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/business/dealbook/wells-fargo-killing-sham-account-suits-by-using-arbitration.html

Trump also liked Wells Fargo (he owed them a lot of money). Shortly after he took office, the Department of Labor’s site for Wells whistleblowers vanished.

https://nypost.com/2017/01/27/whistleblower-site-for-wells-fargo-workers-vanishes/

Wells Fargo’s got great timing. During the Trump years, so many of its scandals came to light — and were never seriously punished by Trump’s DOJ or regulators.

They stole millions with fraudulent “home warranties”:

https://theintercept.com/2017/08/12/theres-a-new-wells-fargo-scandal-this-time-its-the-trucoat/

They stole millions by ripping off small businesses with fake credit-card fees:

https://consumerist.com/2017/08/11/wells-fargo-accused-of-overcharging-small-businesses/

They defrauded 800,000 car insurance customers and stole (“improperly repossessed”) 25,000 cars:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/business/wells-fargo-unwanted-auto-insurance.html

They tricked people who sought mortgage refinancing into scam packages that looked good at first, but led to waves of defaults and foreclosures:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/business/wells-fargo-loan-mortgage.html

When Wells finally admitted it ripped off 2m customers with fake accounts and offered to pay them back, it created an opt-in repayment system, ensuring that most of its victims would never be made whole:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/wells-fargo-screws-customers-yet-now-failing-make-right-abuses-elizabeth-warren-demands-answers.html

The Trump tax cuts only emboldened the company: after having its taxes slashed, Wells cut 26,500 jobs, shuttered branches across the country, and firehosed money over its shareholders with a $40.6 billion buyback.

https://rooseveltinstitute.org/2018/11/07/what-wells-fargos-40-6-billion-in-stock-buybacks-could-have-meant-for-its-employees-and-customers/

Not all the shareholders were satisfied. Some of them sued because the company had not delivered on its promises to “restore trust” in the bank. The company’s defense? “Everyone knows we’re liars, so they shouldn’t have relied on our statements.”

https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-wells-puffery-20181109-story.html

I mean, they have a point. It was only months later when the company blamed a “computer glitch” for its theft of 525 homes from people who should not have faced foreclosure.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wells-fargo-loan-modification-error-homeowners-who-went-into-foreclosure-seek-answers/

There’s no such thing as a non-sociopathic giant bank, but even in the crowded field of crime-addicted financial firms, Wells Fargo stands out. The fact that they’ve paid $76m — instead of having their execs go to prison — means they’ll do it again.

And again.

And again.

[deniscollins]

Wells Fargo’s Growth Cap Eased to Aid Small-Business Crisis

As punishment for Wells Fargo’s extensive customer fraud over many years, the government imposed a balance sheet growth limit of $1.95 trillion, a cap that could not be lifted until Wells Fargo’s leaders could demonstrate that the bank was being run in a way that no longer put its customers at risk. Regulators report that Wells Fargo still has not yet made the necessary changes. However, Wells Fargo is the country’s fourth-largest bank and its small-business banking operation accounts for a fifth of the United States market, at a time when the federal government is trying to keep small businesses afloat through a $349 billion emergency relief program that provides forgivable loans they can use to pay their employees, rents and mortgages, and banks are supposed to make the loans and later recoup the funds from the government. If you were a federal regulator, would you: (1) maintain Wells Fargo’s market cap until it fulfills the original change agreement, or (2) temporarily remove the cap to help small businesses. Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

The Federal Reserve made another move to try to expand small business owners’ access to emergency loans on Wednesday when it temporarily lifted a growth restriction it had imposed on Wells Fargo two years ago after the bank’s fake-account scandal.

The Fed said the move was a response to “extraordinary disruptions from the coronavirus,” which has caused a widespread economic shutdown that resulted in the loss of millions of jobs. The federal government is trying to keep small businesses afloat through a $349 billion emergency relief program that provides forgivable loans they can use to pay their employees, rents and mortgages. Banks are supposed to make the loans and later recoup the funds from the government, but the program has gotten off to a rocky start.

“This action by the Federal Reserve will enable Wells Fargo to provide additional relief for our customers and communities,” said Charles W. Scharf, the bank’s chief executive. He added that the bank had received 170,000 loan requests in the program’s first two days.

Wells Fargo, the country’s fourth-largest bank, said on Sunday that its balance sheet had reached a Fed-imposed growth limit of $1.95 trillion. That cap was not to be lifted until Wells Fargo’s leaders could demonstrate that the bank was being run in a way that no longer put its customers at risk. Regulators said that while the necessary changes had not yet been made, it was temporarily easing the limit so the bank could participate fully in the emergency loan program.

Small businesses have been devastated by the economic shutdown and are scrambling to get funds through the days-old paycheck protection program. But many have been unable to tap the money, as demand overwhelms lenders and aging technology at the Small Business Administration — the government agency in charge of the program — slows down the processing of loan applications.

Early this week, Wells Fargo told scores of would-be borrowers that it could not process their requests and advised them to look for another bank that was participating in the program.

Wells Fargo’s small-business banking operation accounts for a fifth of the United States market. The growth cap limited lending to a volume of just $10 billion, well under the amount the bank was capable of doing. The bank began negotiating with the Fed three weeks ago, before the loan program was put in place, to have the cap raised.

The change allows it to keep lending, but only under the small business program and a second facility, the Main Street lending program, that the government is setting up for medium-size businesses.

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” said Dennis Kelleher, the chief executive of the Washington-based financial regulatory advocacy group Better Markets. Mr. Kelleher had previously warned the Fed not to be too lenient with Wells Fargo in the name of managing the crisis. Wednesday’s move, he said, was appropriately narrow.

“It’s temporary, limited and conditional in a way that doesn’t punish Wells Fargo’s customers,” he said.

The Fed is requiring the bank to set aside fees and other earnings it receives from loans that would cause it to exceed the $1.95 trillion balance sheet cap and turn them over to the Treasury or donate them to an approved charity.

“The change will be in place as long as the facilities are active,” the Fed said in its announcement.

[mfi-miami]

CFPB Spanks Wells Fargo With Yet Another Fine

CFPB Spanks Wells Fargo With Yet Another Fine

The CFPB Spanks Wells Fargo With Yet Another Fine Yesterday For Ripping Off Consumers. This Time It’s For $3.75 Billion The CFPB spanks Wells Fargo with another fine by the CFPB yesterday. The CFPB has ordered Wells Fargo Bank to pay $3.7 billion for violations across several of its largest product lines. This includes mortgage and auto loans that resulted in thousands of customers allegedly…

[rauthschild]

Hey Afro-Saxon Media, Shut the Fuck Up …. ….. Tired of Your Mis-Focus Bullshit

While everyone's attention is focused on the Circus Maxima taking place in Washington, DC, complete with the pot calling the kettle black, and all sorts of "investigation" intrigue taking place all over the world --- it turns out that the "Russian Collusion" was actually about Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, and Mitt Romney, all four, very gainfully employing their children in what used to be called Russia -- the Ukraine.

Name games, again.

Apparently, leaders in BOTH political parties are compromised for the same sins and likely to be painted with the same brush of corruption once the dust settles, so that's why Romney and his RINO buddies are trying to justify impeaching Trump with no credible evidence of wrong-doing on his part at all.

Ukraine was just such a honey pot, they couldn't resist.

And now, they are scared.

Trump like previous Presidents continue to print Federal Reserve Notes aka IOUs while braggadociously informing the masses he lowered the unemployment rate in 50 years and middle-income families gaining net income for the first time in a decade and average life expectancy in the US & USA on the rise, and many other indicators of Trump's success physically hitting home throughout America.

So, what do the Pope’s Democrats do?  They unleashed the deadly and naturally occurring Nipah virus and the Corona virus engineered by Bill Gates, at the same exact time, in China, to signal their displeasure with the China-Trump Trade Deal.  

Reminds me of little kids getting mad because they can't win a softball game, and taking their bat and ball and going home.  If they can't bilk China, and extort racketeering and protection money from China, then nobody else is going to be able to do business with China, either.

Unfortunately, their home is here, in America---- and we have the responsibility of dealing with these Infant Bitches and Bastards. Sooner or later, it's going to come down to dragging them out of the halls of Congress, out of St. Peter's., and out of the banks and military as well.  

We have to do it, and there is nobody here but USNA, to do it.

So, we need to wise up our Democratic Civil Rights Negro friends who are still kissing their foreign colonial corporate Bankrupt Massa’s asses and assure them that, yes, the dirty laundry is in full view.  The Unions, the Mob, the Oil Companies, Blackwater, Vanguard, Homeland Security, both the RNC and DNC, the FED, the "Marshal Plan", the banks ---- all of it.  

Turns out that Wells Fargo was Crime Central in the time period between the Twin Towers and the 2008 Meltdown. They and Lloyd's used a three-partner fraud scheme using off shore trusts to generate fake accounts and then created fake mortgages, securitized these as "mortgage backed securities" and sold them to investors on Bloomburg..... Wells Fargo and Wells Fargo N.A. and Merrill-Lynch in America, Lloyd's BIL, Bank of Scotland, and HBOS, PL in England.  Same scheme.  They bilked the public and the SEC and the IRS for billions with a "B".  

And they weren't even breathing hard; all it took was a couple real con men and offshore "trusts" in Jersey and Puerto Rico.

Now the cows are coming home and millions of innocent Black Aboriginals and African-American Brits are again being dunned for debts they don't owe--- debts that actually belong to foreign corporations that folded their tents a decade ago.

And the courts are again turning a blind eye to all this and pretending that they have such a thing as "the Rule of Law" which is only the rules of the court, which the court gets to determine on a "local level" ---- i.e., they make it up as they go along.  

Don't take any wooden nickels and don't mistake a securities corporation operating under the trademark of a bank for a bank.  Also, don't mistake "the Rule of Law" for any actual Law, Public or Private.  It's all up for grabs now, and every man or woman for themselves.

This system is going down, on the sheer weight of its own criminality and refusal to correct.  What comes after is being determined by those of us who are awake and moving forward to restore the actual and lawful government of USNA.  

Do not delay taking action to declare your political status and get your claims in place.

In Ancient Egypt they had the "Book of the Dead" and the "Book of Life".  These correspond exactly to the Register system (Book of the Dead) and the Recording system (Book of Life).  

Be sure that you move your Good Name out of the jurisdiction of the "dead" corporations. Keep your nose to the grindstone and your eye on the ball, because sure as I am sitting here in Black Asia Pacific, all this fraud and corruption is coming to a head.  

All those who are "dead" and written in the Book of the Dead and who have not made the effort to reclaim their "live status", will lose their identity and their inheritance. The Evil Doers fully intend to feast upon these "abandoned" estates and to profit from their own deceits and disgusting practices.

It's up to you to make up your mind and pull your own chestnuts out of the fire, but if I were you, I'd be moving at light speed to rescue my good name and my identity as a lawful USNA National or Citizenship and making sure that it gets recorded.

The United States of North America – The Republic of North America

[nomarjoynas1972-blog]

Facebook Removes More Accounts Tied to Russian ‘Troll Factory’

Facebook said on Tuesday that it had found and removed more than 270 accounts and pages controlled by Russia’s Internet Research Agency, the so-called troll factory that became notorious for posting fraudulent and divisive material on the platform during the 2016 presidential election.

The company said most of the accounts and pages were in Russian and aimed at users in Russia and neighboring or nearby countries, including Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. The company did not claim the new accounts and pages had violated the company’s policies, but it said they had been taken down because of the Internet Research Agency’s past fraud. Payday Loans Online

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, told Reuters that the Russian company, which operates under several names, “has repeatedly acted to deceive people and manipulate people around the world, and we don’t want them on Facebook anywhere.”

In a blog post, Facebook’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, said that “uncovering this activity took months of work by our team.” He said the company had taken down 70 accounts and 138 pages on Facebook and 65 accounts on Instagram, which Facebook owns. Wells Fargo – Banking, Credit Cards, Loans, Mortgages & More

[bountyofbeads]

Debt, Conflict and Vacancy Imperil Another Kushner Property https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-kushner-times-square-property-development/?ll_push_args={%22utm_source%22:%22push%22,%22utm_medium%22:%22notification%22}

Debt, Conflict and Vacancy Imperil Kushners’ Times Square Dream

By Caleb Melby and David Kocieniewski

Published June 25, 2019 | Bloomberg | Posted June 25, 2019 |

Jared Kushner’s family averted disaster last year when a Canadian asset manager swooped in to buy their skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, which had been hemorrhaging millions of dollars. Now they’re facing a similar crisis a few blocks away.

At the former New York Times building on West 43rd Street, a graying property in Times Square, the pattern is uncannily similar: Buy at a steep price, pile on too much debt, run up big losses, fight with tenants and flirt with default.

It’s the latest example of overreach for a family that built a fortune on suburban rental properties, only to have its urban ambitions stymied. Kushner Cos. bought the first six floors of the Times building for $296 million in 2015, envisioning a multifloor amusement park in the heart of Times Square. Four years later, a toxic brew of debt, conflict and vacancies has put their investment in jeopardy.

Think of the building as a vertical mall with three-story neon signs beckoning tourists. There are tenants the Kushners inherited: a sprawling sushi restaurant, a below-ground Guitar Center store and a two-story bowling alley with thumping music. And ones they brought in—in the basement, National Geographic Encounter, an exhibit about oceans with humpback whales and sea lions cavorting on digital screens; on the second floor, Gulliver’s Gate, featuring detailed miniatures of the Colossus of Rhodes, the Empire State Building, Jerusalem’s Western Wall and other famous sites, complete with miniature trains and glowing skyscrapers.

The Kushners’ new tenants have a few things in common, including ticket prices exceeding $30, underwhelming crowds and financial trouble. The National Geographic exhibit has paid only partial rent since August, and the Kushners are looking for a new tenant. Gulliver’s Gate paid irregularly, prompting a legal battle that resulted in its rent being cut by almost half this year. Take a walk around the back of the building, and there’s a dusty unfinished space meant for a champagne bar. It never opened. Kushner Cos. has traded lawsuits with the proprietor, an operator of airport restaurants that is alleging fraud, claims the Kushners have denied.

A spokeswoman for the National Geographic exhibit confirmed that the attraction wasn’t paying full rent, but she declined to provide details. Gulliver’s Gate founder Michael Langer said he was “happy we were able to work together for an amicable agreement.” A spokesman for OHM Concession Group, which leased space for the champagne bar, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The missteps have added up. Kushner Cos. assumed that all these tenants would be paying rent when it piled $370 million of loans onto the building in an October 2016 refinancing, most of it from Deutsche Bank AG. In March, the company defaulted on one high-interest chunk of its debt to other lenders, and the property has often run at a loss after accounting for loan payments, according to data compiled from disclosures to investors. While there’s always room for improvement, spaces for so-called experiential retailers require custom designs and can take years to fill.

The story of how the Kushner family purchased a Times Square building only to see it founder during an economic boom is one of zealous overconfidence and a passion for trophy properties, according to more than a dozen people interviewed by Bloomberg News. It’s also a tale of how the real estate market encourages excessive risk-taking, rewarding those who use steep leverage on speculative properties even as they pass potential losses to others. Most of the debt on the Times building has been transferred to investors – it’s their problem now. Meanwhile, Kushner Cos. allocated some of the loan to pay itself $59 million, according to public filings.

Wells Fargo & Co., which manages the loan, has placed it on a watchlist for troubled debt and taken control of the property’s accounts. At one point, the building also drew the attention of federal prosecutors. The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York subpoenaed records about the refinancing in 2017. What investigators were looking for, whether the Kushners were a subject and if the matter is ongoing is unclear. Spokesmen for Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo declined to comment, as did Jared Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell. Representatives for Kushner Cos. didn’t respond to numerous requests for comment.

The former Times building and Kushner Cos. were both struggling when they came together in 2015. The 18-story landmark with a mansard roof had been the newspaper’s headquarters for almost a century, until the company moved a few blocks away in 2007. That same year, Africa Israel Investments Ltd. bought the building at 229 West 43rd St. for $525 million and began searching for a way to repurpose it, exploring everything from luxury condos to a Disney-themed hotel. When those plans fizzled, the company, led by Russian-Israeli diamond merchant Lev Leviev, decided to sell part of the site as a retail complex.

The rapid growth of internet shopping made many real estate investors skeptical. But Charles Kushner, founder of the company that bears his name and father of now-presidential adviser Jared Kushner, was still bullish on retail when Leviev’s brokers pitched him. He had reason for his optimism. In 2011, as Kushner Cos. was straining under a mountain of debt at its 666 Fifth Ave. skyscraper, selling the building’s stores for $1 billion helped pay off some of it and buy time.

Four years later, 666 Fifth Ave. was again operating at a loss. The Kushners were supposed to have improved the property and raised rents. Instead, they had been shopping a plan to knock it down and build a glittering high-rise twice as tall with a five-story shopping center at its base.

The Kushners needed an infusion of cash, and the bottom six floors of the Times building offered a tantalizing opportunity. Tens of thousands of people walk by daily. The building was about half leased, but if the family could fill it quickly and bolster its rent rolls, Kushner Cos. could refinance at a higher valuation, taking any gains as profit.

Charles Kushner’s view wasn’t widely shared, and financing the deal was a struggle. The company considered selling a Chicago office building it owned and sheltering the gains from the sale in the Times Square property, a common tax-planning strategy known as a 1031 exchange, according to a person familiar with the matter. But the Chicago sale never materialized, so the Kushners turned to well-capitalized firms they’d done business with in the past. None accepted the invitation to join them as an equity partner, the person said.

In the end, they relied almost exclusively on loans – all but $1 million of the $296 million purchase price was covered by debt from a division of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., the Canadian real estate company that would later rescue the Kushners by taking out a 99-year lease on 666 Fifth Ave. for $1.3 billion.

Theoretically, anything goes in Times Square, where Madame Tussauds’ lifelike wax sculptures and Mars Corp.’s shrine to M&M’s have co-existed for more than a decade. But it’s also possible to miscalculate. Leviev had made a go of it with the horror-themed Jekyll & Hyde Club. It closed amid terrible reviews months before the Kushners bought the property.

The building’s spaces in the basement and upper floors were slower to lease than anticipated, and by time the Kushners took control in 2015, the property remained about half leased. At Kushner Cos. headquarters in 666 Fifth Ave., Charles Kushner was frustrated that the building was still losing money, according to one person who heard him complain. Jared Kushner, the company’s chief executive officer at the time, told staff that they needed more cash flow, the person recalled, and that they needed it quickly.

The Kushners found it. The first big tenant to sign was Gulliver’s Gate, which had been in talks with Leviev. Plans for an aquarium were scuttled after other tenants complained about potential water damage and fishy aromas. Then came SPE Partners, an entertainment development company with a license from National Geographic, which would take about 60,000 square feet for a waterless and odor-free exhibit. A tiny storefront was leased to Los Tacos No. 1, a popular Mexican taqueria. Airport restaurant operator OHM signed on for a champagne bar, meaning the building was fully leased by August 2016.

The safest buildings to lend to have longtime tenants with proven ability to pay the rent. But the Kushners filled the Times Square property with one-of-a-kind tourist attractions, most of them untested businesses posing unique risks.

“We’re not Gap or Apple, not one of those companies that is known to the market,” Eiran Gazit, a co-founder of Gulliver’s Gate, explained in a November phone interview. “We are a private company and small. There were some landowners who turned us down and are still empty. The Kushners were willing to accept us.” Gazit, who left the company last year and doesn’t speak for the business, said he had met with 17 property owners before signing with the Kushners.

Still, it was a booming market, and Deutsche Bank’s commercial-mortgage unit, which issued a total of $11 billion of New York real estate loans in 2015, was eager to help.

How much was the building worth? That hinged on how much it would make. Total rent of $16 million in 2014, when much of the property was empty, was too conservative. Now that it was fully leased, the Kushners expected $24 million annually, according to a prospectus prepared in connection with the refinancing. Bankers were also optimistic about the Kushners’ ability to slash expenses to $3.9 million a year, about $1.5 million less than 2014, the prospectus said. With an enlarged rent roll and an austere cost structure, net operating income would almost double to $21.5 million, enough to cover about $18 million in interest payments.

Accepting those lofty numbers required no small amount of faith. Only two of the new tenants had moved in, and none was yet paying rent. Nonetheless, the net income figure was used to appraise the property at $470 million, according to the loan documents. By that math, the Kushners had increased its value more than 50% in one year.

The Kushners’ looming income crash

Revenue and expenses by year for 229 West 43rd St.

At that valuation, the $370 million of loans they received in the refinancing looked sober. Most of that amount was used to pay off the existing Brookfield mortgage, with another $26 million placed into reserves. But $59 million went as a payout to Kushner Cos., an astounding return on its original $1 million investment.

“In less than a year, we’ve repositioned the property and transformed it into a top-flight entertainment destination,” Kushner Cos. President Laurent Morali told the Commercial Observer, the trade publication owned by the Kushner family, which broke the news.

The Kushners inauspiciously held their 2016 holiday party at the site of their financial coup: Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar on the West 44th Street side of the Times Square building. The restaurant—named for spiky-haired restaurateur and TV personality Guy Fieri—was the subject of a scathing New York Times review that described a watermelon margarita that tastes like “radiator fluid and formaldehyde.” It would close a year later.

But the Kushners were just at Guy’s for the cavernous space: They brought in a kosher caterer. They had plenty to celebrate. Jared’s father-in-law was going to the White House, the Times Square refinancing was complete, and the family was closing in on a deal with a Chinese insurer to save the overleveraged 666 Fifth Ave.

It was a bittersweet occasion, according to two people who attended. As Charles Kushner hobnobbed with other New York real estate barons, Jared, who would soon be leaving for Washington and stepping away from day-to-day operations, said his goodbyes.

The euphoria didn’t last. In March 2017, Anbang Insurance Group Inc., the Chinese insurer, pulled out of the deal, and Jared’s interactions with the CEO of a Russian state-owned bank came under scrutiny. That led to journalists asking questions about the involvement of Deutsche Bank and Leviev, who’s friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the Times building, the first signs of strain emerged that September. Passersby could peek through windows where the champagne bar was scheduled to open months earlier. The space was empty and unimproved. No work was being done. Wells Fargo, which became manager of the loan after the refinancing, put the property on its watchlist, citing lower-than-expected income to cover debt payments. It was an ignominious designation. And then things got worse.

If there’s one common complaint the Kushners’ Times Square tenants have about their landlord, it’s that the company promised more than it delivered.

For OHM, the dispute was about a hallway. The company said in a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court that it was promised the space for its champagne bar, but it turned out it was needed for shared use. The hallway covered about 2,000 square feet, or one-sixth of the leased space, according to the suit, which accused Kushner Cos. of fraud and breach of contract. The company denied the claims as “salacious and false” and evicted OHM for failing to open on time. The litigation is ongoing.

Gulliver’s Gate alleged in a lawsuit that Kushner Cos. billed it for 5,700 square feet more than it actually had. The company, which disputed the allegation in court papers, sued the attraction for nonpayment of rent.

The attraction had its own share of troubles as business got off to a rocky start. It missed payments to Kushner Cos. and other vendors. But Gulliver’s Gate had one advantage: A space like the one it occupied on the second floor could take years to fill and would require more cash from the Kushners in the form of tenant improvements and a free-rent period after a new tenant moved in. In April, after a months-long legal battle, Charles Kushner capitulated and agreed to cut the rent by almost half starting early next year.

The battle over the National Geographic exhibit hasn’t spilled into court. But it has been costly. SPE Partners stopped paying full rent in August amid a dispute over shared expenses and racked up more than $3 million in unpaid bills by late last year, according to Wells Fargo. Lenders have approved the lease termination, and the space is now being marketed. Still, lenders won’t let the Kushners evict the exhibit, fearing a hole too big to fill, according to a person familiar with the matter. In April, Kushner Cos. told lenders it expects the digital dolphins to remain in place “for a few more months,” Wells Fargo told investors.

One of the National Geographic exhibit’s biggest backers, Fairfax, Virginia-based real estate firm Peterson Companies, sold its stake late last year. A person familiar with the deal said the company didn’t want to continue pouring money into a venture that had lost millions. Angela Sweeney, chief marketing officer for Peterson, said the separation was amicable and declined to comment on the terms.

As the hits came, Kushner Cos. missed a March payment on an $85 million mezzanine portion of its loan, which was promptly restructured on terms that haven’t been disclosed. Last year’s expenses, about $9 million, were more than twice estimates, according to Wells Fargo data. OHM’s absence and Gulliver’s reduced rent have chopped about $5 million off the revenue estimates, and a National Geographic exit could more than double that figure. If that situation doesn’t change, the building won’t be able to cover debt payments.

If the worst happens and the Times Square building goes belly-up, Kushner Cos. and Deutsche Bank won’t bear the brunt of it. That’s because the Kushners put so little money down and took out so much, and because Deutsche Bank sold most of the debt soon after it was issued.

Losses would instead be borne by a broad base of investors, most of whom probably don’t even know they’re exposed. The debtholders are now a series of trusts that also hold other commercial mortgage loans. Those trusts were sliced up and sold to investors as commercial mortgage-backed securities, similar in structure to vehicles that hold home loans.

The Times Square loan has an extra wrinkle that makes things even riskier for its new owners. Kushner Cos. pays only interest until the loan comes due in 2026. The company had a similar deal at 666 Fifth Ave. In the wake of the financial crisis, the issuance of such interest-only loans diminished. But as the economy recovered and more money was chasing deals, lenders loosened underwriting parameters, according to mortgage-securities data provider Trepp. Now more than half of all new commercial loans are interest-only, according to an April report by Trepp. They’re riskier because borrowers don’t pay down principal over time, increasing lender exposure in the event of a downturn.

Whether the Kushners can salvage their Times Square dreams depends on filling the property with reliable tenants. Or finding another savior to swoop in with a sweetheart offer.

[ahnsael]

Wow. I got a letter from Wells Fargo yesterday saying that they were reimbursing me for fees charged to my account between 2001 and 2010. The thing is, I’ve been with credit unions since 2007. I remember having a Wells Fargo account, but it was before the dates they mentioned. So I’m guessing I may have just walked away from that account rather than closing it, and the fees happened after that. It sounds like something I would have done 30 years ago.

The letter included a phone number, which I was about to cross-check with public Wells Fargo phone numbers but the letter says it’s only good Monday-Friday, but my mom (who has an account with Wells Fargo) offered to go tot he bank and ask them about it to be sure it wasn’t a scam.

They said that it’s legit (and not the first time they’ve had to make payments for dishonest business practices, the ones I found being opening accounts for people without their consent, mortgage fraud, forced and unapproved overdraft protection that they charged for, and auto insurance fraud -- Wells Fargo has a long history of fraud), and that I’m good to deposit the check into my current credit union account.

I could use this $288.63, so I’ll deposit it on my way to work tonight.

But given Wells Fargo’s history, I’m not spending it until I know it went through successfully.