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Missing: Oct 28, 2005 Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Eyes: Hazel Race: Black Age Now: 19 Sex: Female Weight: 123 lbs (56 kg)
Hair: Brown Missing From: CHASE CITY, VA
Ms. Whitfield was last seen at her aunts residence before going to a
friends house around 10:00pm. She was supposed to have returned
home on Sunday morning but hasn't been heard from since. http://www.savingourchildren.bravehost.com/
Attorney General Sues Foreclosure Rescue Operations for Fraud and Racketeering
Defendants Allegedly Preyed on Homeowners Desperate to Avoid Foreclosure
TRENTON – Attorney General Anne Milgram today announced the filing of lawsuits charging a total of 37 mortgage loan providers, mortgage industry employees, lawyers and other defendants with consumer fraud and civil racketeering for using predatory “foreclosure rescue” schemes to persuade desperate homeowners to sign over their homes.
The state alleges that the defendants obtained at least $13.5 million worth of fraudulent loans to further their foreclosure rescue schemes. In addition, the state alleges that defendants stole at least $3 million in homeowner equity.
In two separate but related state complaints, the defendants are charged with exploiting the financial hardship and fear of homeowners by convincing them to surrender their homes to third-party or “straw” buyers as part of complex “sale/lease-back” transactions. Homeowners were told that, by signing over their property titles to third-party buyers, they would be able to still live in their homes as renters while repairing damaged credit, and then, in the future, buy back their dwellings.
In reality, the state lawsuits charge, the solvency and renewed home ownership promised by such deals did not materialize. Instead, defendants collected most of the sale/lease-back proceeds for themselves, thereby stripping the homes of their equity value. Struggling homeowners were left with few or no means to pay rent or re-establish their credit. Some of the homeowners have been evicted from their homes, while others remain and continue to pay rent. In some instances, defendants continue to collect the rent but do not apply the rent payments to the mortgage, leaving the homes once again in foreclosure.
“The conduct charged in these lawsuits is unconscionable. These defendants preyed on people who were facing foreclosure and searching for a lifeline that would enable them to get back on their feet and remain in their homes,” said Attorney General Milgram. “Having placed their hope and trust in these defendants, victims ended up far worse off than they were before. It is critical that we root out this kind of fraud and protect consumers who go seeking help from finding complete financial ruin instead.”
Filed on October 15 in New Jersey Superior Court in Bergen County, the state’s lawsuits are against Vest Financial LLC, formerly of Paramus, along with 16 other defendants, and JP Global Property Management, Inc., of Bloomfield, along with 19 other defendants. Five defendants are common to both complaints.
Together, the two complaints allege violations of both the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and the New Jersey Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act involving a total of 48 properties. The properties are located in 14 counties including Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Cape May, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset and Union.
The state alleges that defendants in the Vest complaint stole at least $1.25 million in homeowner equity, while defendants in the JP Global case stole at least $1.75 million in homeowner equity.
As a result of the defendants’ conduct, at least $4 million in fraudulently obtained rescue loans are in default.
The Vest Financial lawsuit names as defendants five corporations and 12 individuals. The JP Global Property Management complaint names as defendants three corporations and 17 individuals.
Among other things, the lawsuits seek court-imposed penalties, restitution for consumers and permanent injunctions banning companies named as defendants from offering foreclosure rescue or credit repair services to consumers. The lawsuits also seek to have the records of the defendants impounded, and the assets of each defendant frozen, with no ability to dispose of any assets.
The two lawsuits are:
Milgram v. Vest Financial, L.L.C: The State’s four-count complaint charges Vest and the other defendants with soliciting consumers facing foreclosure or otherwise experiencing money troubles that could lead to losing their homes.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants advertised “foreclosure rescue” services over the Internet and radio, and by word-of-mouth within the real estate and mortgage broker communities.
The defendants are accused of falsely leading homeowners to believe that surrendering the titles to their homes would save them from foreclosure when, in fact, entering into such a straw-buyer arrangement would only imperil them further while enriching the defendants.
Among other things, the defendants are charged with civil racketeering. Predicate offenses listed in the racketeering count of the lawsuit include theft by deception, forgery, bank fraud and money laundering. The suit also charges violations of the Consumer Fraud Act including unconscionable business practices and making false promises; misrepresentations and knowing omissions of fact; and violation of state advertising regulations. The alleged conduct took place between 2005 and early 2008.
Defendants other than Vest Financial named in the lawsuit, all but one of them from New Jersey, include:
Metropolitan Mortgage Services, Inc., of Cliffside Park; Alex Armani of Cliffside Park; Sohrab Moussavian of Englewood; Anthony Scordo III of West Orange; Felix Nihamin, an attorney who resides in Franklin Lakes and practices in New York City; Francis A. Ciambrone, an attorney with law offices in Paramus; Rhys A. Herrmann, of Belleville; JP Global Property Management LLC of Bloomfield; Peter H. Eckhardt, Jr. of Livingston; Philip Altieri of Flemington; Kristopher Pilone of Manalapan; DBK Realty Investments LLC of Edison; Tom A. Andriopoulos of Washington Township (Bergen County); Settlement Source, LLC of Edison; Vivian M. Ruiz of Hillsdale and Glen B. Thompson, New York .
Milgram v. JP Global Property Management, Inc.: The four-count JP Global Property Management lawsuit, while encompassing more property transactions than the Vest complaint, charges essentially the same fraudulent and collusive conduct in duping distressed homeowners with “foreclosure rescue” schemes.
Again, homeowners facing foreclosure were presented with a way to continue living in their homes by signing over their titles to a third-party buyer. Ostensibly, homeowners would pay “rent” to the new owner while repairing their credit, then would be in a position to buy back their home in the future.
The schemes were typically facilitated, the lawsuit charges, through loan applications and other documents containing false information.
Homeowners often never met the purchaser of their homes and, once having committed to the sale/leaseback transaction, were presented with monthly “rent” terms more costly than their original mortgages. Also, victims typically received no money at closing despite prior assurances the equity in their homes would be theirs to keep.
The defendants are charged with civil racketeering including predicate offenses such as theft by deception, forgery, issuing false financial statements, deceptive business practices and money laundering. The suit also charges violations of the Consumer Fraud Act , including failing to properly conduct settlement proceedings, forging consumer’s names on documents, refusing to provide consumers with copies of sales contracts and other loan papers, making false promises misrepresentations and , knowing omissions of fact, and violation of state advertising regulations. The alleged conduct took place between 2004 and early 2008.
Defendants other than JP Global Property Management named in the lawsuit, all but one of them from New Jersey, include:
Jeremy P. Sorvino of Waldwick; Jeffrey M. Malen of Ringwood; Peter H. Eckhardt, Jr. of Livingston; Christopher William Eckhardt of Washington Township, (Bergen County); Anthony Scordo III of West Orange; Felix Nihamin, an attorney who resides in Franklin Lakes and practices in New York City; Michael J. Andalaft, an attorney with law offices in Cedar Grove; Capital Hill Mortgage, Inc.; Stanley Capital Mortgage Company, Inc. of Englewood Cliffs; Rhys A. Herrmann of Belleville; Brendan Joseph Flynn of Fort Lee; Maryann E. Sorvino of Ridgewood; Frances B. Benna of Elmwood Park; Vincent F. Latorre of Kenilworth; Jennifer R. Kortman of Livingston; Rebecca A. Kortman of Chatham; William McVeigh of Wharton; Mauricio V. Almeida of Colonia and Glenn B. Thompson of New York City.
Attorney General Milgram thanked Deputy Attorney General Megan Lewis, Chief of the Affirmative Litigation Section; Deputy Attorney General Wendy Leggett Faulk of the Affirmative Litigation Section; Assistant Attorney General James J. Savage; and Supervising Investigator Jennifer Micco of the Division of Consumer Affairs, for their hard work on the foreclosure rescue fraud investigation and lawsuits.
Dow soars 936 after major governments pledge to support the global banking system
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street stormed back from last week's devastating losses Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrials soaring a nearly inconceivable 936 points after major governments' plans to support the global banking system reassured distraught investors. All the major indexes rose more than 11 percent.
The market was expected to rebound after eight days of precipitous losses that took the Dow down nearly 2,400 points, but few expected this kind of advance, which saw the Dow by far outstrip its previous record one-day point gain, 499.19, set during the waning days of the dot-com boom. The Standard & Poor's 500 index also set a record for a one-day point gains.
There were cheers and applause on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the closing bell, and trading was so active that prices were still being computed several minutes after the closing bell, longer than it would take on a quieter day.
Still, while the magnitude of Monday's gains stunned investors and analysts, few were ready to say Wall Street had reached a bottom. The market is likely to have back-and-forth trading in the coming days and weeks -- and may well see a pullback when trading resumes Tuesday -- as investors work through their concerns about the banking sector, the stagnant credit markets and the overall economy.
John Lynch, chief market analyst for Evergreen Investments in Charlotte, N.C., said Monday's rally was encouraging but he doubted it signaled the worst has passed.
"My screen is completely green and I love that, but I'm not doing any backflips yet. We still have many challenges up ahead," Lynch said, noting the ongoing strains in credit markets and forecasts for poor corporate earnings for 2009.
Denis Amato, chief investment officer at Ancora Advisors, said it's too soon to say whether the market has started to carve out a bottom and that the credit markets where many companies turn for day-to-day loans will need to loosen for stocks to hold their gains. With the U.S. bond markets and banks closed Monday for Columbus Day, it was difficult for investors to gauge the reaction of the credit markets to actions by major governments.
He said the severity of the selling last week was one possible signal that the market might be nearing a bottom and that the stepped up intervention of the government is a welcome sign for the markets.
"I think we had enough negatives last week that if the government steps in we could have a pretty nice run. Is it off to the races? No, I don't think so. We have a lot of stuff to work through."
The market did appear to take heart when the Bush administration said it is moving quickly to implement its $700 billion rescue program, including consulting with law firms about the mechanics of buying ownership shares in a broad number of banks to help revive the stagnant credit markets and in turn get the economy moving again.
Neel Kashkari, the assistant Treasury secretary who is interim head of the program, said in a speech Monday officials were also developing guidelines to govern the purchase of soured mortgage-related assets. However, he gave few details about how the program will actually buy bad assets and bank stock.
A relatively tame finish to Friday's session and a weekend off gave analysts and investors some time to reassess last week's tumultuous trading. And stock prices that were decimated by frenetic selling are now looking attractive.
Jim King, chief investment officer at National Penn Investors Trust Co., said the fear that took hold of the markets last week was overwrought and could signal that a bottom is near. When selling turns so frenetic that it hits a broad swath of stocks indiscriminately, as it did last week, many market watchers say a market low is at hand. That creates opporunity, King noted.
"We have exceptional companies at fire sale prices," he said.
Still, King cautioned that any market rebound likely will be choppy.
"Even if this is the beginning of a recovery we're not just going to have up markets from here on in," he said. "We're not through the woods. We think there is collateral damage from this debacle." King pointed to an increase in unemployment and nervousness among consumers that could, for example, hurt retailers and in turn, take stocks lower.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 936.42, or 11.08 percent, to 9,387.61. The Dow's previous record for a one-day point gain was 499.19, or 4.93 percent, on March 16, 2000.
Broader stock indicators also jumped Monday. The S&P 500 index advanced 104.13, or 11.58 percent, to 1,003.35; it was the biggest point gain ever for the S&P 500, eclipsing the 66.33, or 4.76 percent, jump it had on March 16, 2000. It was the biggest percentage gain for the index since March 15, 1933, when it surged 16.6 percent.
The Nasdaq rose 194.74, or 11.81 percent, to 1,844.25, its 10th biggest point gain; during the dot-com boom, the index soared as much as 324.83 in one day. Its percentage gain Monday was second to the 14.2 percent logged Jan. 3, 2001, the same day that the Nasdaq set its record for a one-day point gain.
About 3,030 stocks advanced on the New York Stock Exchange, while only about 160 declined -- a reversal from last week, when declining stocks overwhelmed the gainers. But the trading volume of 1.82 billion shares was lighter than it had been last week, suggesting there was less conviction in the buying than during last week's selling.
Lynch described the mood among investors as "relaxed" compared to the hysteria of last week's crushing losses.
Wall Street was cheered by word from the Bank of England that it would use up to $63 billion to help the three largest British banks strengthen their balance sheets.
The Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank also jointly announced plans to work together to provide as much short-term funding as necessary to help revive lending.
After a series of weekend meetings in Washington of heads of the Group of Seven nations, the gains in global markets signaled that investors found comfort from the actions and pledges coming from government officials.
The surge in stocks comes after a dismal week on Wall Street that erased an estimated $2.4 trillion in shareholder wealth. The Dow, after eight consecutive daily losses that totaled just under 2,400, or 22.1 percent, finished at its lowest level since April 2003, and also suffered its worst weekly percentage loss ever, a fall of 18.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each lost 15.3 percent last week.
Recoveries from past crashes have taken considerable time. When the market crashed Oct. 19, 1987, sending the Dow down 508 points to 1,738.34, the blue chips had lost 938 points, or 36.1 percent, since reaching a then-record close of 2,722.42 on Aug. 25, 1987. It took just over 15 months for the Dow to get back to its pre-crash level, and almost two years to the day -- Aug. 24, 1989 -- to reach a new closing high, 2,734.64.
The Dow has an even larger percentage drop to regain this time. By Friday's close, the average had fallen 5,713 points, or 40.3 percent, from its record finish of 14,165.43 a year earlier, on Oct. 9, 2007. More recently, it has had fallen 2,970, or 26 percent, from its close before the Sept. 15 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the event that triggered the freeze-up in the credit markets and that sent stocks plunging.
Investors have worried that banks' reluctance to lend to one another would imperil economic activity by making it harder and more expensive for businesses and consumers to get a loan. The mid-September bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. exposed major fault lines in the credit market as investors lost money on bad debt. That triggered a tightening of lending conditions.
"Everybody is basically waiting on the decision on where they're going to inject cash," Dave Rovelli, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Canaccord Adams in New York, said of Bush administration officials. He said with the bond markets closed, U.S. government officials are likely holding off on announcement of details about where it might invest money until all major global markets are open.
Rovelli said that a sustainable advance on Wall Street could prove elusive.
"Everybody knew that we were going to have an up day eventually," he said, warning that the rally doesn't necessarily signal an end of the market's troubles.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Light, sweet crude rose $3.49 to $81.19 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after oil fell to its lowest level in 13 months last week.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 48.41, or 9.27 percent, to 570.89.
Investors in Asia and Europe also grabbed stocks after last week's rout and the weekend moves by governments to bolster investor confidence.
In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged 10.2 percent. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday. In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 jumped 8.26 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 11.4 percent, and France's CAC-40 surged 11.2 percent.
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama today sent the following letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart, calling on them to address news reports that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs will receive millions of dollars in severance packages even as they are removed from their posts. When Congress originally approved the authority for the Treasury Department to step in and rescue these companies this summer, it explicitly included a provision that gave the new regulator the authority to block golden parachute payments to CEOs. As the Bush Administration now takes unprecedented steps to rescue these companies with taxpayer dollars, it would be highly inappropriate and a violation of the public trust to allow windfall CEO severance pay packages.
In the letter, Senator Obama calls on the Administration to provide him with the steps being taken to ensure that these companies fulfill their important missions without wasting taxpayer dollars or rewarding poor leadership.
The text of the letter is below:
Dear Secretary Paulson and Director Lockhart,
News reports indicate that the chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will stand to reap millions of dollars in severance payments when they are removed from their posts. Under no circumstances should the executives of these institutions earn a windfall at a time when the U.S. Treasury has taken unprecedented steps to rescue these companies with taxpayer resources. I urge you immediately to clarify that the agreement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac voids any such inappropriate windfall payments to outgoing CEOs and senior management.
When Congress granted the Department of the Treasury the authority to step in and rescue Fannie and Freddie, we explicitly included a provision that gave the new regulator the authority to block "any" payments made to CEOs that were "contingent on the termination" of their affiliation with the organization. It would be a gross violation of the public trust to fail to use this authority now, while American taxpayers and American homeowners, already struggling in a weak economy, are being asked to accept an historic intervention to rescue these institutions.
I recognize that intervention is necessary to maintain liquidity for the housing market so that homeowners can continue to get affordable mortgages and homes can be bought and sold in neighborhoods across the country. Yet one of the central requirements that I have consistently set in evaluating any intervention under this new legislation is that such action protect taxpayers and not bail out senior management from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Multi-million dollar severance payments for the executives who helped steer these institutions into the current crisis situation would violate the spirit of the authority granted by Congress to the Treasury Department and would violate the public's trust.
I understand that details of the agreement are still being worked out. Please let me know right away what steps are being taken to ensure that the agreement is responsible and that Fannie and Freddie can continue to fulfill their important missions without wasting taxpayer dollars or rewarding poor leadership. The American people are watching and have put their trust in us to look out for their interests.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator
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