New @Forbes: Bank of America Plays Hide And Seek Using Fannie Mae
I’m either spending way too much time on the site “They Rule” or I’ve been doing this too long.
Making the non-obvious connections between the audit firms and their clients, between the clients and each other, and between the firms and each other is like shooting fish in a barrel. As each new story comes out, especially about the banks, the web of connections and the repeated attempts by desperate executives to move the same deck chairs around on the financial system Titanic are becoming easier to spot.
Sometimes I don’t even have to close my eyes to see the last story where the same guy or the same assets or the same scam is mentioned.
Yesterday it was news of the sale of servicing rights to a gazillion dollars of almost worthless mortgages by Bank of America to Fannie Mae. Why Fannie Mae? Because they are so good at using their marketing skills to “conduit” bad paper from the very needy to the less needy. But is the next guy really a sucker or do they know something we don’t? When was the last time Fannie Mae assisted the system in this way? And how do we know it was rotten paper crossing from one bad actor to perhaps another on a government-sponsored bridge built of the taxpayers’ aching backs?
And who is standing on the sidelines watching it all with a wink, a nudge, and a “say no more”?
For the answers to these and other questions, you’ll have to read, “Fool Me Twice: Bank of America Plays Hide and Seek Using Fannie Mae.”
Here’s a teaser:
The last time Fannie Mae got involved in shape-shifting servicing rights to hide fraudulent activity was Taylor Bean Whitaker. That‘s the mortgage originator, audited by Deloitte, that used Fannie Mae’s silence and their influence, according to Bloomberg, to market servicing rights on bad loans to GMAC.
How do we know the most recent $73 billion portfolio might be full of loser loans made via potentially fraudulent means? Fannie Mae told us so when they sued Countrywide, the mortgage originator and source of significant woe Bank of America bought in 2008.