If This Guy Gets A Job, I Officially Renounce The Entire Mortgage Industry
”…it’s better in fact to be guilty of manslaughter than of fraud about what is fair and just.” — Plato
I found this article yesterday on Housing Doom….
When I read this guy’s story yesterday I thought, “This has GOT to be fake. NO ONE would confess to making millions, committing mortgage fraud, and then post it on the internet.” I was wrong, and he did….read more
I will not dignify or validate this nauseating confession/resume by posting it here, but you can read it if you like by following the link contained in the article written on Housing Doom.
Basically, this guy was a wholesale account executive who was trained to commit mortgage fraud, among many other transgressions. He publicly admits to all of this. Why? He feels bad about it AND believes he is the best candidate to run a national mortgage fraud prevention organization.
His suggestion that he should be in charge of investigating mortgage fraud, based solely on his experience in committing mortgage fraud, is insulting to those of us who have worked in the mortgage business, and did so with integrity. This is akin to suggesting that a child abductor is the best person to watch your children because he knows, from his first-hand experience as a criminal, what to look out for.
This jack-ass should not only be forever banned from working in the mortgage business in any capacity, but he should also be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He has confessed, in writing, to dozens of crimes.
I can’t decide which of his statements is the MOST appalling, but one of the many things that offends me is that he seems to blame the company he worked for. It sounds like he is saying he was just some innocent kid, right out of high school, and these evil managers lured him over to the dark side. I’m not suggesting the folks that trained him are any less culpable. I am just offended that he insults our intelligence by suggesting that he didn’t know that what he was doing was illegal.
He feels bad about what he did? Nonsense. We all know that what he actually feels bad about is that he is no longer making millions of dollars by throwing trusting borrowers under the bus. When did he develop a “conscience”? When he got busted, the economy tanked and the money stopped rolling in.
There are thousands of qualified mortgage industry professionals who are in need of employment (myself included). Our credentials are not based on committing fraud, but on years of uncovering it. We do not need a confessed criminal policing our already tarnished and shattered industry.
Thanks for stopping by!
While I understand your point that he should not be rewarded for committing dozens of crimes, he is, perhaps, the most qualified to do something about people like himself. Remember that he got away with his scheme, which means that he knows what loopholes he was taking advantage of, and therefore how to prevent someone else from doing the same thing.
Frank Abagnale, the man behind Catch Me If You Can, was hired to prevent check fraud, because he was the most qualified to prevent it. However, in his case, he was working under close supervision, and in the case you mention, I would expect the same. In fact, if I recall correctly, Frank Abagnale had to do the work he did as payment for his crimes, and perhaps that is what should be done in this case – not hire him, but make it a part of his sentence that he has to work with the appropriate organization to find ways to detect and prevent a repeat of his own actions.
SMMTAM, I agree with you.
I passed this along to my husband, who commented the guy should get the job for minimum wage. (Ha!)
Oooh! I like the payback idea but can we apply it to an even broader spectrum than just Mr. Fraudy Pants? Can I get my money back from AIG, BofA and Merril? Or can I at least get the $5000 papyrus trash basket? I’m sick about the corporate fraud. What can my kids grow up to be anymore? I guess stock boy is still a “clean” profession!
And why shouldn’t he be richly rewarded? We have all types of criminals writing our laws in Washington DC, and they’re putting tax cheats and frauds in charge of our fiscal policies. We’re taking more and more tax dollars from the working poor to bail out companies that were run so poorly while the millionaire creeps in charge not only aren’t held accountable, they use the bailout money for bonuses. Makes me sick.
Update: Mortgage “Fraudster” Flees on Private Jet
Frank Abagnale was tried, convicted and served jail sentences before being offered the option of working with the FBI, without pay, as a condition of his parole. He was also the arguably-brilliant master-mind of his own crimes. That is not the case with the person I am referring to, who just did what he was told in an industry that was famous for overlooking fraud in order to make more money. This guy is no Frank Abagnale. None of the fraud he committed was ingenious and any of the thousands of unemployed mortgage professionals who worked in the business for any length of time and did not commit fraud are more than qualified to do the job he is hoping to obtain.
LOL – even minimum wage may be too much. I’m thinking he should pay back the money he earned through his criminal activities. Isn’t that how it works with drug dealers….their homes, cars, etc. are all confiscated and sold at auction.
LOL – yes, but our kids shouldn’t have to settle for menial labor just because of criminals. I’ll fight you for the $5000 trash basket, just to see what it looks like. I mean, does it do your laundry, vacuum, do dishes or something?!!