Subprime Criminals

Coming back to how Corporate America royally screws ordinary citizens, one of the lowest "professions" in recent memory is the practice of giving subprime mortgages to people in lower income brackets. Recently Senator Schumer (D-NY) has come out to decry the practice, although not until the market started to feel the effects of tens of thousands of foreclosures. Now State Senator Jeff Klein is highlighting the worst of the worst banks that swooped into New York to entice homeowners with their predatory lending practices.

From The Daily News:

State Sen. Jeffrey Klein released a list of the 10 lending institutions with the highest number of foreclosures in the city and Westchester Sunday, costing thousands of homeowners their savings, their homes and their hopes for the future.

"These, in many cases, are the originators of these subprime loans ... which got people into all the problems," Klein (D-Bronx, Westchester) said at a news conference on Wall St.

Topping Klein's list is Fremont Bank, a California-based company that saw 330 foreclosure filings on loans it approved in the city and Westchester between July 1, 2006, and July 31, 2007.

During that 13-month period, 14,561 foreclosures related to the subprime crisis have been filed in the city, Klein said.

It is great to see local politicians shine light on the worst offenders. These banks should be at minimum fined and bank officers definitely prosecuted to the full extent of the law for their deceptive practices. Of course, we need to see federal laws that would make an impact on these crooks and perhaps Schumer can start to make that happen.