Interesting Albuquerque Journal Headline..
JP MORGAN- Collusion scheme to Bleed Santa Fe mortgage company dry...
Five major banks engaged in “a collusive scheme” for more than a year to fraudulently bleed Santa Fe’s Thornburg Mortgage of almost $2 billion until the firm had no choice but to seek U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection in 2009, according to a complaint filed in a federal bankruptcy court in Baltimore.
Joel I. Sher, a court-appointed trustee who represents TMST Inc. — which is how Thornburg Mortgage is now known — filed his 85-page complaint Saturday, saying the banks initiated a “host of unjustified margin calls” in February 2008.
The complaint said they dunned the company for unjustified payments in violation of agreements they executed in March 2008, eventually claimed virtually all of the company’s on-going revenue sources, then liquidated Thornburg Mortgage assets that they held, leaving the company no choice but to seek bankruptcy court protection.
Sher’s complaint identifies the banks as J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, RBS and UBS. According to the Wall Street Journal, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase said the complaint has no merit. The remaining banks had no comment.
Garret Thornburg was a founder of both Thornburg Mortgage and Thornburg Investment Management, which has no legal connection to and never held investments in the mortgage company. Thornburg Investment, based in Santa Fe, manages several mutual funds.
A spokesman for Thornburg Investment Management said Tuesday that the company is not a party to the bankruptcy proceedings and would have no comment on Sher’s complaint. Former Thornburg Mortgage President Larry Goldstone did not respond to messages seeking comment.
J.P. Morgan Chase was named in the complaint because it now owns Bear Stearns, which Sher says was one of the firms that hatched the scheme.
Until a global credit drought that began in 2007 sent the company reeling, Thornburg Mortgage was the nation’s second largest independent mortgage company and New Mexico’s largest publicly traded company, by market capitalization.
The company made its money mostly by investing in high-quality residential mortgages backed securities. It financed those investments primarily through complicated agreements with banks and securities firms. It also originated residential mortgages and bought mortgages from other companies, which it would then bundle into securities that it would market to investors. Far from subprime mortgages, Thornburg dealt only with high-quality borrowers who wanted mortgages on high-end properties.
In the first two months of 2008, Thornburg received $1.8 billion in margin calls from its creditors. A margin call is made when the asset securing a loan or a financial derivative falls below an agreed-upon level. Sher said these calls were an “unjustified” effort by institutional investors to reduce their holdings of mortgage-backed securities and other financial instruments. He called the margin calls “aggressive or sometimes improper.”
Sher claims the banks named in his complaint demanded higher payments than they were entitled to receive. He said Thornburg was facing “a deluge” of margin calls, which made it impossible to contest every questionable demand for payment.
Thornburg and the banks agreed in March 2008 to modify the financing agreements they had in place, in some cases, for years. Sher said Thornburg believed the new deal gave the company a year of respite from margin calls from the five banks. That deal allowed it to raise more than $1 billion in new capital, according to the complaint.
However, over the course of the year, Sher said, the banks continually demanded more payments until finally Thornburg had no resources to run its business. Shortly before Thornburg entered bankruptcy proceedings in May 2009, the banks began liquidating Thornburg securities they held as collateral.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
Photo Credit – JOURNAL FILE
Cutline – The bankruptcy trustee for Thornburg Mortgage is suing Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and other big banks for a combined $2 billion. This is a file photo of the sprawling Thornburg Cos. campus in Santa Fe where Thornburg Mortgage used to operate.
