Replies to post #7952 on NSS ~ Counterfeiting Stock ~ MM Games Played

[SevenTenEleven]

BAC - BofA in $335M settlement over Countrywide loans

Bank of America to pay $335M in settlement with DOJ over discriminatory lending


By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press | AP – 1 hour 43 minutes ago


Bank of America agreed to pay $335 million to resolve allegations that its Countrywide unit engaged in a widespread pattern of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers on home loans.

The settlement with the U.S. Justice Department was filed Wednesday with the Central District court of California and is subject to court approval. The DOJ says it's the largest settlement in history over residential fair lending practices.

According to the DOJ's complaint, Countrywide charged over 200,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers higher fees and interest rates than non-Hispanic white borrowers with a similar credit profile. The complaint says that these borrowers were charged higher fees and rates because of their race or national origin rather than any other objective criteria.

"These institutions should make judgments based on applicants' creditworthiness, not on the color of their skin," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "With today's settlement, the federal government will ensure that the more than 200,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers who were discriminated against by Countrywide will be entitled to compensation."

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. bought the nation's largest subprime lender, Countrywide Financial Corp., in 2008.

Dan Frahm, a Bank of America spokesman, said in a statement that the bank does not practice lending based on race.

"We discontinued Countrywide products and practices that were not in keeping with our commitment and will continue to resolve and put behind us the remaining Countrywide issues," Frahm said.
The United States' complaint says that Countrywide was aware that the fees and interest rates that its loan officers were charging discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers, but failed to impose meaningful limits or guidelines to stop it.

By steering borrowers into subprime loans from 2004 to 2007, the complaint alleges, Countrywide harmed those qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers. Subprime loans generally carried costlier terms, such as prepayment penalties and significantly higher adjustable interest rates that increased suddenly after two or three years, making the payments unaffordable and leaving the borrowers at a much higher risk of foreclosure.

"Countrywide's actions contributed to the housing crisis, hurt entire communities, and denied families access to the American dream," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

The settlement amount will be used to compensate victims of Countrywide's discriminatory mortgage loans from 2004 through 2007, when Countrywide originated millions of residential mortgage loans as the nation's largest single-family mortgage lenders.

Gogoi reported from New York, Pickler from Washington

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bofa-335m-settlement-over-countrywide-202235996.html

[SevenTenEleven]

HRTT - SEC accuses Willie Gault of fraud in Heart Tronics case

Former NFL player Willie Gault and five other men are accused by the SEC of fraudulently inflating the stock of Heart Tronics, a Studio City medical products company.


By Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times

December 21, 2011

Former professional football player Willie Gault spent his NFL career evading opponents' defenses. Now he's facing the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Gault and five other men, including Rowland Perkins, a co-founder of Creative Artists Agency, were accused by the SEC of fraudulently inflating the stock of a Studio City medical products company.

The company, Heart Tronics, claimed to have received millions of dollars in orders for its Fidelity 100 heart-monitoring device but had no actual customers, according to the SEC.

In its complaint filed Tuesday, the agency said Heart Tronics was secretly controlled by Mitchell J. Stein, an attorney from Hidden Hills who went to great lengths to tout the stock.

Among tactics to deceive company auditors, the SEC said, Stein had another defendant fly to Japan for a day to mail a letter from a fictitious customer. Stein reaped nearly $8 million through secret sales of Heart Tronics shares, the agency said.

Jared Scharf, an attorney for Gault, Perkins and Heart Tronics, said the company and the two men would fight the SEC allegations. Heart Tronics has a "breakthrough medical device" that Gault and Perkins believe "will save tens of thousands of lives and tens of millions of dollars in medical expenses," Scharf said.

Stein could not be reached for comment. He pleaded not guilty after being arrested in a parallel criminal investigation, the SEC said.

In its complaint, the agency said Stein installed Gault, a onetime Olympian and Super Bowl-winning wide receiver for the 1985 Chicago Bears, as a "figurehead" chief executive to draw on his celebrity.

"Stein took advantage of Gault's celebrity to further prop up the image of Heart Tronics as a successful enterprise," Stephen L. Cohen, the SEC's associate enforcement director, said in a statement.

"Stein secretly sold millions of dollars in stock while peddling false claims of Heart Tronics' lucrative sales orders, and has been living the high life off his illicit proceeds with multiple homes, exotic cars and private jets," Cohen said.

Despite being co-CEOs, Gault and Perkins "rarely questioned" the specifics of Heart Tronics' operations, according to the SEC complaint. Gault also defrauded an investor by diverting $150,000 intended to finance the company's operations to his personal brokerage account to trade Heart Tronics stock, the SEC alleged.

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http://www.latimes.com/business/fi-sec-gault-20111221,0,2424567.story?track=rss