First Wall Street indictments coming down

[barrons]

<p>Two Bear Hedge Fund managers. First of many I hope related to the mortgage meltdown debacle.</p>

<p>[Ex-Fund</a> Managers at Bear Stearns Face Indictment : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91646101]Ex-Fund”>Ex-Fund Managers at Bear Stearns Face Indictment : NPR)</p>

[BunsenBurner]

<p>Nice! I’d like to see more.</p>

[BunsenBurner]

<p>And some local heads will roll. Small fry compared to hedge-fund sharks, but it is nice to see crooks get what they deserve:
[6 in Seattle area indicted in “Malicious Mortgage” crackdown | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008006720_webfraud19m.html”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008006720_webfraud19m.html&lt;/a&gt;)

Seattle-area people have been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with “Operation Malicious Mortgage,” a national takedown on mortgage fraud schemes that has resulted in more than 400 arrests nationwide and losses estimated at more than $1 billion — nearly $8.4 million in the Seattle case alone.</p>

<p>Those indicted included a disbarred lawyer, a former bank loan officer and a mortgage broker, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Others include the owner of several shell corporations who “flipped” houses as part of a scheme using unqualified “straw” buyers who allowed inflated loans to be made in their names, only to default on the mortgages, the indictment alleges.</p>

<p>The case is among 144 prosecutions involving 406 people nationally. More than 60 arrests were made Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced.</p>

<p>Among them was Robert Ernest Brandt, 40, a former Bothell attorney who was disbarred in 2006 for failing to properly maintain his client escrow accounts. According to the Washington State Bar, more than $3 million turned up missing from the accounts.</p>

<p>The indictment alleges that Brandt conspired with several others to “flip” houses in Seattle’s red-hot real-estate markets in 2004 and 2005, using the shell companies to buy the homes. The alleged conspirators would create loan papers for the straw buyers for inflated purchase prices and pay them up to $20,000 to sign the papers. The loans would not be paid and the banks would foreclose for a loss.

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