By Cliff Montgomery – Nov. 1st, 2010
“Wall Street titans have a new sweet spot–as surrogate taxcollectors,” states the lead-in for a fascinating video from TheHuffington Post Investigative Fund.
“[Wall Street sees] profits in tacking on fees and threatening toforeclose when homeowners fall behind on property taxes,” addsthe Fund.
Big Finance works overtime to hide these questionable sidebusinesses from the American public–and perhaps also fromU.S. prosecutors.
Many of the foreclosure entities are “a web of obscure companiesoperating out of drop boxes and desolate office parks,” accordingto the Investigative Fund video.
But “despite the anonymity, we traced the companies back to about a dozen Big Banks and hedge funds,”adds the video. These include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and the Fortress hedge fund, according tothe Fund video.
“It’s a very fertile ground for fraud and deception…[so] anonymity is a big problem,” Peter Nickles, AttorneyGeneral for the District of Columbia, tells the Investigative Fund.
“This is a scheme whereby…[the Big Banks and similar entities] are ripping off the homeowners for fees thatare much too high,” the D.C. Attorney General says about this new shell game of Big Finance.
“This is one of the areas [of finance] that really needs to get a good scrubbing,” adds Nickles.
