What The Costumes Reveal

New York Times:

On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes. Steven J. Baum is, in fact, the largest such firm in New York; it represents virtually all the giant mortgage lenders, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[gtp]

02:23 PM on 11/01/2011

I wonder if Romney and Bachmann would ctie this behavior as another example of "class warfare."

[Jack Webb]

11:30 AM on 11/04/2011

That would require some honesty on their parts.

[Jethrine]

05:31 PM on 10/31/2011

Monsters do exist, and they work at the law firm of Stephen J. Baum.

[banker67]

09:46 AM on 11/02/2011

" The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it."

-- 'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck, 1939

It's painful and very scary to read this book now, and fabulous though the film version is, it's almost as frightening as the book. It may be on Youtube; haven't checked.

[Jethrine]

04:15 PM on 11/06/2011

Thank you for that wonderful quote. How is it that I have missed reading The Grapes of Wrath? You have inspired me to go to the library today--I can't wait read it suddenly. Thank you. :)

[Lotto]

08:49 PM on 10/30/2011

Who is this anonymous? Why didn't the want their name used? Horrified or getting even? A year after the party? Guess the poor and homeless are great fodder for revenge or the person would have stood up and been counted.

[norepublicanleftbehind]

04:49 PM on 10/30/2011

The firm better be hidin' in the grass when the fool catcher comes if they think we don't think they' re mocking.

These photos ought to be held up and t-shirts in every meeting of congress for the next two years.

[norepublicanleftbehind]

04:46 PM on 10/30/2011

Between this and the Chicago traders dropping leaflets on the Occupied is beginning to look very much like the French revolution.

[norepublicanleftbehind]

04:40 PM on 10/30/2011

Can we please get this story on the front page?

[banker67]

01:27 PM on 10/31/2011

I second that.
Why is this story not way up near the top? It so clearly reveals the real emotional drive behind the foreclosure juggernaut.
Lenders and their hired legal thugs despise the 1040 caste and are precisely the sort of people who so obviously enjoy their work of putting the weak out on the street.
This incident says more about the foreclosure scandal than all the econ-babble of all the economists and experts combined.
THIS is a truth readers can understand on a profound level.

[BdoMcGregor]

03:00 AM on 11/02/2011

I agree also. I had to search deep for this story after seeing it on both Maddow and Democracy Now. All the people citing class warfare from the left need to see this.

[banker67]

09:33 AM on 11/02/2011

Did anyone see this story in the major TV news? I see it was on Fox, which is amazing given their corporate leadership, but did it play on other networks?

Your point about class warfare is well made. But 'class warfare' is just another of the GOP/right-wing slogans tested and honed by expensive marketing firms to make sure it resonates powerfully with the upper- and middle-middle class - those who still believe they have a shot at reaching the tax-exempt, legally unfettered and morally vacuous nirvana of the 1%.

It works. But as you point out, sometimes the murderous rage of the rich can be glimpsed behind King-Kong-high walls that preserve the sacred privacy of the platinum juggernaut.

[Sunlightswim]

01:29 PM on 10/30/2011

No more fines! It's time people like this and all Banksters go to prison!! Send them to Attica

[ejhickey]

11:24 PM on 10/30/2011

what law did they break?

[Jack Webb]

02:44 AM on 11/01/2011

The CRIME they committed that of ruining the economy five years ago.

If Obama had a pair, he would have subsequently instructed the DOJ to figure out specifically what charges could be leveled against them in a court of law.

And then done so.

[willowraven]

01:28 PM on 10/30/2011

Well the only thing I can say about this is I have lived long enough to know that "WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND" These people will get theirs. No one is immune to Karma.. I hope some one remember to remind them of this when they are down & out.

[booond]

12:24 PM on 10/30/2011

Their website is down - self-imposed or overwhelmed. However, their Linked-in Page and pages of their followers are still up with names and pictures. If I were them, I'd try to go invisible. Linked-in shows us how close each of us are to hate.

[outtopastur]

12:24 PM on 10/30/2011

"On October 6, 2011, a settlement agreement was signed regarding the practices of one of the largest foreclosure mills in the country, Steven J. Baum, P.C., a law firm operating from Amherst, New York. The settlement was obtained by Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY. The investigation was conducted by the Civil Frauds Unit of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York which investigated under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 ("FIRREA).

Under the settlement, the Baum Firm is required to pay $2 million and make significant reforms, but is still allowed to say (paragraph 4): "This Agreement does not constitute a finding by any Court or Agency that Baum has engaged in any unlawful practice or wrongdoing of any kind.

Further relief may be forthcoming, from both criminal prosecutions, the NY Bar, and most certainly from private class action and RICO lawsuits brought by private litigants.

This is a first-of-its-kind settlement with one significant party in the foreclosure fraud morass".

http://www.frauddigest.com/news.php

[kareemachan]

11:48 AM on 10/30/2011

I googled the firm and found that they have now apologized for this - and get this: all of a sudden their party this year 'raised money for the Red Cross'. I'd like to see how much money was raised, and pictures of the party, personally, before I believe this. Let's see the check, Stevie.

Also, I find it interesting that I can't get on their website this morning. Either lots of other people are trying to do the same, or they've shut it down. One has to wonder why they might have felt compelled to do that....

[GetRealSoon]

12:25 PM on 10/30/2011

Must be a pattern. That happen here in Calif. where a fake lawyer mortgage rescue group was catechize about their business practices so they grabbed a conscience raising money for the Red Cross. My guess is it's for the big charity tax write off soon to be followed by bankruptcy.

[willowraven]

01:18 PM on 10/30/2011

Have you ever check to see how much the CEO of the Red Cross makes? It came through in an email and it's close to 1 Million per year + perks.. Not sure of the figures, I just read it in passing.. It was telling you what charities and where the money goes and to who. Salvation Army the CEO takes no pay..

[hamsteronwheel]

11:47 AM on 10/30/2011

we are all hamsters on neocon "financially engineered" and "financially innovated" wheels

Wed Aug. 4, 2010

"...they were up against one of Florida's biggest foreclosure law firms: Founded by multimillionaire attorney David J. Stern, it controlled one-fifth of the state's booming market in foreclosure-related services."

"While the mortgage fiasco has "SO FAR" COST AMERICAN HOMEOWNERS AND ESTIMATED $7 TRILLION in lost equity, it has made Stern (no relation to NBA commissioner David J. Stern) fabulously rich.

His $15 million, 16,000-square-foot mansion occupies a corner lot in a private island community on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It is featured on a water-taxi tour of the area's grandest estates, along with the abodes of Jay Leno and billionaire Blockbuster founder Wayne Huizenga, as well as the former residence of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. (Last year, Stern snapped up his next-door neighbor's property for $8 million and TORE DOWN THE HOUSE TO MAKE WAY FOR A TENNIS COURT.)

Docked outside is Misunderstood, Stern's 130-foot, jet-propelled Mangusta yacht—a $20 MILLION-PLUS replacement for his previous 108-foot Mangusta.

He also owns four Ferraris, four Porsches, two Mercedes-Benzes, a Cadillac, and a Bugatti."

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/david-stern-djsp-foreclosure-fannie-freddie

$6 million beachfront condominium in the city, a $6 million home in nearby Hillsboro Beach

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-19/florida-attorney-buys-bugatti-yacht-mansion-with-his-foreclosure-fortune.html/

[Don Giovanni]

11:32 AM on 10/30/2011

They must be vying for the Guiness Award for "Most Demonstrated Lack of Class."

[norepublicanleftbehind]

04:43 PM on 10/30/2011

I think we have a winner!

[OneLiberalLady]

11:26 AM on 10/30/2011

Dancing on people's graves is so much fun.

[Edwin Deuning]

11:23 AM on 10/30/2011

This is the disconnect that arises when a price tag is attached to how many foreclosures you can file in a week. Our system is definitely broken when profit is the motivating force at the expense of human beings. Additional taxes to fund social services will not be suppported by these people, until they experiance the unfortunate luck remiscent of their victims. Its sad and very troubling that the Baum employees don't show any compassion what so ever.