May 19, 2011
I’m writing because I'm a senior citizen involved in assisting homebuyers who were HADD (www.hadd.com) by the builder of their new home. I discovered a large mortgage fraud case in the Kansas City metro area in 1998 and became very aware of the unrestricted fraud that would ultimately destroy our economy. The fraud blossomed throughout the last decade and all of it was due to greed. The mortgage brokers made more money when writing risky mortgages and Wall Street encouraged the writing of risky mortgages to bundle and sell world wide. Much of this could have been averted if pay incentives were based on quality mortgages that are good for the banks and the citizens, and if Wall Street exec's were paid for long term gain rather than short term gain.
My retirement account was seriously diminished due to the greed of these people and the lack of accountability -- If I could see what was going on there is no doubt in my mind that the government had to know -- why didn't they stop it? Please stop listening to lobbyists and listen to the voice of the American people. One way to change the incentives so Wall Street doesn’t collapse our economy again would be for regulators to set up a way for shareholders to grab back ill-gotten gains.
If it turns out that the profits in a given year were built on shoddy practices that become clear in the out-years, those bonus payments should be forfeited.
FYI: It took 10 years, but the fraudster I discovered is serving 9 years in federal prison. His mortgage fraud case was "only" $30,000,000 - small potatoes compared to the Wall Street fraud that up to this date not a single Wall Street criminal has been prosecuted for. Very disappointing to all hard working American citizens who have paid a high price for the fraud committed by multi millionaires.
Thank you for considering my comment,
Nancy Seats