Our investigation found its way to some great spots around the internet since we posted Part I on Friday evening. Lots of different audiences have added some interesting insights and questions in the comments sections of some of these blogs, too. Here are a few worth checking out:
- Calculated Risk, a major national finance and economics blog, gave us a couple of great mentions in posts for Part I and Part II today.
That blogger added some great lending industry context:
This was happening in 2008. Lenders were supposed to be back to the three C’s: creditworthiness, capacity, and collateral. These straw buyers – who apparently were willing to falsely sign that they were the actual buyers – satisfied the creditworthiness and capacity criteria. But this raises serious questions about the appraisals.
Also McConville timed the multiple applications perfectly so the lender wouldn’t see the other loans apps when they performed a credit check – that is pretty amazing.
- ProPublica, an investigative reporting site, posted our story in a roundup post today. (Also worth clicking on was this important investigation published in yesterday’s LA Times by reporter William Heisel about a failing federal program that was supposed to make foreclosed homes affordable but has instead netted profits for contractors and investors.)
- Piggington picked up the story this weekend, too. Jim Klinge chimed in, posting the TV spot from our story.
- Speaking of that TV spot, our news partners at Cox Channel 4 and NBC 7/39 put together a first-rate package that aired this afternoon, along with a Q&A with Will Carless and me. It’s a great example of the power of television — you can see so clearly the documents that show Jim McConville’s company being sent at least $120,000 from the transactions.
Check out the clip:
Thanks for your comments below; I’ll have answers for some of your question in a follow-up post soon.