Why the delay for The Informant?
Quite frankly, it’s been more of a statute of limitations thing, more than anything else. I recently got asked that same question, and the delay is because of permissibility to write about my capacity as an informant for the FBI. With two different jurisdictions, that being Florida and California, there are different timelines. I thought that could be subverted with a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request, but even that came back like something out of Mission Impossible. I quote you, per the May 2024 letter from the Department of Justice: “The FBI can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records responsive to your request pursuant to Privacy Act exemptions. Your request specially seeks FBI confidential informant records. The mere acknowledgment of the existence or nonexistence of such records would reveal confidential informant identifies and information, expose law enforcement techniques, and endanger the life or physical safety of individuals.”
That seems a bit extreme.
Even more odd, the first FOIA I sought in 2014 came back without an issue. The documents were provided on a CD-ROM and certified letter that my fingerprint card would not be returned. Evidently, FOIA requests require a fingerprint card. I had forgot about that.
Notwithstanding, where did this all take place?
In 2010, I got a call while doing some mortgage operations work in Florida. It was a result of two condos in Burbank, California I sold to a mortgage fraud ring based out of Sacramento. Clearly, this mortgage fraud outfit had done the same thing to other property sellers – without me knowing the true intent, since the buyers overpaid for my properties, and paid themselves a fee at the close of escrow. For me, it was really dumb luck in the purist form, given those two properties were going into foreclosure.
Please explain?
The fee, or spread was typically the difference between the payoff of the old loan and the purchase price. Meaning, if the old loan or pre-existing lien was $650k, they pay $800k for the property under the guise that it’s a 1031 tax exchange, which are typically bought over list price in order to avoid the tax hit on the buyers’ downleg, which is the property their coming out of. The upleg refers to the replacement property, in 1031 lingo. As an ex-commercial real estate broker, those terms aren’t foreign to me. The net between the lien and close price is the ‘take’ for the fraudster. And that’s how it works. Between 2010 to 2012 I worked with the FBI to bring the case to fruition. In 2012 it was all over.
Were you arrested or detained?
Since I was a cooperating witness, I had nothing to lose. And since I had done nothing wrong, I sincerely had no real fear of going to jail. I only had to tell the truth. In a real sense, I was the unsuspecting “mule”. If my FBI handlers had been overly zealous, they could have made things very difficult for me. Anytime you get a call from a law enforcement agency – unless it’s to sell tickets to the Policeman’s Ball, it’s not gonna be a good day.
You also mention in The Informant about Wells Fargo Bank, and the whistleblower issues it faced, or is facing.
That would be a small part of the book. The focus of The Informant is the 2-year time frame from 2010 to 2012 regarding the mortgage fraud ring in Sacramento. They sought and bought multiple properties leading up to and after the real estate implosion in 2008. As for Wells, in 2016-2017, I came across some damming documents that would be of intertest in a civil prosecution on behalf of the federal government. As a mortgage operations management consultant during this time period, I worked nationwide on projects administrated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to facilitate bailout programs to help people avoid foreclosures.
What type of programs?
The whole alphabet of government programs, like HARP, HAMP, TARP, the Safe Act, etc.
And how where you a whistleblower?
I never said I was a whistleblower. A person or job headhunter approached me about my mortgage portfolio background and wanted to ascertain my access to internal correspondence at Wells Fargo Bank in connection with their denial of thousands of loan modification applications. Ultimately, I never assisted with this outfit’s litigation, since it was never guaranteed I’d get paid, since a legal action of this type nearly always ensures payment to a whistleblower should they provide evidence of a company’s transgressions against the federal government. Long story short. This outfit essentially stated they could not guarantee payment on their behalf because of the documents I would provide to them – which was several hundred pages, might not be considered “critical” to the settlement. As a whistleblower, I would not have access to privileged documents and could never have proof they used my documents. It was all subjective.
What did they mean by critical?
This was basically a get out of jail card from this outfit, should the documents not be deemed important or critical to the settlement win; and essentially, decide they just didn’t have to or want to pay me. Nice. They even double downed and said if that happened, I could protest non-payment to the federal judge adjudicating the case. Unbelievable, I thought. They’re basically advising me what to do if they decide to screw me, and if that happened, I’d be double screwed given the code of brotherhood amongst lawyers and judges. This brings transparency to a whole new level. It’s next level transparency predicated upon an incestuous conspiracy of judicial exploitation.
What does that mean?
It means the judges don’t get involved, and will side with the lawyers on their discretion as to payment to a secondary whistleblower, which is what I would have been.
Anything else about The Informant.
Nope. Just hope to get it wrapped up sooner than later. There’s lots of historical data related to the crash of 2008, mortgage fraud and how its committed, profile cases of mortgage fraud rings, real estate scams, and important financial acts over the past 50 years, such as the Glass Steagall Act, FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), the formation of CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) and the other alphabet government entities, regulatory acts and bodies, such as TARP, HARP, HAMP, CARES, MHA (Making Home Affordable), and the HHF (Hardest Hit Fund). In short, the ABC’s of what to know about financial responsibility.
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