Hathaway Duke

Duane McKinney, 35, Washington, D.C., was found guilty by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on charges of fraud, theft, and monetary transactions. Specifically, McKinney was found guilty of four counts of mail fraud, two …

If an organization was raffling off a $1.4 Million dollar home near Lake Minnetonka for charity, how many tickets would you buy? Unfortunately, we won’t get to see this play out: The state Gambling Control Board has blocked an Inver Grove Heights organization from raffling off a home near Lake Minnetonka worth $1.4 million. The proposal from CLIMB Theatre would have sold $20 raffle tickets for a chance to win the house. The group that puts on plays and teaches classes at schools had wanted to raise $200,000 for itself and $700,000 for more than 400 other nonprofits. What we’d like to know is who, when and why did someone donate a Million-dollar-plus home to a theater troupe specializing in childrens “education?” The obvious upside here? Fewer kids will have to suffer through these plays: CLIMB produces original plays and classes for K-12th grades on topics like: Bullying Prevention, Respect, Acceptance of Differences, Global Climate Change, Self-Control, Doing Your Best, Methamphetamine Prevention, Responsibility, Harassment Prevention, Cyberbullying Prevention, Friendship. Gambling Board Shuts Down Home Raffle [WCCO]

Citing a new national report on subprime mortgages, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said that efforts of servicers and government officials to prevent foreclosures have increased but still fall short of the need to effectively respond to the for…

Berry Louidort, Lauren Jasky, and Ralph Michel, Palm Beach County, Florida were charged in a Criminal Complaint filed in federal court on April 22, 2008.  The defendants were arrested and are expected to make their initial appearances before Unite…

Cheryl Hernandez Camus, 36, Concord, California made her initial appearance in federal court in San Francisco on April 22, 2008 before United States Magistrate Judge James Larson. A federal grand jury in San Francisco had previously indicted Camus on A…

Virginia Rose Novrit, 67, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Clarence Lorenzo Davis, 68, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Gregory Jerome Wings, Jr., 25, Atlanta, Georgia, Olympia D. Ammons, 31, St. Louis, Missouri, and Ronald Denzil Martin, Jr., 37, Lithonia, Ge…

This hit the streets last Thursday, but since we’ve been following the trajectory of this outift pretty closely: From approximately 2005 to 2007, Helgason and Balko executed a scheme to defraud and to obtain money by means of false and fraudulent pretenses. Using the TJ Group, Helgason and Balko purchased approximately 162 properties throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area, principally in north Minneapolis. They would then resell the property within a few weeks to an “investor” who would purchase the property, sight unseen, at a price set by Helgason and Balko without negotiation, oftentimes $20,000 to $60,000 more than that the TJ Group had paid. According to the plea agreements, people were told by Helgason and Balko that the investors were simply “lending” his or her credit to TJ Waconia. Then there’s this bizarre bit of drama about Minneapolis somehow “taking control” of these TJ Waconia induced foreclosures: A judge Wednesday appointed a receiver to manage 141 Minneapolis rental homes associated with a firm accused of mortgage fraud. The city hopes to gain ownership, fix the homes and work with neighborhoods on whether they should be resold or rented, according to Tom Streitz, its housing director. We’ve gotten a few emails on this, and there are more than a few folks assuming this means that the city now owns all of these properties, or soon will. Though the article is cheap on the details, all we can take form this is that a judge has assigned an attorney as receiver for the properties. Exactly the scope of the powers this receiver will have - lets not forget that someone else (a borrower, bank, lender, or somewhere in between) actually still owns these properties and any action by a judge does not change that. Our best speculation, based on a law degree we don’t have, is that due to the nature and number of foreclosures involved in this case, that the Judge wants someone to take ownwership of, coordinate, and administer tasks that the absentee owners cannot or will not do (check on general condition, report hazards, etc. etc. etc.) But putting properties into receivorship is a long way from Minneapolis “owning” any of these properties. Paging Sam Glover, or any other attorney willing to expand on the meaning and import of this?

If being hounded by lenders with questionable motives and expertise isn’t enough to steer you away from “Lending Tree” (whom we note has gone the high-profile sports sponsorship route previously tried by Ameriquest, but instead of baseball, with our beloved PGA Tour - excuse us while we puke) how about this: several former employees” may have shared confidential passwords with “a handful” of lenders that were not approved by the company. The lenders then used those passwords to access customer information files that contained mortgage request data such as name, address, e-mail address, phone number, Social Security number, income and employment information. 10-1 says these “lenders” were selling access to that data. Lending Tree Tells Clients of Breach [Charlotte Observer] Full Copy of the Email Sent to Customers Below [via reader Alec Grebis.]

Last Week: Mortgage rates worsened by roughly .25% in the benchmark 30 year fixed conforming market. This was mostly the result of a mostly better than expected series of economic and high profile earnings reports, which gave stocks a boost, and hurt mortgage and other bonds. Persisent concerns over inflation also seemed to weigh-down the bond markets. This Week: The rather light economic calendar leaves the markets without the rudder of fresh data to steer by until Wednesday. The calendar also lacks heft this week, containing mostly second tier reports. Look for bonds tp take direction from stocks - rallying stocks will often take money out of bonds, and cause rates to worsen. Existing and new home sales bear watching as investors, wishfully in our opinion, look for an early bottom in real estate.

Wildor Washington, Jr. and Victoria Bennett were taken into custody after Magistrate Judge David J. Waxse ruled in favor of a motion to revoke their bonds. Washington and Bennett were charged in November 2007 in an indictment alleging that Washington…