Report: Lender 'took a beating' on Rep. Laura Richardson's foreclosure

wait a minute, isnt character background check includes financial responsibilty, drug use, etc.

So how come this woman works in the government as a councilwoman. This woman should be taken out of public service, the government owes us leaders that are morally upright in every ways.

Petition for this woman to be taken out of office!!

This is just another example of how politicians are the example of corruptness and dishonesty.

The saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely applies to all politicians.

There is not one that is honest. Integrity is not known to them.

Impeach this woman, remove her from office, and then arrest her for mortgage fraud.

As I believe all politicians are corrupt, no democrat-vs-republican spittle will come through my lips.

However, I'd STILL like to know if she's gone and bought a second property in Washington, and then left the property in Sacramento to fall into foreclosure.

I really, really, really, really want to know.

Really.

Oh so really.

Cuz that smells like fraud.

Whenin trouble denial and lying go hand in hand. She has proven one thing to me --she's good at both

Oh no! This must be a first. The first time a politician has lied.This will be difficult for me to deal with.
Well if WA MU took a bath on this foreclosure, the losses throughout the banking industry are over whelming.
Too bad we, taxpayers, are bailing out these greedy bankers. We should let them drown for creating this mess and they still live high on the hog.
Oh, I forgot, they give you free checking.

yah, yah, and someone on another blog asked, did she receive the "2nd home stipend 'cause you live far away" loophole, and then use the money for something else? The inference is that congress might have given her extra money for the house and she didn't use making her payments. The union nitwits that supported her must be PISSED!

This should be a reminder to every citizen that politicians are people too. They experience and struggle with the same things, AND make the same decisions as people do. If people were trully moral in all ways, all the time, then they would be 'perfect' which is also a false expectation of anyone to have even in government office.

I don't blame her. If I had a house in a collapsing market like Sacramento I wouldn't pay either. Why should we struggle to keep banks in business when it was their lending practices that created the burst-bubble meltdown of homeowner equity in the first place.

Probably a good business decision to let the house go in a tumbling market and try and pick up another in a market where house prices may be more stable or have already seen dramatic declines.

Morality is so subjective.

If she defaulted on a mortgage and caused the lender a loss, then she made a financial gain (by not paying the lender the contracted mortgage amount). Her lender needs to report this to the IRS so that she is taxed on the gain.

Last I checked, falling behind on your mortgage is neither a sign of corruption nor moral deficiency.

If it ever happens to you for whatever reason, I sure hope your employer doesn't use it as an excuse to fire you -- "Hey, if you can't take care of your own finances how can I rely on you to be able to properly manage your work responsibilities?"

If these allegations are true (not sure who to believe, a real estate broker or a polititcian), this woman is unfit to serve and should resign. I hope to see more about her on the front page of the Times.

No wonder we are where we are.

We are responsible for electing our officials. The LA Times is responsible for reporting the news. So what are we going to do? We have another lying member of congress.....Weren't we promised a higher ethical standard by Nancy Pelosi. On top of that we have the LA Times who have shunted a top political story to the Real Estate section. Its no wonder things get worse with every election.

Oh, and you can send Laura an email at:

http://richardson.house.gov/IMA/issue_subscribe.htm

I encourage you to paste your posts to her and not just to this blog--I'm pretty sure she's not looking at the LA times right now. She needs to know how the LA Land readership feels about jingle mail, tax fraud, and deceit.

Get this fraud out of office

Why am I not surprised? Of course, is just another corrupted REPUBLICAN!

Idiot banks deserve what they get - they should have asked for 20% down in such a high risk market (do they even bother with assessing their risk?? Jeesh, I want to be a banker cause I suck at math too)

Because you people do not vote, do not care, and allow yourselves to be totally BS-ed by campaign mailers and hot button rhetoric, you get what you deserve. If you're too dumb to vote or too cynical to care or too ignorant to know how the basic functions of government work, you dont' deserve a vote and deserve jerks in higher office.

RE: Liz - "the government owes us leaders that are morally upright in every ways."

What planet do you live on?

The essence of government is the legal use of force to achieve goals. The government has a monopoly on legalized theft!

If they can steal from the people (via taxation, subsidies, tariffs, emminent domain, regulations) without any recourse from the citizenry, what makes you think they will act morally?

Another low-life liberal !!!! When are the people of California going to learn? She can't be trusted with her own personal finances, or to use her own paycheck in a responsible manor, yet Californian's seem to think she should have a say on how to spend the hard earned tax dollors of hundreds of million Americans! Throw this low life in jail!!! I don't feel bad for the lender either, how could they loan her over a half a million dollors with out a down payment or even steady employment? Maybe they where trying to buy her influance on legistlative matters?

Waitadoggone second. First:

"The AP also reports that, according to public records, Richardson's house was in fact sold at a public auction: "The county records show the property was sold to a company called Red Rock Mortgage Inc. of Sacramento for $388,000, although no listing could be found for the company."

Then this:

"They took a beating," said James York, the Sacramento real estate broker who said he bought Richardson's house at a foreclosure auction, told the Press-Telegram."

Please clarify. Who/what bought the house at the foreclosure auction? The "unlisted" Red Rock Mortgage, Inc. or James York?

There was a Red Rock Mortgage Inc. website, "redrockmortgage.com" that was up yesterday, but no longer. Then there's a "redrockmtg.com."

Its google description says: "Red Rock Mortgage, Inc - Mortgages tailored to your needs, your ...Professional Mortgage Planners serving Colorado and California. A mortgage is more than a tool to finance real estate. Use your mortgage to achieve"

There's a Red Rock Mortgage listed in Las Vegas:

"Nevada
810 S DURANGO DRIVE SUITE 105
LAS VEGAS, NV 89145
Tel: (702) 320-9595"

Finally there's www.redemortgage.com, which is the site for "Red Rock Mortgage Inc," with an address in Utah,that says they do loans in Utah and Colorado. Hmm...

So any of these related to York?

It is delicious irony that the best argument against the looming "bailout" of buyers will be personified by the spending habits of one of the elected officials destined to vote on it.

Given enough publicity in the MSM, this lady could single handedly torpedo any "rescue" scenario currently on the horizon.

I still think, no matter what she has done, that she will be reelected. Even the fact that she is lying about having been foreclosed upon will not hurt her chances for reelection.

I'm still waiting for someone to find $90,000 stashed in her freezer.

Oh, wait. That's Louisiana, not Long Beach.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/21/
jefferson.search/index.html

Nobody in their right mind would intentionally allow a foreclosure to kill their credit rating.

However, if that is the case she is too stupid to remain a politician. We already have a Bush in the whitehouse and that's enough stupidity for the country to share.

Follow up:

Red Rock Mortgage, Inc. *is* listed with the secretary of state and York is indeed associated with that corporation. One wonders if he's a net branch for one of those other red rocks? The other weird thing is that he formed that company in 12/07. Know any other mortgage companies that were formed in the last 6 months??? Can't be many (unless they're the kind that were formed to buy distressed notes and homes at foreclosure auctions).

And btw... york is based in sacramento... our capital... and great place to wheel and deal... anyone look to see if he's getting any other great deals like that one? "Quite a beating, indeed." Maybe he's one of the reasons most people don't find deals at these auctions.

Politicians are no better than the rest of the population. Thus, we get the government we deserve.

This woman is yet another one of those didn't rely on good sense and got in over her head, succumbing to the siren calls of the herd at the housing market peak. She probably had no other choice but to walk away. I would rather she did that than pay with my tax dollars to keep her in that house.

Perhaps a few of those siren calls came from the lender, who should have known better.

Please, no bailouts!

The only thing I care about is: was her press release a truthful statement? I hope this part of the story gets follow up. That part should matter to her constituents.

As for WaMu taking a "beating". Good. They made a decision to make a loan (a) on property that was $200k overvalued and (b) to a borrower with short-term employment in the Sacramento area.

She made a bad decision to purchase CA real estate in 2007 and in a location that she wouldn't live in for 5-7 years so that she could weather price fluctuations. But she made a good decision to walk away from a -$200k money sink -- if in fact she did foreclose which she claims she did not.

behold, the jose conseco of congress! but what's the big deal really? we've seen catholic priests molesting children, politicians with prostitutes, even a president having an affair with an intern. this is hardly worthy of such outrage.

she made a bad buy, stopped paying her bills, lost the house to foreclosure and left the bank holding the bag. her actions had consequences. sounds perfectly legal. if her constituents have a problem with it, they can take it up at the next election.

To Jag:

She's a democrat you blithering moron.

I think its all fine and dandy but why notcome out with the truth already? I mean really its a matter of public record and all that she why does she hid behind false statements and all that? Crazy, the people need to know the truth and things, why hide behind the blatant lies? Now we need to know the truth and then decide with our votes and then maybe legally wise.

Hey Jag, read below. Not a republican.
Could the "Rep." stand for Representative???
Checkmate!

Laura Richardson (born April 14, 1962 in Los Angeles, California) is a Democratic Representative in the United States Congress.

oh my God, - lying to the media in the face of public records that clearly recorded information to the contrary.

This woman needs to be removed from public office as soon as is legally possible.

I saw the inside of this house on the local news, and read comments from the people that sold it to her in the local paper. They lived there for about 30 years and did absolutely nothing to update it since 1960. Boy did they make out like bandits. The outside looked nice but the inside was a dump! She probably walked away because she realized she had been scammed when she paid $545k for that piece of crap.

Maybe there's a countrywide connection here too (well there is, but don't know if it's significant):

According to the sacramento county recorder's website, Richardson's co-grantor was "Calif Recon Co," which is, I think, the ca branch of Recon Trust -- a subsidiary of CW Bank. Why the heck are they involved? Was the first from Wamu and the 2nd from CW? Did CW buy this debt from Wamu? What's the deal?

lastly, coincidental that Richardson's NOD was filed 12-14-07 and York's Red Rock was formed 12-26-07?

Milla, no posting during daylight hours unless you're home sick. You have mortgage payments to make!

While even politicians are not excempt from making bad Real Estate Investment decisions in todays market the scandal here is that she uses excuses. Her father's death while tragic does not excuse her controversial situation which only gets more pathetic based on all the contradictory statements.

She screwed up like a lot of people did and that's what the problem is, it demonstrates her weakness of character.

This is one stupid woman, first, in plunging to the property market when she didn't have the means, and second, to try to lie her way out of some shameful story (that she's going to be foreclosed on) and still think she's going to get away with.

I'd bet, if there's some IQ test for politicians, she would not have passed it. (Then again, most politicians would have failed it.)

To JAG, a previous poster here on this blog:
Take note of the following taken DIRECTLY from Congresswoman Richardson's website.
"Representative Laura Richardson has a 99% voting record, 100% committee attendance record, is the 239th female and the 26th African-American female to serve in the U.S. Congress."
Oh, and JAG, she's a DEMOCRAT.

"CONGRESSWOMAN LAURA RICHARDSON
For Immediate Release
May 21, 2008
[..]
I understand that these homeownership issues are a reflection of what many Americans are going through as they fight to keep their homes and to remain financially stable."

You can't summarize in a better way all that will be wrong with the pending government bailout of overleveraged liars. Heck, the people who'll pass the bill are some of them...

I'm interested in the LATimes perhaps following up on the Duke Of Moral Hazard's posts.

I find that information rather interesting. It may have been a coincidence that they were both based in Sacramento... but in politics, there are no coincidences...

....and she's making UCLA look really bad

(anyone notice that someone named "laura" made a "nobody's perfect" post?

For those who keep defending her, saying its not her fault, its not immoral, that I live in another planet.
I want to live in a planet where governments are manned by smart ,moral people.
ANd I can only have this if I ask for it constantly. If I let go my guard then things like this would happen. You owe it to yourself to fight for the taxes that you pay for these people. You owe it to your children to fight against idiot corrupt people like this, whatever his color is, even if the corrupt idiot is the same color as yours.
Petition to have this creature taken off her power. We have other smarter, financially responsible people willing to take the job

RUBEN SAID :If it ever happens to you for whatever reason, I sure hope your employer doesn't use it as an excuse to fire you -- "Hey, if you can't take care of your own finances how can I rely on you to be able to properly manage your work responsibilities?"

Ruben, you can work in any employer as long as it doesnt require character background check, like aerospace companies, or the government offices of power. Because if you dont know how to control your greed or if you are irresponsible with finances, you are easily corrupted.

You can work in shoe stores or with any job that wouldnt give you access to too much information you can sell for money.

Maybe JAG got confused, expecting the Congressperson's political affiliation to be revealed early in the story. Except the L.A. Times reporter chose not to mention it until well into the article's 3rd paragraph.

Actually, I'm surprised it was mentioned at all--given the recent media proclivity for avoiding the D-word as long as possible during coverage of political figures' misbehavior.

I suppose that some of you believe that a politician ought to be a priest and so satisfy all your criteria for morality.yet you want to separate church and state. wake up people if she defaulted what is morally wrongwith that? How many large corporations after they have robbed us blind have not defaulted on their debt? and even some of you might be working for some of them who had their debt wiped out after filing for bankruptcy. It seems that as soon as some one a rough patch in their lives when it comes to finances you who should hope you never have one believe the worst thing about that person.Try to get a little sympathy, love and understanding in your heart and that will help you to gain the right moral compass instead of a spirit of condemnation and judgement.

Somebody's lying! Please give us a follow up piece on this.

An easy fix to corrupt stupid politicians:

Replace every lawyer with a scientist. This place would fix itself practically overnight!

Michael-
I don't think anyone is demanding moral perfection of our leaders here, or else we wouldn't have any. A minimal level of integrity, however, requires her to at least own up to what she has done. According to her latest press statements, she's been insisting that the house wasn't even in foreclosure! This either speaks to a total lack of honesty or complete lack of awareness of the facts. In other words, either she can't tell the truth about this or she's out of touch with reality.

At the very least, this elected leader owes us a far grater level of honesty than she has given us.

So another democrat does something sleazy. So what? Ms. Richardson represents a democratic district and she'll be re-elected easily.

Why not restrict your reporting to sleaze by republicans? They can be hounded out of office relatively easily.

Obviously, what she did is not a crime. The last time I checked, it's perfectly legal to walk away from a mortgage. But that's not the point. She lied about it. According to the evidence, the house was definitely auctioned off. She makes it sound like she still owns the house. She's either lying or demonstrating her version of Clintonian "truth" telling. Too bad the apathy level in her district is such that she won't ever have to relinquish her office. The last redistricting scheme really sucks.

Why isn't Valerie McDonald running again? :( Valerie McDonald is the daughter of the Late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald. Choosing her, will keep her mother's commitment going for the 37th Congressional District for more years to come....

Joe Brown

If anyone would like to participate in a pertition, please respond to my comments at un9901@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Technicality:
1) House is not presently in foreclosure. Someone bought it at auction.
2) House never went to bank. Someone bought it at auction.

3) if a "loan modification" == jingle mail, then she has been completely truthful.

Really, absolutely horrid. She could have been in the spotlight if she were forthcoming...

But, she is probably trying to hide other issues... oops... welcome to the bad spotlight.

Duke of Moral Hazard:
The deed of trust was held by California Reconveyance Company as trustee. The trustee sold the property when Wamu notified the trustee that the borrower was in default (and after proper notice and waiting). This was an administrative or non-judicial foreclosure.

she is my hero and as for the new owner and the unpaid taxes??? to bad you assumed the responsibity when you bought the home. besides you as a morally bankrupt realtor knows that the market is already shooting up and sales are great. Just ask your fellow real estate low lifes.

Ohmahgosh! I say we should all consider tar and feathers ... disembowelment ... and then chop her head off. Then we should shoot up the rest of her body. At dawn, of courxe. Then burn her remains on a stake. And sprinkle her ashes over Countrywide's Calabassas headquarters. Or, for dramatic license, the State Capitol building.

Sometimes the gang mentality here amazes me. The way people bite on this sort of story says so much about our national welfare and pride. The sky fell awhile ago. But, to my surprise, the sky hiolds a lot of bird doo.

I think I'm going to move to another state. ...Like the State of Denial. Wake me up when its over.

Folks - it's not that she could not make the payments, if that she realiized she now needed to be in Washington, not Sac. Since houses are not selling or even renting, she appears to have simply walked away from it.

I will be walking away from the election booth next time after voting for anyone else that runs against her.

And I'm sorry I actually voting for her.

She's making the money, perks and all. She appears to choose to ignore a problem, and slack it off to someone else.

bkl: what are you trying to clarify? From what I understand judicial foreclosures are almost non-existant in ca because a power of sale is almost always included in the trust deed or mortgage.

I was trying to figure out why a CW related company was involved in a Wamu foreclosure (maybe CA Recon has a monpoly on this business... who knows...)

Am I missing something?

Story says the buyer assumes the property tax liability but it is actually paid for by Washington Mutual. The property is only worth what its worth. Outstanding property taxes due just reduce the netback sum paid to the lender.

She lied on her loan application (stated income) she cheated the state of California out of thousands of dollars in tax $$$ she should be arrested and stripped of her political job. She is a pig

It appears that her denial was about property in Southern California. It didn't apply to her Sacramento home. She has two others in Socal, one in San Pedro, the other in Long Beach, which are in various stages of foreclosure. So she was being truthful in a way . . .

Laura Richardson feels entitled to buy three homes and not pay for them - she is perfect for Congress!