Lee Farkas, former majority owner of Florida mortgage company Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW), didn’t kill anyone, but he still is facing life in prison – 385 years to be exact – for a $3 billion mortgage fraud scheme that has been called “one of the biggest bank frauds in U.S. history.” When his company collapsed in 2009 as the fraud scheme came to light, 2,000 employees lost their jobs and one of the country’s 25-largest banks, Colonial, tanked[1]. Prosecutors believe that not only is Farkas guilty, but that he is lying on the witness stand even now as he attempts to deflect responsibility. He was convicted after the other six employees at his company and Colonial bank took the stand and testified against him in order to receive shortened sentences of three months to six years.
Farkas is accused not only of “ripping off banks and attempting to steal from the government [via applying for TARP funds],” but also with “little to no regard for the consequences to TBW’s of Colonial Bank’s employees”[2]. He not only regularly overdrew and over-pledged his company on a massive scale, but also has been convicted of “personally” stealing more than $40 million from TBW and Colonial combined.
Do you think that it is fair that Farkas receives a life sentence while his partners in crime are getting off with a maximum of eight years in prison? Do you think that their testimony might have been influenced by their deals, or do you think that Farkas and his cohorts are getting what they deserve?
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[1] http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fraud-sentence-20110625,0,1075014.story
[2] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-24/u-s-prosecutors-seek-life-sentence-for-former-taylor-bean-chairman-farkas.html
June 26th, 2011 at 7:58 AM
I not only think Farkas deserves a life’s sentence, but I suspect the CEOs of the other big banks, including Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America, et al, deserve to join him.
June 26th, 2011 at 8:22 AM
THis whole thing reminds me of nothing so much as the Salem Witch Trials. Is mismanagement and incometence now a crime?
June 26th, 2011 at 8:26 AM
Really? We are worrying about this clown? This guy is the poodle in the room with the 800 LB Gorilla named Freddie & Fannie.
But since they have the cover (for now) of Franks & Dodd, the story line is all about “predatory lending”.
Give me a break.
June 26th, 2011 at 10:30 AM
They get what they deserved.
June 26th, 2011 at 11:33 AM
I will ask it again: When will the BIG banks, i.e.
B of A, Wells Fargo, Chase/CitiBank, etc. and the entire retail Real Estate industry face charges for the FRAUD they committed? Oh, never mind. They won’t face charges until the Congress members they own face the music first. And we all know that won’t be happening soon, don’t we?
June 26th, 2011 at 2:54 PM
TBW was running a classic “Ponzi scheme” by selling the Notes they financed, multiple times, to multiple investors while having MERS hold the mortgages as “mortgagee”.
What they did was not unigue, it’s just the
first conviction after Bernie Madoff and the first time an executive admitted to the so called “plan B” at a sentencing hearing.
Without MERS holding the mortgage, the investors could not have been swindled because
each Note holder would have been able to go to
official records in the County of the Note and verify that he/she/it was the ONLY Note holder on a given property. it was a “confidance game”
and Mr. Farkas, like Madoff was an extremely skilled “con man”, the likes of which we have not seen since Mr Ponzi himself and the “Florida
Swampland” scheme of the 1920′s.
June 26th, 2011 at 8:11 PM
What about the chain of crime involving appraisers, accounting firms, law firms, etc.
E&O insurance issurers and regulators of the insurance and state agencies should also be next to at least be deposed if not testifying to federal grand juries.
June 26th, 2011 at 9:17 PM
This is not mismanagement…. it is pre-meditated…. string ‘em up…. If there is no fear of loss, there is no punishment and no deterrent to additional crimes…
June 27th, 2011 at 11:27 AM
Calling this case the biggest fraun in banking history shows a lack of understanding about the bigger picture. The bigest banks have stolen trillions of dollars from the whole world and will go scot free while small timers like Maddof and this gut get the book thrown at then so the public will imagine that Courts are being tough on those who defraud.
$100 trillion of derrivitives were sold. WTF