Bulls, Bears & Bucks #44: Beurzen kleuren weer rood

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Agent sentenced to 14 Years for mortgage fraud
Agent personally derived more than a $1 million in commissions from the mortgage fraud scheme

Joseph Sterling Jetton, 61, of Woodstock, Ga., was sentenced today to 14 years in federal prison to be followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $11,194,300 in restitution on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering related to a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme. Jetton was convicted by a jury on Nov. 26, 2007, after a three week trial, and was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Beverly B. Martin.

According to U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias and the information presented in court, Jetton orchestrated a mortgage fraud scheme that involved millions of dollars in fraudulently inflated mortgage loans being provided to unqualified straw borrowers from late 2004 through early 2006. The straw borrowers were paid through shell companies as much as $600,000 per property from the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds. Jetton wrote sales contracts that failed to disclose that the sales prices of the residences had been inflated and that hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the loan proceeds were going to the buyers and others. Jetton personally derived more than a $1 million in commissions from the mortgage fraud scheme.

"This defendant was a licensed real estate agent. Using his specialized knowledge of real estate and residential mortgage financing, he orchestrated a mortgage fraud scheme that has caused millions of dollars in losses to lenders and untold damage to neighborhoods," said U.S. Attorney Nahmias. "Nearly a dozen people have been sentenced to federal prison for their involvement in this defendant's scheme. The long prison sentence handed down today accounts for his leadership role in the scheme and the misuse of his position as a real estate agent to commit the fraud. We will continue to work with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to vigorously investigate and prosecute mortgage fraud schemes, especially those perpetrated by professionals in the real estate industry."

Eleven other defendants have already been sentenced to prison terms in related cases, with sentences ranging from eight months to more than ten years in federal prison. Raymond Joseph Costanzo Jr., 63, of Clayton, Ga. -- a closing attorney in the scheme -- was sentenced to three years and five months in federal prison. A loan broker in the scheme, Olympia D. Ammons, 31, of St. Louis, Mo., was sentenced to five years and three months in prison to be followed by four years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $7,549,044 in restitution.

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When will “more debt” not be the answer?

Not all that much seems to have come from the G7+ meeting this past weekend. We somehow expected more than: “The Federal Reserve led an unprecedented push by central banks to flood the financial system with dollars, backing up government efforts to restore confidence and helping to drive down money-market rates.

In its statement the Fed said:

“In order to provide broad access to liquidity and funding to financial institutions, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank are jointly announcing further measures to improve liquidity in short-term U.S. dollar funding markets.

To assist in the expansion of these operations, the Federal Open Market Committee has authorized increases in the sizes of its temporary swap facilities with the BoE, the ECB, and the SNB, so that these central banks can provide U.S. dollar funding in quantities sufficient to meet demand.”

And just in the nick of time, we observe, this being options expiration week.

Sunday night Bloomberg reported that the “Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS Set to be Taken Over by Government. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government is set to buy majority stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and HBOS Plc to contain the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, two people familiar with the matter said.

The government will also name representatives to the boards of RBS, Britain’s fourth-biggest bank, and HBOS, its largest mortgage lender, and will work closely with the management on issues including executive pay, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is confidential.

This comes on the heels of Saturday’s announcement, “Federal regulators directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to start purchasing $40 billion a month of underperforming mortgage bonds as the Bush administration expands its options to buy troubled financial assets and resuscitate the U.S. economy, according to three people briefed about the plan.

In addition, “Adding underperforming assets to Fannie and Freddie’s combined $1.52 trillion mortgage portfolios would come at a time when the two mortgage-finance companies already hold as much as $210 billion of bad debt that may be eligible itself for the Treasury’s relief program, their regulator said Oct. 5.”

We can’t help but notice that so far, not one of these increased-debt-related schemes has had any positive effect on the markets or the worldwide economy; just the opposite, in fact. Since the beginning of the year, the Federal Reserve has added more than $2.7 trillion, yes trillion, to its balance sheet, some of it in the form of guarantees and some of it against swaps of worthless mortgage-related securities.

The engine that drives the US economy and, therefore, the world economy, is the US consumer. The US consumer is tapped out due to maxed-out credit cards, maxed-out or withdrawn HELOCs reflecting underwater mortgages, no savings and, the last nail in the coffin, increasing unemployment.

The economy is in serious decline and there are few credit-worthy borrowers left. More debt couldn’t possibly remedy this situation.

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:03 schreef downthedrain het volgende:
mmm, ik heb met een aandeel al een jaar verlies gemaakt en zit nu te denken om toch maar weer ff spargeld erin te pompen.
gisteren +40 en nu 20+

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:15 schreef Revolution-NL het volgende:

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Ben je dan niet twee dagen te laat?

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:20 schreef downthedrain het volgende:

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gekocht 8 maanden geleden op 24 euro en nu is er weinig van over.

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maar laatste 2 dagen knalt die omhoog.

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:24 schreef Drugshond het volgende:
Kunnen die 'personal' belegging verhalen niet beter gehouden worden in [centraal] Beleggen & Aandelen deel 29

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:34 schreef Tokamak het volgende:
[pessimist]
11u is het eind van het begin

[/pessimist]

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:35 schreef simmu het volgende:
of jullie hier vandaag goed het nieuws kunnen posten, dan hoef ik vannacht als ik terugkom uit drenthe alwaar we onze nieuwe woning gaan bekijken ( ) niet mijn vaste rondje te doen

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:35 schreef simmu het volgende:
of jullie hier vandaag goed het nieuws kunnen posten, dan hoef ik vannacht als ik terugkom uit drenthe alwaar we onze nieuwe woning gaan bekijken ( ) niet mijn vaste rondje te doen

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:12 schreef Roel_Jewel het volgende:
Spyker nu +60%

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AMSTERDAM (Dow Jones)--Spyker Cars nv heeft het verlies over de eerste helft van 2008 fors teruggebracht ten opzichte van dezelfde periode in 2007 en verkocht meer auto's in deze verslagperiode. Dat is vrijdag middels een persbericht bekendgemaakt.

Het verlies nam af naar EUR8,8 miljoen, vergeleken met EUR29,9 miljoen in dezelfde periode van 2007. De omzet kwam uit op EUR5,8 miljoen, tegenover een omzet van EUR23,7 miljoen in de eerste helft van 2007. In dat cijfer zat het inmiddels verkochte Formule-1-team verwerkt.

Spyker verkocht in de afgelopen verslagperiode in totaal 26 van zijn luxe bolides, tegenover 7 in dezelfde periode een jaar terug, een getal dat volgens de onderneming "nu al hoger is dan over heel 2007".

De totale productie bedroeg over de eerste zes maanden overigens 22, vergeleken met 17 in de eerste helft van 2007.

Spyker verwacht dat de aanstelling van een nieuwe Chief Commercial Officer in het vierde kwartaal zal plaatsvinden.

Bestuursvoorzitter Victor Muller stelt dat de productie en levering van auto's in het eerste halfjaar nog niet op het gewenste niveau ligt dat de onderneming in het tweede halfjaar wil bereiken.

Spyker, dat op 2 september wordt opgenomen in de AScX-index van Euronext Amsterdam, stelt dat de totale productie van 2008 ook zal afhangen of de onderneming de Spyker C8 Aileron in het vierde kwartaal in productie kan nemen. "De wagen zal naast de huidige SWB-modellen in productie worden genomen, zolang er voldoende vraag naar is", aldus de onderneming.

De ontwikkeling van de D8 Peking-to-Paris is in volle gang en de vraag naar het model is "aanhoudend hoog". Spyker denkt de wagen eind 2009 in productie te nemen.

"De algemene verwachting voor de rest van 2008 is positief, de onderneming is stabiel met nieuwe modellen die in productie gaan bij verbeterde marges".

Spyker verwacht een verdere stijging van het aantal dealers.

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Op dinsdag 14 oktober 2008 10:44 schreef ItaloDancer het volgende:

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Njah dit is ook erg goed nieuws
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