May 8, 2009     

Andrews Publications 05/08/09.mp3

• A Merrill Lynch investor is urging a New York federal judge to deny the investment bank's bid to throw out a fraud suit alleging it kept quiet about its massive mortgage-backed debt while selling $24 billion worth of securities.


• Five people have been charged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland with participating in a mortgage fraud scheme that caused homeowners to lose $70 million.


• An investor claiming Standard & Poor's and Moody's gave undeserved high grades to $603 million worth of risky "Alt-A" mortgage-backed securities has amended his securities fraud suit against the ratings firms.


• Despite seriously sagging sales of furniture brands such as Lane, Broyhill and Thomasville, parent Furniture Brands International's board wasted $10 million on overstuffed compensation packages for top officers, an investor claims in a state court lawsuit filed in St. Louis.


• Federal law enforcement officials in Oregon have announced an expansion of efforts to identify and prosecute mortgage fraud in the state.

May 1, 2009     

Andrews Publications 05/01/09.mp3

• The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's investment firm has sued two British Virgin Islands-based hedge funds, seeking to recover $255 million transferred to them in the months before the Wall Street swindler's arres


• Countrywide Home Loans Inc. says two mortgage borrowers cannot proceed with a lawsuit intended to stop foreclosure on eight Las Vegas-based homes.


• The former CEO of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. will pay more than $2.4 million to settle charges that he and other executives fraudulently hid the now-bankrupt company’s risky lending practices, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

April 24, 2009     

Andrews Publications 04/24/09.mp3

• A federal judge in Seattle has dismissed part of a subprime-related securities fraud suit against Washington Mutual Bank, ruling that the plaintiff investor must first take its claims to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.


• Shareholders suing a Massachusetts company for allegedly hiding the default rates on student loans that it packaged and sold to investors are opposing the firm’s bid to dismiss the fraud case.


• A federal judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a securities fraud suit accusing financial services firm Radian Group of hiding its exposure to the subprime mortgage market.


• Florida authorities have charged five people with running a mortgage fraud ring that caused $4.5 million in losses to financial institutions.

April 17, 2009     

Andrews Publications 04/17/09.mp3

• Bank of America is urging a federal judge to reject Bear Stearns' bid to dismiss a suit accusing it of defrauding the bank of $4 billion in a subprime-related deal.


• The co-founder of a foreclosure consulting firm has pleaded guilty in Maryland federal court to taking part in a mortgage fraud scheme that took advantage of distressed homeowners and cheated lenders out of $13 million.


• Accounting firm KPMG LLP failed in its duty to act as a "watchdog" of New Century Mortgage Corp. by certifying inaccurate financial statements and issuing an audit report before it had even completed the audit, according to a California state court lawsuit.


• The $165 million in bonuses that American International Group officers got after receiving a $190 billion federal bailout is just the latest outrage in eight years of mismanagement that cost the company's investors $215 billion, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court.


• Freddie Mac is urging an Ohio federal judge to dismiss a shareholders' suit accusing the federally chartered mortgage backer of fraudulently hiding its exposure to risky subprime loans.

April 10, 2009     

Andrews Publications 04/10/09.mp3

• In another ripple of outrage at the bonuses for American International Group's executives, a state court suit filed in Los Angeles claims the insurance company's board approved up to $1 billion in bonus payments days after AIG began getting a $190 billion federal bailout.


• A Delaware judge on April 1 refused to approve a global settlement of shareholder suits over subprime-mortgage lender Countrywide Corp.'s $2.5 billion rescue takeover by Bank of America because the pact would wrongly wipe out some viable investor claims.


• Merrill Lynch is urging a federal judge to dismiss a fraud suit alleging the investment bank sold $24 billion worth of securities over a 16-month period without telling buyers about its massive liabilities linked to subprime mortgages.


• Florida's attorney general has obtained a court order barring a company from charging consumers up-front fees for mortgage foreclosure services.


• A former executive of UBS Securities claims in a Delaware state court suit that the global financial services firm reneged on its promise to pay his legal bills when federal regulators investigated his “unsafe and unsound” banking and trading practices.

April 3, 2009     

Andrews Publications 04/03/09.mp3

• A federal judge in Los Angeles soon will decide whether shareholders of Countrywide Financial Corp. have fixed the defects of an earlier subprime-related fraud complaint against the mortgage lender.


• A Morgan Stanley investor wants a Delaware Chancery Court judge to force the financial firm to let him see all the materials it turned over in a government investigation into the company’s role in the $350 billion collapse of the auction-rate securities market last year.


• Investors who elected to sell auction-rate securities back to Swiss bank UBS under a regulatory settlement agreement are barred from pursuing additional compensation in a securities fraud lawsuit, a federal judge in Manhattan has ruled.


• A California federal judge has ruled in favor of three former executives of bank holding company Downey Financial Corp. and dismissed a securities fraud suit that claimed they hid the extent of the business's exposure to risky subprime loans.


• JPMorgan Chase Bank has sued bankrupt Washington Mutual Inc. and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in an attempt to protect its September purchase of the failed company's banking operations.

March 27, 2009     

Andrews Publications 03/27/09.mp3

• Insurance giant Prudential Financial illegally sold $920 million worth of securities last June without telling buyers the extent of its exposure to soured subprime mortgage assets, according to a lawsuit filed in New Jersey federal court.


• A New York federal judge should stick to her decision not to dismiss a securities fraud suit against ratings agency Moody’s Corp., plaintiff shareholders are urging in court papers.


• A bank and a subprime credit card marketing company have told a California federal court that the lawsuit filed by three customers seeking to challenge the fees charged to their accounts must be resolved in arbitration.


• The New Jersey government has sued ex-directors and officers of Lehman Bros. for allegedly hiding massive subprime investment losses that cost state pension funds $118 million when the firm went bankrupt.


• Two subprime borrowers are suing a lender to rescind a refinancing mortgage, claiming the company gave them confusing and contradictory loan documents in violation of the Truth in Lending Act.

March 20, 2009     

Andrews Publications 03/20/09.mp3

• Faced with a likely shotgun merger ruling by a Delaware state court judge, Dow Chemical Co. agreed on the courthouse steps to buy Rohm & Haas Co. for $16 billion with only minor changes in the deal it sought to escape.


• England's Barclays Bank defrauded investors who bought $750 million worth of preferred shares while relying on a prospectus that downplayed the company's exposure to risky subprime mortgage securities, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.


• Moody's Corp. is asking a federal judge in New York to reconsider her decision to allow a securities fraud suit against the ratings agency to go forward.


• A federal judge in California has thrown out an amended securities fraud suit alleging Impac Mortgage Holdings deceived shareholders about the quality of its loans.


• A stock brokerage affiliated with Swiss bank UBS has sued Highland Capital Management for $745 million, claiming the Texas hedge fund firm welshed on a securitization deal.

March 13, 2009     

Andrews Publications 03/13/09.mp3

• Maurice Greenberg, the former CEO accused of looting American International Group, has filed a securities fraud suit in Manhattan federal court, charging that his AIG stock lost 97 percent of its value because of the subprime-related investment blunders of his successors.


• Swiss Reinsurance Co. is urging a New York federal judge to dismiss a securities fraud suit accusing the bond insurer of lying to investors in 2007 about its exposure to the American subprime mortgage market.


• A federal judge in California soon will decide whether Impac Mortgage Holdings’ shareholders have patched the holes in their subprime-related fraud suit well enough to withstand the lender’s second bid to throw it out.


• A federal judge in Manhattan has set a March 23 deadline for motions to consolidate nearly two dozen shareholder suits that seek to hold the officers and directors of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch liable for hiding the truth about what the plaintiffs call a disastrous merger.

March 6, 2009     

Andrews Publications 03/6/09.mp3

• Jilted merger mate Alliance Data Systems has appealed a decision that let leveraged-buyout giant Blackstone Partners off the hook for a $170 million termination fee after the credit market collapse caused its subsidiary to break a $7.8 billion merger promise.


• Since investment banking giant Lehman Bros. is being liquidated in federal bankruptcy court, its investment fund affiliate has no reason to live in the post-subprime economy and should be dissolved, an investor has told a Delaware state court judge.


• Investment bank Merrill Lynch fraudulently sold more than $55 billion worth of purported investment-grade mortgage securities in 2006 and 2007 that in fact were “junk bonds,” according to an investor lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.


• Citigroup shareholders hoping to hold their officers and directors liable for subprime blunders suffered a setback when a Delaware state court judge dismissed most of the charges against the board and former CEO, saying the defendants had no duty to “predict the future.”


• A lawsuit alleging that ratings agency Moody’s Corp. fraudulently sold overpriced shares while hiding its practice of giving undeserved high grades to subprime-mortgage-backed securities may go forward, a federal judge in Manhattan has ruled.

February 27, 2009     

Andrews Publications 02/27/09.mp3

• In a ruling that turned on a novel issue of corporate law, a Delaware judge has thrown out a suit filed by Affiliated Computer Services shareholders over one of the first going-private buyouts to go sour because of the credit market crash.


• A lawsuit seeking to force mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. to repurchase modified loans belongs in state court, a pair of hedge funds say in a federal court filing.


• A pension fund suing MoneyGram International for alleged subprime investment fraud is opposing the Minneapolis-based firm’s bid to dismiss the case.


• A federal judge in Chicago has approved a settlement deal requiring Wachovia Securities to pay more than $7 billion to compensate investors the firm allegedly misled about the liquidity of auction-rate securities.


• A Texas billionaire and his companies violated federal securities laws in an $8 billion scheme involving the sale of certificates of deposit that paid investors “improbable returns,” the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges in a lawsuit in Dallas federal court.

February 20, 2009     

Andrews Publications 02/20/09.mp3

• The devil surely will be in the details of any plan to put the financial services industry and the credit markets back together again after their great subprime fall, prominent legal scholar John Coffee predicted at a seminar in New York Feb. 11.


• American International Group investors have gotten a green light to go to trial with claims that ex-CEO Maurice Greenberg and his top officers got rich from fraud and phantom deals that cost the troubled insurer more than $5 billion.


• Investment bank Goldman Sachs, helped by securities ratings firms, fraudulently sold purported investment-grade mortgage securities in 2006 that in fact were “junk bonds,” according to an investor lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.

February 13, 2009     

Andrews Publications 02/13/09.mp3

• Wells Fargo Bank sold more than $36 billion in mortgage-backed securities in 2006 without telling buyers that the underlying loans carried a high risk of default, according to a securities fraud lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.


• Bear Stearns Asset Management is urging a New York federal judge to throw out a lawsuit alleging it fraudulently lured Bank of America into a complex financial deal that ended up costing the bank $4 billion.


• Countrywide Financial Corp. is urging a New York federal judge to keep jurisdiction over an investors’ suit seeking to force the mortgage lender to repurchase loans that it modifies under an $8.4 billion predatory-lending settlement.


• Allegations that MoneyGram International hid from investors subprime-related losses of nearly $1 billion do not make a securities fraud case, the payment services firm says in a motion to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit.


• Mortgage insurer Triad Guaranty fraudulently sold overpriced stock for two years while downplaying its exposure to deteriorating real estate and credit markets, a shareholder has alleged in a North Carolina federal court.

February 6, 2009     

Andrews Publications 02/6/09.mp3

• The Office of Thrift Supervision has directed First Federal Bank of California to preserve its capital and reduce the number of risky mortgages in its portfolio.


• A Delaware state court judge said Jan. 28 that he will quickly decide whether to force Dow Chemical Co. to complete a $15.2 billion merger with rival chemical maker Rohm & Haas Co. — even if the combined company might not survive in the recession economy.


• Wachovia Corp. sold $35 billion worth of securities without alerting buyers that the bank’s 2006 acquisition of subprime mortgage lender Golden West Financial was a high-risk deal, according to a securities fraud lawsuit filed in California state court.


• A disgruntled Bank of America shareholder has asked a Delaware judge to combine several suits seeking to force CEO Ken Lewis and 15 directors to reimburse the company for billions of dollars it allegedly overpaid for the failing Merrill Lynch & Co.


• Countrywide Bank says an investor cannot maintain a suit over allegedly improper disclosures of mortgage terms because the action was filed too late.

January 30, 2009     

Andrews Publications 01/30/09.mp3

• A federal judge in New York has dismissed a securities fraud lawsuit alleging that a real estate finance firm deceived shareholders by hiding a plan to sell its housing bond portfolio to Freddie Mac.


• Washington Mutual Bank sold $20 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities in 2006 without telling investors that the underlying loans were risky because the lender routinely disregarded its underwriting guidelines, a union investment fund alleges in a Seattle federal court lawsuit.


• In a securities fraud suit filed in Manhattan federal court, a Bank of America investor says the company tricked its shareholders into voting for a disastrous merger with Merrill Lynch & Co. because top executives of both firms hid Merrill's rapidly mounting subprime losses


• American International Group sold $500 million worth of bonds without warning buyers that the insurer was on the verge of collapse because of its exposure to the subprime financial crisis, an investor has alleged in Manhattan federal court.


• A state court judge in Philadelphia has preliminarily approved the settlement of suits by investors who claimed that a Spanish super-bank is using the financial services industry meltdown as a smokescreen to acquire Sovereign Bancorp for less than it is worth.

January 23, 2009     

Andrews Publications 01/23/09.mp3

• A Pennsylvania federal judge says a woman must file an amended complaint detailing her claims that Countrywide Home Loans fraudulently foreclosed on her house and then bought it for $1 after failing to credit mortgage payments to her account.


• In a settlement with New York state officials, two mortgage brokerages have agreed to pay restitution to black and Latino home buyers who allegedly were charged higher fees than white loan customers.


• A subprime credit card marketing company says three plaintiffs who are suing to challenge the fees charged to their accounts must arbitrate their claims.


• Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay $475 million to settle a class-action securities fraud suit accusing the investment bank of deceiving shareholders by overvaluing its portfolio of subprime-mortgage-backed securities.


• The Small Business Administration says it is taking several steps to increase small-business lending and boost investor confidence during the financial crisis.

January 16, 2009     

Andrews Publications 01/16/09.mp3

• Mortgage trader Credit-Based Asset Servicing & Securitization sold more than $475 million in securities in 2007 while misleading investors about the quality of the underlying subprime loans, according to a fraud lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.


• American International Group sold more than $20 billion in bonds in 2007 and 2008 without telling buyers that the subprime financial crisis might topple the insurance giant, according to a securities fraud lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.


• Banking giant Citigroup has agreed to drop its opposition to legislation that would allow federal bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of mortgages so that debtors may remain in their homes.


• A mortgage borrower has filed a class-action lawsuit alleging Wachovia Mortgage Corp. does not properly disclose loan terms.


• Ohio residents with Countrywide Financial subprime mortgages will receive a share of the lender's multibillion-dollar settlement with several states over its allegedly deceptive loan practices.

January 9, 2009     

Andrews Publications 01/9/09.mp3

• Impac Mortgage Holdings has asked a California federal judge to dismiss an amended securities fraud suit alleging the lender inflated its stock price by hiding the low quality of its mortgage loans.


• Ohio's attorney general has filed suit to stop a man from taking advantage of at-risk homeowners through an allegedly fraudulent foreclosure rescue scheme.


• Securities rating firm Standard & Poor's has removed to Manhattan federal court a lawsuit accusing it of giving fraudulent high grades to risky “Alt-A” mortgage-backed securities.