Let me start by saying that I don't know anything about money, because I don't have any money. Or is it that I don't have any money because I
don't know anything about money?
However, when all this buzz about mortgages and the stock market started, my interest was peaked because of a murder case I heard as a grand juror
last year.
It is a matter of public record, so there's no problem with discussing it here.
In all my life, I have never heard anything more bizarre.
A couple was murdered in their home. There were precious few clues and the police fingered the daughter as a likely suspect and hounded her for
probably a year.
Finally, an employee of Countrywide here in ABQ, showed up at the Secret Service office and turned himself in for forging checks. He was very upset
and was actually making a case to the Secret Service for sending him away on these charges for a very long time.
The Secret Service agent told him there was nothing really to worry about. What he did was wrong, but he had no criminal history, so he would have to
make restitution, maybe pay a fine and as long as he learned his lesson, life would go on.
The more the man heard this the more distraught he became, which raised suspicions that there must be more to the story.
The Secret Service agent started investigating the matter and somehow found a link between this guy and the murdered couple. He was their mortgage
broker, or whatever.
For some reason, this guy (his name is Santiago) couldn't bring himself to turn down anyone for a loan. He even had a history of making mortgage
payments for his clients.
In the case of the murdered couple, he had told them that their check was in the mail, when in fact, the loan had been turned down. So the couple was
writing checks on the money they thought would be going into the bank and those checks were bouncing.
As it turned out, Santiago entered their upstairs bedroom from a balcony early one morning as the couple was dressing and shot them with a Ruger 9mm
pistol.
The ballistic evidence was traced to Santiago and bullets found in his home.
The evidence was such that a true bill had to be returned, but we wanted more in terms of motive.
Was he somehow pocketing money from Countrywide? The answer was no.
Did he benefit in any way from his paying clients' payments or telling clients they had been approved when in actuality they had not? The answer was
no.
I came home that night and did some research on Countrywide.
On the web, I found a site put up by a disgruntled customer and there were many other complaints there about all kinds of shenanigans taking place at
Countrywide.
Still, there was no rhyme or reason to why this guy would go so far as to murder a couple over a denied mortgage and attempt to murder another couple.
Yet, the evidence was far beyond what it would take to return a true bill on this case.
It was too much for me to wrap my head around, so I just forgot it until now.
Now for some reason, the whole country (Countrywide?) and maybe even the world is sitting on pins and needles watching the markets and you know who
started it all.
Is there a conspiracy here?
Was this mortgage broker so caught up in a scheme so big that he acted in this bizarre way?
Was he the canary in the the mortgage mine?
www.abqtrib.com...
www.ripoffreport.com...
www.examiner.com...
[edit on 2007/8/25 by GradyPhilpott]
