What We're Hearing

James G. Hicks of Lawrenceville, Ga., staked a claim for $9 million in bankruptcy court, saying he's owed that money from now defunct mortgage banker Taylor Bean & Whitaker of Ocala, Florida. In this past weekend's column I asked for information regarding Mr. Hicks' business ties to TBW. (The BK filing only mentions his address with no details about his relationship to the non-depository.) According to industry sources, Mr. Hicks managed a retail net branch of some sort called Home America. The unit was based in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta. One mortgage banker said Hicks "agreed to a buyout or settlement of some kind with TB&W/Farkas [company CEO, Lee Farkas] around the same time as TB&W/Farkas purchased Platinum Bank. I heard that the plan was to roll the Home America folks under Platinum Bank together with TB&W's other retail franchise." It appears that something went wrong with the deal and Mr. Hicks is owed $9 million or so he claims...