What We're Hearing

I read the Scott Rasmussen affidavit over the weekend. Scott is the chief performance officer of Lend America which won its court case against the Department of Justice and Department of Housing and Urban Development and is now cleared to continue writing FHA loans. In the court filing, he notes that the company spent $100,000 on an outside audit of its loan practices. That audit led to several changes at the lender including a reorganization of its sales department in July of this year. As part of that reorg the "personal use" of cell phones "on the premises" has been prohibited. Lend America also increased the size of its quality control group to five from one. In July its chief credit officer -- who is unnamed in the affidavit -- retired. And one last item: between January and August of this year 14 employees were fired because of what the Mr. Rasmussen called "improper loan origination activities." HUD's problem with Lend America centers around $14 million in loans it funded out of a total origination book of more than $1 billion...