Fraud and Folly: The Untold Story of General Electric's Subprime Debacle

The industrial giant jumped into the subprime business in 2004, lending blue-chip respectability to the market for risky home loans.

January 6, 2012

The following story was first published by The Center for Public Integrity. 

For General Electric Co., hawking subprime mortgages was a long way from making light bulbs and jet engines.

That didn't stop the industrial giant from jumping into the subprime business in 2004, lending blue-chip respectability to the market for risky home loans by paying roughly half a billion dollars to buy California-based WMC Mortgage Corp.

What GE got in the bargain, former WMC employees say, was a place where erstwhile shoe salesmen, ex-strippers and even a former porn actress could sign on as sales reps and make big money pushing home loans. WMC's top salespeople earned a million dollars a year or more and lived fast, swigging $1,000 bottles of Cristal and wheeling around in $100,000 Ferraris and Bentleys.  READ MORE

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON MORTGAGE FRAUD
(I welcome comments for additions and remarks about this list
including any discoveries that need to be dramatized.) Thank you.

• Rachel Dollar's Mortgage Fraud Blog 
• Realty Times 
• Real Blogging 
• The Prieston Group's Fraud Blog 
• Chicago Tribune's Mortgage Fraud Series 
• MortgageDaily.com's Fraud Site 
• FraudBlogger.com 
• Inman News 
• Mortgage Asset Research Institute
• National Mortgage News 
• Federal Crimes Blog
• Matt Norris' Mortgage Cents Blog 
• RIS Media
• The Mortgage Corner Forum