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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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10

Goldman Seizes Homes as Securities Sour

Just getting them to admit they hold your mortgage can be an ordeal

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(Newser) – Imagine finding yourself in a foreclosure battle and discovering that your opponent isn't the obscure lender who wrote your insane mortgage, but the formidable Goldman Sachs. It seems that after years of buying subprime mortgages and packaging them into bonds, at a handsome profit, Goldman is now in the business of chasing down defaulting homeowners.

And in hundreds of cases the homeowners have found themselves at an added disadvantage, McClatchy reports, because Goldman tries to hide who holds the mortgage, making it impossible for homeowners to qualify for rescue programs. One couple said Goldman, through a subsidiary, dodged them through "three years of obfuscation and resistance" even after they wrote to then-CEO Hank Paulson.

Richard Genna, left, of Goldman Sachs directs trading for the initial public offering (IPO) of Artio Global Investors on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009.
Richard Genna, left, of Goldman Sachs directs trading for the initial public offering (IPO) of Artio Global Investors on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009.   (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)
Goldman Sach's headquarters is shown, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 in New York.
Goldman Sach's headquarters is shown, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
People run in the rain outside the Goldman Sachs headquarters building December 16, 2008 in New York City.
People run in the rain outside the Goldman Sachs headquarters building December 16, 2008 in New York City.   (Getty Images)
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10 comments
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Netstorm2k9
Nov 2, 09 8:32 AM CST
"...Goldman tries to hide who holds the mortgage, making it impossible for homeowners to qualify for rescue programs." You evil bastards. I hope you die painfully and poor. Reply
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+10
IN RESPONSE:
Netstorm2k9
Nov 2, 09 8:37 AM CST
Love of money is the root of all evil.
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+6
IN RESPONSE:
JonmarkP
Nov 2, 09 12:20 PM CST
Individual executives at Goldman need to fear individual homeowners to whom they're causing harm. If it's going to be "law of the jungle" at the top, it needs to be "law of the jungle" at the bottom, too.
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+1
IN RESPONSE:
Spudsy
Nov 2, 09 5:52 PM CST
How can someone act on a mortgage that they claim to be unable to find? Sounds like some government lawyers aren't doing their jobs.
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0
tomodachi
Nov 2, 09 8:38 AM CST
Capitalism has so many sides... and so many of them are ugly. There ought to be a law. Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+5

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