SAN FRANCISCO — Kamala Harris catapulted to Democratic stardom on a story based mostly on her position as California’s lawyer basic through the housing crisis, when she was an unrelenting adversary of huge banks and mortgage lenders, and a champion of shoppers.
But a brand new e-book by Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter Aaron Glantz challenges that storyline, arguing that Harris not only allowed Steve Mnuchin’s OneWest financial institution to get away with foreclosing on tens of hundreds of state householders, however then tried to bury the proof.
The e-book, titled “Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall St. Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Tens of millions of Out of Their Houses and Demolished the American Dream,’’ was revealed this week by Custom House.
It posits that a group of Wall Road moguls together with Trump Cupboard appointees Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, in addition to White Home insiders like Steve Schwarzman and Tom Barrack, took benefit of “a rigged system” to transfer billions of dollars from particular person householders into their very own pockets in the course of the Great Recession.
“Shoppers marvel how is it that we all acquired up to now behind” and so many People lost their houses within the Great Recession, Glantz — a two-time Peabody Award profitable journalist with California-based REVEAL and the Middle for Investigative Reporting — stated Monday in an interview.
“The reply is all of those officers screwed up and dropped the ball — and hid it. The time period when all this homewrecking occurred was through the Obama presidency, and when AG’s like Kamala Harris have been on the job,'' he stated. "It happened on her watch. And she or he’s never been really pressured to tell the opposite story -- and wrestle with the reality of what happened..”
In California, Mnuchin — now the Treasury secretary — acquired regional banks like OneWest with the federal authorities’s assist; the banks obtained billions in subsidies as they foreclosed on 35,000 householders within the Golden State alone, Glantz stories. Harris did little to cease that bleeding — and later tried to suppress proof of her inaction, he argues.
“Harris’ deputies really helpful that their boss sue the bank,’’ Glantz stated, citing the bank’s loss-share settlement with the FDIC, which said that Mnuchin’s financial institution might solely obtain payments from the federal government if it followed correct foreclosures procedures. “If the state of California found OneWest violated those rules, the funds might stop – saving not only householders...however government coffers as properly.’’
“[But] despite a robust suggestion from her employees,’’ Harris never legally pursued Mnuchin’s OneWest bank, he says. “Consequently, nobody at OneWest confronted prosecution — and no one obtained their houses back.”
Ian Sams, spokesman for Harris’ presidential campaign, responded forcefully to the fees in Glantz’s ebook.
“No lawyer basic in America received more from the banks for their state's householders than Kamala Harris; she gained $20 billion for Californians from the most important banks,’’ he stated in a assertion to POLITICO. “She also acquired one other $1 billion from the banks when she pursued a securities fraud case which centered on money defrauded from pension funds. She then handed a pioneering Home-owner's Bill of Rights and created a Mortgage Fraud Strike Pressure.”
“There was no question OneWest carried out predatory lending, and Senator Harris believes they need to be punished,’’ Sams stated. “Sadly, the regulation was squarely on their aspect they usually have been shielded from state subpoenas because they seem to be a federal financial institution. This should not be shocking by how much influence the financial business has wielded in Washington, however Senator Harris has introduced a bill to fix this.”
Earlier this yr, Harris told the San Francisco Chronicle that she “didn’t have the legal means,’’ as a result of “the principles have been written in favor of the banks’’ — an argument Glantz studies was disputed in a 25-page memo produced by Harris’ own employees. “Case NOT filed despite robust recommendations,’’ reads a canopy sheet atop the memo, Glantz writes.
He stated the Mortgage Fraud Strike Pressure Harris launched does get credit for taking action, but principally went after "small potatoes" offenders. On greater fish, nevertheless, her employees “did investigate OneWest, and did advocate prosecution — however she did bury their report and declined to launch a prosecution,’’ he stated. “That occurred.”
Glantz writes in “Homewreckers” that “the only cause we find out about California’s investigations into OneWest immediately is as a result of David Dayen of the information web site The Intercept obtained a leaked copy,’’ and published it in January 2017. “By then,’’ Glantz reviews, “Harris was not California lawyer basic — she was a U.S. senator.”
Article initially revealed on POLITICO Magazine
Src: New book whacks Kamala Harris’ AG record during housing crisis
==============================
New Smart Way Get BITCOINS!
CHECK IT NOW!
==============================