Buyers Remorse – Trump Supporter Was Foreclosed on by Treasury Pick Steve Mnuchin

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Two days after Donald Trump’s election victory, I expressed the following sentiment in a post titled, Draining the Swamp? Wall Street is Already Loving Donald Trump:

To conclude, this article is primarily written for all my readers who are either Trump supporters, or who reluctantly voted for him. My message to you is that we need to hold this man’s feet to the fire. The election is over, and you got your desired outcome. Now is not the time to be a cheerleader. Now is not the time to behave exactly like Obama zombies did after he became an obvious betrayal. What allowed Obama to do all the bad things he did, was the fact that his supporters made endless excuses for him. Don’t make excuses for Trump. If you do, your life will get a lot worse and this country will decay far more into an authoritarian oligarchy than it already has. It is up to you to make sure he doesn’t become the Wall Street puppet I always feared he would be.

This message has become increasingly important with each passing day, and with every new cabinet disappointment. Mnuchin is not the only one. Trump picked the sister of Blackwater’s Erik Prince for Education Secretary (for more on Prince, see: America’s Top Rogue Mercenary – Blackwater’s Erik Prince is Under Federal Investigation) and Mitch McConnell’s wife for Transportation Secretary (see: Trump Fills the Swamp with Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell’s Wife, for Transportation Secretary). The swamp is being filled rapidly, and the sooner we admit it, the better.

Those who recognize Trump’s betrayal most quickly will be average Americans who have been preyed upon by some of his cabinet picks. One of these people is Teena Colebrook.

The AP reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Donald Trump named his Treasury secretary, Teena Colebrook felt her heart sink.

She had voted for the president-elect on the belief that he would knock the moneyed elites from their perch in Washington, D.C. And she knew Trump’s pick for Treasury Steven Mnuchin all too well.

OneWest, a bank formerly owned by a group of investors headed by Mnuchin, had foreclosed on her Los Angeles-area home in the aftermath of the Great Recession, stripping her of the two units she rented as a primary source of income.

“I just wish that I had not voted,” said Colebrook, 59. “I have no faith in our government anymore at all. They all promise you the world at the end of a stick and take it away once they get in.”

Less than a month after his presidential win, Trump’s populist appeal has started to clash with a Cabinet of billionaires and millionaires that he believes can energize economic growth.

The prospect of Mnuchin leading the Treasury Department drew plaudits from many in the financial sector. A former Goldman Sachs executive who pivoted in the early 2000s to hedge fund management and movie production, he seemed an ideal emissary to Wall Street.

When asked on Wednesday about his credentials to be Treasury secretary, Mnuchin emphasized his time running OneWest which not only foreclosed on Colebrook but also thousands of others in the aftermath of the housing crisis caused by sub-prime mortgages.

For Mnuchin, the fundamental problem stems from the Great Recession. His investor group was the sole bidders to take control of the troubled bank IndyMac in 2009. The group struck a deal that left the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission responsible for taking as much as 80 percent of the losses on former IndyMac assets and rebranded the troubled bank as OneWest.

The combination of OneWest’s profitability, government guarantees and foreclosure activities drew the ire of activist groups like the California Reinvestment Coalition. It found the bank to be consistently one of the most difficult to work out loan modifications with even though OneWest never drew a major response from government regulators.

By June of 2014, five years after taking over OneWest, Mnuchin sold the bank for $3.4 billion at a tremendous profit.

For much more on this topic see: There Will Be Swamp – Steve Mnuchin Confirms Treasury Secretary Nod.

Over five years, she tried unsuccessfully to adjust her loan with OneWest through the Treasury Department’s Home Affordable Modification Program. But she said that One West Bank lost paperwork, provided conflicting statements about ownership of the loan and fees and submitted charges that were unverified and caused her loan balance to balloon. By the time she lost her home in foreclosure in April 2015, the payoff balance totaled $517,662.

Colebrook said she is still challenging the foreclosure in court.

Trump won’t be draining any swamp. It pains me to say this, because as I noted in my first post-election article, Americans Roll the Dice With President Donald Trump, I was hoping Trump would do the right thing and become a great President:

Donald Trump has a historic opportunity to be a great President. Barack Obama was presented with a similar opportunity eight years ago and he immediately squandered it by surrounding himself with miserable, status quo economic and foreign policy insiders. He ditched the people who believed in him and voted for him, and in doing so cemented his legacy as that of a man who coddled oligarchs, kept banking criminals out of jail and further incinerated the Middle East. He’ll also be seen as the man whose tremendous disappointments as commander-in-chief led to the emergence and elevation of Donald Trump.

It looks like Trump is immediately filling his administration with swamp creatures, just like Obama did before him. The time for cheerleading is over. The time for accountability is now.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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27 thoughts on “Buyers Remorse – Trump Supporter Was Foreclosed on by Treasury Pick Steve Mnuchin”

  1. when you trust any human being you will be let down , this is the reality of human beings : flawed , remorseless and liars .

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  2. This article is completely idiotic. How in the hell is this foreclosure Trump’s fault or the fault of his pick? it’s not, and you know it. You’re just trying to stir the pot before it is even simmering. You are part of the problem. You’re throwing in the towel before they have even rung the bell for the first round. Pathetic. Truly pathetic. Would you have written this is Hillarnazi had won and her pick foreclosed on someone? Of course not. If this gig doesn’t work out, they could use you at CNN.

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    • This is one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve ever seen on this site since I started blogging, and that’s saying a lot.

      Let’s address your absurd “points.”

      First, of course Mnuchin is on the hook for the foreclosure. He led a group of investors who purchased IndyMac via a sweetheart government deal, changed the named to OneWest and then proceeded to engage in some of the most abusive foreclosures in the industry. As was noted in the post, There Will Be Swamp – Steve Mnuchin Confirms Treasury Secretary Nod: https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/11/30/there-will-be-swamp-steve-mnuchin-confirms-treasury-secretary-nod/


      The OneWest subsidiary Financial Freedom executed 39 percent of all foreclosures on reverse mortgages between 2009 and 2015, despite servicing only 17 percent of the market, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) obtained by the California Reinvestment Coalition. OneWest disclosed in its most recent annual report that it’s under investigation for this disproportionate share of “widow foreclosures” by HUD’s Inspector General. The victims include 103 year-old Myrtle Lewis of North Texas, who OneWest put into foreclosure after her insurance coverage lapsed; Karen Hunziker, who got a foreclosure notice from OneWest ten days after her husband passed away in 2014; and a host of others.

      The example in this post wasn’t just a one-off, it was systemic behavior at OneWest.

      Moving along to the beyond preposterous claim that I wouldn’t have similarly held Hillary’s feet to the fire. I wrote relentlessly from the moment Hillary threw her hat in the ring for the Presidency about how horrible and corrupt she was. I wrote some of the more effective and incisive critiques of her out there. Everyone paying attention knows this. I wrote probably close to a hundred articles holding her feet to the fire, way more than I did of Trump. To imply otherwise is completely disingenuous and unacceptable.

      Disagreement and debate are welcome here, lying about my intentions and track record is not. If anyone is “part of the problem,” it is you.

    • That you say Michael would not write this piece if Hillary had won means you’ve never read his blog before; he detests the Clintons.
      And, to answer your question, the foreclosure is the fault of Trump’s pick because Teena Colebrook did everything Mnuchin’s bank told her to do. It kept “losing” her paperwork and other tactics to create the excuse for it to foreclose on her. This happened to millions of borrowers at all the too-big-to-jail banks. This strategy could only come from the top:

  3. How dare a financial institution foreclose on a home that the owner wasn’t paying for? This article is moronic. Find me a bank that hasn’t foreclosed on a home outside of Cuba. Stop being poor and pay your bills. No one owes you a living.

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    • The example in this post wasn’t just a one-off, it was systemic behavior at OneWest.

      OneWest engaged in some of the most abusive foreclosures in the industry. As was noted in the post, There Will Be Swamp – Steve Mnuchin Confirms Treasury Secretary Nod: https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/11/30/there-will-be-swamp-steve-mnuchin-confirms-treasury-secretary-nod/

      The OneWest subsidiary Financial Freedom executed 39 percent of all foreclosures on reverse mortgages between 2009 and 2015, despite servicing only 17 percent of the market, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) obtained by the California Reinvestment Coalition. OneWest disclosed in its most recent annual report that it’s under investigation for this disproportionate share of “widow foreclosures” by HUD’s Inspector General. The victims include 103 year-old Myrtle Lewis of North Texas, who OneWest put into foreclosure after her insurance coverage lapsed; Karen Hunziker, who got a foreclosure notice from OneWest ten days after her husband passed away in 2014; and a host of others.

      I agree with you though if you are willing to hold Wall Street to the same standards, but no, they were bailed out and paid out record bonuses the next year. If you want brutal capitalism fine, but it must then also apply equally to the rich and powerful and it didn’t.

    • I agree with absolutely no government involvement wherever possible. I detest government safety nets and bailouts including the saving of the motor industry and the banks. How a person who can’t make payments on a home or car can expect to maintain their property isn’t logical. Sink or swim. That’s economic freedom.

    • Ok, that’s fine, but it’s not what happened during the crisis.

      Average Americans were told to sink or swim and many sunk. Wall Street was saved. I don’t think Wall Street should have been saved, but if we are going to save the richest Americans, we can’t then tell average people too bad. Especially in this case where Mnuchin received a crony capitalist deal in buying IndyMac and then turned around and harmed average Americans. That’s my issue.

    • Completely agree but trump didn’t bail Wall Street out. Truth be told, Hillary was far closer to the administration that bailed out corporate America than was Donald Trump. This lady wishing she could have her vote back tells me she’s confused.

  4. Krieger, I hate to say this but you come across as a bit of a boyscout.

    If I was in Trump’ shoes, and actually wanted to change anything to the massive machinery in place – I would do exactly the same thing he’s doing: picking people from the inside that can get the job done. (like using a thief to catch a thief)

    my point is: if you pick a Ron Paul or Paul Craig Roberts or James Grant, The system’s “immune system” would reject them by reflex and nothing would get done. The conflict and gridlock would be staggering.

    The only questions that matters is, will his picks achieve the real task they’ve been given, and what are these tasks?

    Now I know that sounds naive. That’s all taking for granted that Trump is the real deal and I’m too cynical to believe that.

    But if he ACTUALLY is the real deal, he’s doing exactly the right thing so far.

    How it will turn out is too early to say…. I would give about 10% chance that the transfer of wealth will stop. I for one always thought that was in it to line his pockets… but then I never thought he would get elected either, so who knows…

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  5. you cons have been conned! just accept it.

    you all’s hate is so strong, and now diffuse, that you don’t know who or what to target anymore. you just know you hate. its really quite sad and tragic and allowed you to vote for a truly horrible (and very risky)candidate that was the consummate insider and crystalized the corrupted.

    all in the hope that he would somehow ‘shake things up’ and drain the swamp; LOL…

    it would be funny if one could ignore all the hate and bigotry stirred up by the Trump campaign. truly the most divisive presidential campaign since the civil rights movement that has caused more trepidation and social upheaval in this country than anything in a very long time.

    really, you should be ashamed!

    and lets hope that this man, the president elect – elected by a minority of the American people with no governing experience – does not do anything so stupid as to seriously challenge our existence!

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  6. I concur. It seems like switch and bait like the Obamer’s 19/20 promises failed. I believe that rather ranting about it, could you tell me solutions in mind. I watch you at USA watchdog.com and you are very reasonable person. I believe you.

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  7. You underestimate the Trump supporters. What you fear is what would have happened if Clinton got elected. They have no principles. It is all about getting their person in. Look what happened to the ant-war movement when they got their person in.

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  8. The only thing that surprises me, is that anyone is surprised by this. I always thought it should have been obvious from the start that a billionaire that came from a rich family was the least likely person to “drain the swamp”. And when he refused to release his tax returns, that should have made it clear even to those that wanted to buy on his rhetoric. I mean, why would he refuse to release them, unless it was because anybody would have felt like puking all over them if they saw them?

    The only thing that I still have trouble understanding, is that as many as 20% of Americans failed to see the blindingly obvious.

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    • Yeah, I find it funny that so many think a multi billionaire is there for the people and is just one of the average Joes.

      The Trump diehards are just the Obombya hope and changers 2.0. They are just as high on the hopium and just as biased and hypocritical.

      As Mike said in his welcome post to new readers,bing a cheerleader/follower of a person or group leads to this type of stuff and that people should think for themselves and not be part of a herd.

  9. I’m not convinced. This guy is crap, obviously. But this is politics. Trump has got to throw some bones to appease the nobles. Always happens in history, and some leaders end up using these tactics to their advantage.

    I still have faith in trump, if only because our foreign policy seems to be improving already. Trump just might end our little cold war with Russia.

    Mike, why have you been silent on Jill steins recount efforts? They’re tremendously shady and do demand some attention.

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    • Hi, I haven’t been silent on that topic at all. In fact, I was relentlessly vocal and critical about it on Twitter.

      This blog isn’t the only way I voice opinions on things. I am far more active on a variety of topics via Twitter. You should check it out.

  10. I have the exact same problem as Ms. Colebrook, except that my loan also included fraud and forgery by the broker. I would like Ms. Colebrook to contact me via Facebook. Since we are both in litigation, perhaps we can share useful information. I would like to know if she used the same broker or if she was able to prove collusion between the broker and IndyMac. Thank you! Gail Langer Reznik

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  11. Did you conduct any research regarding Teena Colebrook’s foreclosure? Did you realize that after purchasing the property in 1998 for $240k she then “refinanced her mortgage in order to renovate the property and help buy additional homes to generate rental income”. … “she had an interest-only mortgage on the triplex known as a ‘pick-a-payment’ loan. Her monthly payments ran as high as $2,000 and only covered the interest on the debt.” … “in April 2015, the payoff balance totaled $517,662.”

    Another thing to note … “Over five years, she tried unsuccessfully to adjust her loan…” She was in foreclosure for 5 years! That is 5 years of not making payments on her place. Must be nice.

    With the downturn in the economy she got caught with her hands in the preverbal cookie jar. This has NOTHING to do with the current or future administration. And no, I did not vote for Trump.

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  12. Geesh, Michael! The commenters on your site usually seem thoughtful and intelligent but just lately some of them seem like angry, hateful WaPo readers. I wonder how you might have picked them up?

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  13. The moral of this story…if you don’t pay the bills on your rental properties and they’re foreclosed on….it’s Trumps fault. It would almost be funny if idiots didn’t actually believe this is how the world works; sad to see we no longer believe in personal responsibility. Her actions, apparently dictated by greed, led to her negative outcome.

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