Bush pardons mortgage fraudster who escaped restitutio

[Big VIC]

Update at bottom: Victims 'thank' Bush for 'worst Christmas present' ever

Father gave $28,500 to RNC this year
President George W. Bush has characterized the recent US housing crisis as a product of greed and Wall Street excess.

But that doesn't seem to have been Bush's opinion when he pardoned Isaac Toussie, 30, of Brooklyn, the son of a New York real estate developer, who defrauded the Housing and Urban Development Department government for millions of dollars and pled guilty to inflating the incomes of at least 100 families to make them eligible for federal loans in the lead-up to the worst housing crisis the United States has ever had.

Toussie was among 19 pardoned by President George W. Bush in his semi-annual pre-Christmas clemencies.

What's more, Toussie's father gave $28,500 to the Republican National Committee this year, according to a RAW STORY analysis of federal campaign finance records available at the nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog Open Secrets.

Robert and his son were sued in 2001 in what was billed as the largest real-estate discrimination lawsuit ever filed in New York State on behalf of some 400 families. They said they were duped into buying overpriced and shoddily built properties.

The two were accused of being in cahoots with more than a dozen lenders to defraud minority home buyers, most of whom had imperfect credit records.

Toussie admitted to mortgage fraud and to defrauding Suffolk County by issuing letters that inflated the value of a property the county and a town bought by $2.7 million.

As Politico's Ben Smith notes, Toussie and "his father were poster children in a 2002 BusinessWeek piece on the dark side of the housing boom."

Issac Toussie was sentenced to five months in prison and five months' home detention in 2003 and was fined $10,000. He escaped restitution after prosecutors said that records had been destroyed in the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Excerpts from 2002 BusinessWeek article, "The Housing Boom's Dark Side: Scams and over-extended buyers threaten the market's strength":

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In some cases, the trail of corruption leads all the way to homebuilders who lure buyers with instant financing. In hindsight, says Maxine Wilson, a law firm administrator, the seamless loan process should have tipped her off that the house she bought in a New York City suburb in 1997 had problems: "It was way too easy. When the loan manager walks into a builder's office, takes your application, and guarantees that you're going to be approved, something is wrong."

Now, Wilson says her home is sinking. The foundation is cracked, and she has mildew in her attic--where the bathroom vents. Wilson bought the house for $140,000 from father-and-son builders Isaac and Robert Toussie. Two years later, it was appraised for $15,000 less in one of the hottest U.S. housing markets. Wilson and 200 others filed a suit in federal court against the Toussies, but it was thrown out on Sept. 20 after failing to qualify as a class action. In May, 2001, Issac Toussie pleaded guilty to fraud in federal court on Long Island for illegally obtaining federal housing loans. On Sept. 25, Robert Toussie's lawyer, Richard C. Hamburger of Hamburger, Maxson & Yaffe LLP in Melville, N.Y., said his client is so confident of the quality of his houses that he will offer to buy back those of Wilson and the two other lead plaintiffs and pay their moving expenses and $5,000. Hamburger said a letter will go out to the plaintiffs on Sept. 26.

Aggressive mortgage practices could haunt banks as the economy weakens. In their eagerness to lend, banks have pushed too many people to take on too much debt. These borrowers are extremely vulnerable to higher interest rates and rising unemployment. That raises the prospect of a flood of defaults. And a wave of distressed properties would have major implications for the housing market--one of the few areas of the economy that is thriving. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-sponsored mortgage guarantors, which purchase about half of all mortgages, are likely to exercise their right to force banks to buy back bad loans.

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FULL ARTICLE AT THIS LINK

'Victims feel like the roof has fallen in'

Homeowners who feel they were victimized by the convicted fraudster blasted President Bush for giving them the "worst Christmas gift" ever.

"President Bush's pardon of Isaac Toussie is a nightmare for homebuyers who watched their houses - and their lives - fall apart around them," John Marzulli and Celeste Katz report for New York City's Daily News.

Maxine Wilson, whose $146,000 ranch house became the ultimate money pit after its "boiler went, toilets backed up, basement flooded, closet doors fell off and foundation cracked," tells the paper, "The politically connected get what they want, and little people like us are just left to sink or swim. Thanks to the President for the worst Christmas gift you could have ever given us."

In an accompanying Daily News story, Peter Seidman, "a lawyer who represents 460 people who say they were fleeced," complains to the paper, "We're in the middle of a mortgage crisis [and] this is somebody who was alleged to have participated in predatory lending practices."

Seidman adds, "To pardon Isaac Toussie is a kick in the teeth to homeowners struggling with mortgages they can't afford."

The paper also reports that U.S. Pardon Attorney Ronald Rodgers received the pardon petition on August 7, a few months after the elder Toussie's RNC donation.

"It clearly suggests a link between the pardon and campaign contributions," Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington tells the paper.

The newspaper's editorial page called the pardon "a breathtaking abuse of discretion that smells of cheaply bought political favoritism."

Excerpts from article:

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Alfred Boozer, 50, a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art, said he lost his money - and his marriage - after he bought a Toussie house in Staten Island.

"I think Bush stinks anyway," said Boozer, who now rents a studio in Queens.

Beverly Sanchez, 42, a mom of three who bought her Middle Island, L.I., house for $157,000 from Toussie in 1997, was horrified to learn of the pardon. "We wanted the American Dream. We wanted the house, we wanted the white picket fence - and instead, we got nothing but heartache," not to mention floods and mold.

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For missing links and stuff

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/New_Yorker_pardoned_by_Bush_pled_1223.html

 

[Ironslave]

 

[power]

The more things change the more they stay the same, Obama, more of the same.

 

[Big VIC]

The more things change the more they stay the same, Obama, more of the same.

Lulz this Artical has nothing to do with Obama or did I miss something...

 

[power]

It has to do with the corruption in government. I am just pointing out that the same type of corruption will most likely occur in the Obama administration.

 

[Tech]

I wish there was a way to end Presidential pardons. I see no reason why they should exist.

 

[Ironslave]

Holy crap.... the pardon was revoked?

WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday revoked a pardon he had granted only a day before - a step unheard of in recent memory - after learning in news reports of political contributions to Republicans by the man's father and other information.

Bush pardoned 19 people on Tuesday, including Isaac Robert Toussie of Brooklyn, N.Y., who had been convicted of making false statements to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and of mail fraud. On Wednesday, the White House issued an extraordinary statement saying the president was reversing his decision in Toussie's case.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the new decision was ``based on information that has subsequently come to light,'' including on the extent and nature of Toussie's prior criminal offenses. She also said that neither the White House counsel's office nor the president had been aware of a political contribution by Toussie's father that ``might create an appearance of impropriety.''

``Given that, this was the prudent thing to do,'' she said.

The new information came to the White House's attention from news reports, Perino said.

A story in the New York Daily News said Toussie's father, Robert, donated $28,500 to the national Republican Party in April. It came just months before Toussie's pardon petition, the newspaper said.

The counsel's office generally doesn't include vetting of political contributions in its reviews on such matters, as that would be ``highly inappropriate on many levels,'' she said. The White House decision on Toussie had come without a recommendation from the pardon attorney, Ronald L. Rodgers, as Toussie's request for a pardon came less than five years after completion of his sentence, so that eliminated another step in the review process.

The Justice Department advises the president on who qualifies for pardons. Only people who have waited five years after their conviction or release from prison can apply for a pardon under the department's guidelines. Criminals are required to begin serving time, or otherwise exhaust any appeals, before they can be considered for sentence commutation.

But the president can forgive people outside that process if he chooses. Under the Constitution, the president's power to issue pardons is absolute and cannot be overruled - meaning he can forgive anyone he wants, at any time.

Perino said she did not know of another instance of a pardon reversal in ``recent memory,'' but that the White House couldn't say for sure it never had happened before.

``The counsel to the president reviewed the application and believed, based on the information known to him at the time, that it was a meritorious application,'' she said. Bush now believes the case should rest with the pardon attorney.

The Daily News story on Wednesday, and another in Newsday and on blogs, shed light on Toussie's record. He pleaded guilty for lying to HUD and mail fraud, admitting that he falsified finances of prospective homebuyers seeking HUD mortgages. He was sentenced to five months in prison and five months' house arrest, a $10,000 fine and no restitution, the Daily News reported.

In another case, Toussie pleaded guilty to having a friend send his local county a letter that falsely inflated property values.

The Daily News also located a lawyer representing hundreds of ex-customers who have sued Toussie in federal court, accusing him of luring poor, minority homebuyers into buying overpriced homes with mortgages that had hidden costs.

The attorney, Peter E. Seidman, said Wednesday that news of the pardon was ``gut wrenching for his clients'' and left him ``baffled.''

``I am glad somebody at the White House woke up,'' he said in an interview.

Maxine D. Wilson, 42, bought one of Toussie's homes on Long Island in 1996. She later sued Toussie, claiming the house started to fall apart after she moved in in 1997. She said she was shocked when she learned Bush was going to pardon Toussie.

``I was angry at how money, power and influence seemed to trump justice,'' she said. But on Wednesday, she said, ``I feel today that somebody paid attention. Somebody stepped back and made us feel equal.''

Federal Election Commission records show a number of donations to Republicans this year by Robert Toussie and by a Laura Toussie who lists the same address. Between them, they gave $4,600 to Minnesota GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and another $4,600 to Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, all on Oct. 15. Coleman is locked in a still-undecided race against Democrat Al Franken, and Smith lost in November to Democrat Jeff Merkley.

On Oct. 30, Robert Toussie also gave $2,300 to GOP Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.

His contribution to the Republican National Committee came as part of a fundraiser in March for GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Out of a total donation of $30,800 by Toussie, $2,300 went to McCain's campaign and $28,500 went to the RNC.

Doug Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University and a close follower of presidential clemency decisions, said the White House decision strikes him as unprecedented, but he said it's not inconceivable that it had happened in the past.

``It's, at best, embarrassing. At worst, it's an extraordinary example of this White House's ability to bollox up one bit of presidential authority that he clearly has,'' Berman said.

Bradford Berenson, an associate White House counsel during Bush's first term and Isaac Toussie's lawyer, said in a statement that his client remained confident the pardon attorney would grant his request.

``Isaac Toussie is deeply grateful that both the counsel to the president and the president himself found Mr. Toussie's pardon application to have sufficient merit to be granted,'' Berenson said. ``Mr. Toussie looks forward to the pardon attorney's expeditious review of the application.''

Berenson declined to elaborate further on the case and its developments.

With the Toussie reversal, Bush has granted a total of 189 pardons and nine commutations. That's fewer than half as many as Presidents Clinton or Reagan issued during their two-term tenures.

 

[power]

I am proud of you President Bush.