Taylor, Bean & Whitaker: Not Done Wreaking Havoc

Remember Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, the Ocala, Florida mortgage bank that crashed spectacularly last week and was heavily involved with failed Colonial Bank of Birmingham, Alabama? Well they’re not done yet wreaking havoc.

It turns out that Platinum Bank located in Rolling Hills, Illinois was owned by TBW. Platinum Bank was seized by the FDIC Friday.

Here’s the story from the WSJ:

The Illinois connection to Mr. Farkas’ now-bankrupt mortgage banking empire of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. was Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based Platinum Community Bank, which went down Friday with assets of $345.6 million and deposits of $305 million. There was no buyer for Platinum’s assets and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved the payout of all insured deposits, a costly outcome for the FDIC.

After acquiring Platinum, located in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, Mr. Farkas sent an email to his staff in October 2008 saying the purchase was “without a doubt the MOST IMPORTANT acquisition we have ever made and offers opportunity for (Taylor Bean) to grow and prosper.” Eventually, he said, Platinum would help “fund new production thereby eliminating funding challenges in the future. And it will lessen our reliance on other banks that have hampered our operations in the past.” He also wrote that it was “imperative” for employees to set up personal bank accounts at Platinum.

Last month Taylor Bean filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of U.S. bankruptcy law. The move came several weeks after federal regulators effectively forced Taylor Bean to close down its lending operations. The Department of Housing and Urban Development accused Taylor Bean of misleading it about a dispute with the company’s auditors over accounting practices and of failing to disclose penalties imposed by state regulators.

I’ve written several times about TBW and their demise. From the outset, I’ve been of the opinion that there was more here than met the eye and this twist just reinforces those thoughts. TBW went down too fast and was too wrapped up with Colonial Bank, which also failed rather spectacularly, for there not to be some sort of massive fraud afoot. What a Florida mortgage company was doing with a bank in Illinois escapes me, but when all these dots get connected (if they get connected) there is going to be one big story.

Fortunately, the WSJ has so far been keeping an eye on TBW. They seem to smell the same thing I do, so let’s hope they keep on it and turn over all the rocks on this one. I suspect that there are a lot of people that won’t want those rocks turned.

Comments

[Graham and ...:]

There seem to be a lot of "cockroaches" with this one.

Sep 06 02:21 PM

[User 343597:]

This explains why I couldn't make a mortgage payment last month.

Sep 08 07:18 AM

[msmith59:]

I was a Q.C. Underwriter for TBW up until a year ago. I just red flagged too many bad loans they had to sweep under the carpet.Fannie cut TBW off years ago. TBW was just a Freddie/FHA(& sub prime until it dried up)player.
TBW is as guilty as Countrywide. Im amazed it took this long? I thought the massive pile of feces would have hit the Airboat prop a couple months after Mozilo's grill was front page business news.
If the FBI or PMI companies etc.need testimony or other expertise. TBW has a sizable servicing portfolio, who do you think is going to get there hands on that?

[e-mail]

Sep 08 04:11 PM

[msmith59:]

Farkas is(or was) tight with Barney Frank

Sep 08 05:29 PM

[William J D...:]

I currently HAVE a TBW loan, and NOBODY has told me where to send the money, or anything, the place that was SAID to be taking my loan doesnt answer the telephone, ALSO, I dont like the fact that I had to work so hard to get a loan.......dont kid yourselves, TBW wasnt an EASY catch, it took me a year to qualify.....A WHOLE YEAR of stuff like, well you gotta fix this on your credit report, well i did what I was told, and a year later, I got to pick out my house, now I have been in it almost 2 years, and if somebody dont answer the phone, I could lose it, AND ITS NOT MY FAULT!!!

Sep 16 01:58 PM

[hippiechick...:]

We finally had to get a lawyer to help us with the same situation you're in. It sucks when no one there (TBW) would help us BEFORE the proverbial crap hit. The payments we sent to the address before were never cashed; we received a notice that we were delinquent (6 months behind!), and have been trying to straighten out this mess for over a year. Lots of paperwork, phone calls, and double talk from the claims examiner at TBW. We threatened to get a lawyer and were given a sob story from the claims examiner about how behind he was and how many temp workers were trying to get everything in order. After the fourth time our house was put up for auction (all 4 times another round of phone calls and cussing before our house was removed), we finally had enough. We got a lawyer, injunctions and a countersuit against TBW. All we want is to keep our house. I hope no one has to go through the crap we've gone through.


On Sep 16 01:58 PM William J Deiter wrote:

> I currently HAVE a TBW loan, and NOBODY has told me where to send
> the money, or anything, the place that was SAID to be taking my loan
> doesnt answer the telephone, ALSO, I dont like the fact that I had
> to work so hard to get a loan.......dont kid yourselves, TBW wasnt
> an EASY catch, it took me a year to qualify.....A WHOLE YEAR of stuff
> like, well you gotta fix this on your credit report, well i did what
> I was told, and a year later, I got to pick out my house, now I have
> been in it almost 2 years, and if somebody dont answer the phone,
> I could lose it, AND ITS NOT MY FAULT!!!

Sep 16 04:21 PM