patrick.net

DinOR,

Just invite him honestly and simply to be a guest blogger here. I wouldn't inject any judgement or hyperbole into it. He'll get plenty of that in the comments to his thread.

The added benefit is that will then stand as record we can serve up during the discovery phase.

By the way, I left a comment on his blog fairly and clearly warning him that he should listen to his lawyers, stop blogging, and disappear -- hoping that everyone forgets and he can just go through the process quietly.

So, he's been warned. In my opinion, from this point forward (actually from the point where he ignored his attorney's advice) he is begging for his own demise.

Bad, bad Australian Boomers

that's a really weird story. i was at bondi last week, and didn't particularly notice them, heh. i'm just dumbfounded, it's unthinkable, bondi is probably akin to venice beach or something... there are some areas in north bondi they might be able to get away with it... just a temporary problem like possums getting into the roof...

By the way, I left a comment on his blog fairly and clearly warning him that he should listen to his lawyers, stop blogging, and disappear

hmm, absolutely right -- i think wise counsel would be that he keep his head down and stops spilling his guts to the whole world... if he has no judgement, at least his attorney has... but "i just gotta be me!"

"inflation ex inflation"

Robert I'll have to agree. Analysts calling for 3.5-4.5% GDP back in July were making my eyes roll back in my head. I believe you're right, "GDP" has become more a measure of the velocity of money!

(I'm not sure though I could keep a straight face while inviting Casey to our blog). After all, hasn't he suffered enough? LOL! When saddled with a FICO that from that day forth simply be referred to as a "Casey FICO" and a 1099 that could choke a cow he'll know what suffering is!

Question:

There is a very high likelihood that nothing will happen to Mr. Casey aside from the normal financial distress stuff. Not that that isn't bad. But for a very young guy with few assets and really not that much to lose aside from a credit rating -- which he doesn't really grasp yet -- it's not really that much of a penance.

He probably won't get sued. He'll probably lie on his taxes, and no one will catch it. He'll probably not get investigated by a grand jury (Cote's wishes aside).

Of course, we could do a lot to change that. Vindictive? Petty? Righteous? Schadenfreude or just simple Grausamkeit?

Had Casey the sophistication to put one property in Happy Happy Good Time LLC and another in IBNXTSY Enterprises with different fed. tax ID numbers he might have been able to get away with it! Since he had to put his rugu seminars on plastic I doubt that happened.

Can't you just call up the OCC and bid on "non-performing paper". Surely someone there will catch it? Besides doesn't the lender issue a 1099 for "debt forgiven" as income? (That would be tough for anyone to work around).

Randy,

I thought that was a very generously worded and wise note. We'll see if that and Serin's attorney finally shake some sense into his head.

However, I agree with SQT. Serin has already done a lot of damage to himself. txchick57 over at Ben Jones's blog threatened send pdfs of Serin's blog to Serin's creditors. Serin may have already attracted too much heat to have an easy way out.

Now if I was a super-ambitious and altruistic DA, I'd wait one or two years and then forcibly turn Serin state's witness against his lenders. Elliot Spitzer made his name doing this kind of stuff. A publicity savvy DA or US Attorney can get a lot of mileages squeezing huge settlements and getting convictions from the mortgage banking industry.

M. Cote,

Hey, that bilingual stuff makes perfect sense! Public transportation in Oxnard is probably only used by Spanish speakers or people who wants bilingual signage!

(Oye, I'm never gonna get elected to public office)

DinOR,

I doubt Serin has that kind of sophistication. If he did he wouldn't be blogging his predicament in the first place.

M. Cote,

Sorry, I was joking. But really! Wow!

It's funny b/c obviously Casey doesn't even seem to appreciate the gravity of his situation. He's a pretty easy target but how different is what he did from countless other FB's that knew full well the appraisals they were getting on their 4th cash out re-fi in the last 2 1/2 years were nothing more than fluff and hot air?

He came SO LATE to the party to my knowledge he didn't even get a shot at doin' some cash out re-fi's and then go down the road (as we'll find in many, many cases). I'd heard over on Ben's that one poster said in an "affluent" area in FL that some (and I don't have a term for them yet, so) people that couldn't get the appraisal to do cash out re-fi's "sold" their home to their neighbors! And yes, vice versa! Evidently, through this underhanded ploy they were able to bilk the system for another 100/200K! So I guess they settled up for the difference down at the country club?

I'm hardly defending num-nuts but he's got plenty of company.

Hiding,

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. The DA will have no problem finding and turning big time mortgage brokers and shysters, they won't bother with Casey. More fun just to do an open and shut case and add another notch to their belt.

Serin might be trying to extort a favorable settlement out of his lenders/realtor/MBs. A "if I'm going down I'm taking you with me" and get them to take over his houses.

Agree with Astrid, and disagree with Cote'.

No DA will care one iota about Casey -- that is unless there is some pretty organized, sustained, and broad public pressure.

The DA won't win any points for going after him. In fact, the DA will lose points. Sir Cote' is forgetting about the average voter's psychology and injecting his own logic. That'll get you on the wrong end of the trade every time.

I would say that the only way to have even a small chance of getting something criminal going against Casey would be to organize interested people: probably Patrick's, Ben's, and the various derivatives. Then there would have to be someone reasonably high-profile to write a letter of support, preferably a lawmaker. Even with all that, the DA is a little busy with elections, HP, Energy Companies, and who eats what kind of allegedly tortured meat.

Maybe if 5,000 people all called the IRS tax cheat tip line with his info that would result in an audit. That would result in a settlement with his wages getting garnished for a few years. He won't go to jail over this type of thing if it's his first infraction.

A few days ago, someone on Ben's site actually posted the links on where/how to report mortgage fraud, contact the local DA, etc. I can't find the original, but here's a handy link in case anyone's interested:

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage_fraud/National_Resources.asp

Not saying anyone here would actually REPORT CASEY or anything (bad karma, right?), just an fyi... ;-)

And Serin isn't executing any honeytrap, strategic leverage ploy, or other devious plan. He's just an immature amateur flipper with an ego. If this was a sting or trap it would be more like some condoflip.com or something, where you can really set people up with the goods. All any investigators get from Casey's site is random comments from unverifiable sources.

Not saying anyone here would actually REPORT CASEY or anything (bad karma, right?), just an fyi…

I don't have any Karma, having long since sold it all forward on the futures market.

So I'll be more than willing to say it, if it's worth while.

Mike said:

"Well, I day trade and I do very nicely thank you. I never used to do “very nicely thank you” until one day (years ago) I woke up and realized that everything can be summed up in one word. M-A-N-I-P-U-L-A-T-I-O-n. Once I recognized that NONE of the numbers coming out of the government or the stock market can be taken at face value and the analysts and financial advisors are full of sh*t, I started to make money. One of my favorite comedy shows is CNBC’s MarketWatch."

Mike,

I totally agree with your comment. I'm a newbie when it comes to the stock market, and within the short time I've been investing in stocks (about 8 months), I've seen certain stocks (and the market in general) move in ways that has left me scratching my head wondering how can this be?

I have to ask you Mike, how did you come to your realization? I understand that certain people and events can and do manipulate the market, but how do you recognize when a stock is being manipulated to go one way in the face of the numbers coming out and use this info to your advantage?

I'm very interested in your opinion and look forward to hearing from you.

The only reason I kinda disagree with you Randy is the attention Serin is bringing to himself. If the DA lets him slide, then the DA is setting up a precedent where they let everyone in similar circumstances slide. He’s making himself so high profile that they might not end up with any choice, whether they want to go after him or not.

Excellent point. Let's not forget that all too often our criminal "justice" is driven by politics, media coverage of celebrity perps, and "making examples" rather than by rational, consistent enforcement of the law. Casey has made himself a "person of interest" to his lenders, the public, the media and to law enforcement by posting the gory details of his fraud. He may very well be the next high-profile public "example" of this train wreck we are watching unfold.

It's time for another garden related non sequitor from astrid. (AKA favorite online nursery pimping).

http://camforest.com/

I got my fall Camellia Forest catalogue today and the selection this fall looks very good. This company specializes in Asian shrubberies and trees. I've bought from them before and they have very competitive prices and very big healthy plants.

Their specialty is hardy camellias (suitable for NJ to SC, PNW) and prunus mume (ume in Japanese or mei hua in Chinese).

Jon,

Thanks for your sharing your experience. I know a couple people who works in the government and they say the same thing. It's a long painful and problematic process to get in, but once you're in and not totally stupid, you're golden. There's plenty of good people working in the government. The pay is not high but more than adequate for a comfortable stable lifestyle, and at least I can quit worrying about retirement and healthcare.

"Ours went after Vons for not fully disclosing the contents of their imitation crabmeat."

LOL! Fish meal and modified starch?

Agreed Casey is early roadkill as the juggernaut careens out of control but that just makes him an easy and obvious target. he’s the DA equivalent of a councilman’s pothole repair; Easy job, political returns.

small-time FB prosecution = pothole repair. Nice metaphor! So what should we use to describe going after Carlton Sheets, Marshall Reddick, Robert G. Allen, or the Condoflip guys?

Jon,

When I got out of the service in 1989 it would have made sense for me to continue w/some form of fed. emp. The truth is, that was only about a year after the "Crash of 87" and private employers were taking major austerity measures. SO, everyone was looking for gov. jobs. Everyone! Dude, I looked around and saw so many people that weren't young anymore. Doing young people's job's. Waiting for a call back on any one of 26 different applications they had put in. I saw so many people wasting the best earning years of their lives waiting for "their ship to come in". When people in my reserve unit asked what I was looking for, you'd tell them and they would just laugh! They were like, dude, you have to wait until someone dies! It was sad. I had to move on.

I'll be happy to stand corrected if and when a DA starts the ball rolling on Casey. I'm not a fan of "making an example" in our justice system either; but that's the way it works.

Although I'm not sure what message it sends to prosecute Casey, seeing as flipping is played out. All those other flippers who quietly slip away without getting caught probably won't learn any lessons except that they shouldn't blog about their exploits.

“Ours went after Vons for not fully disclosing the contents of their imitation crabmeat.”

Imitation Krab is a krime against humanity. I say go after them!

It’s good in egg-drop soup too.

I still prefer real crab.

I'd say pasturized crab meat is a crime against nature. I'd rather have imitation crab than pasturized crab meat.

Anyone else here buy frozen Shanghai soup dumplings (the thin skinned meat filled buns served on bamboo steamers)? I got a pack of Wei-chuan brand soup dumplings and was surprised by how good they were. It's been a while since I had the original in Shanghai but these are certainly very passable and as good or better than run of the mill Chinese restaurant offerings.

Anyone else here buy frozen Shanghai soup dumplings (the thin skinned meat filled buns served on bamboo steamers)?

They have passable ones in Cupertino, which is 7 minutes away. As a result, I do not buy frozen dumplings. BTW, I like the kind with crab roe in it.

Peter P Says:

They have passable ones in Cupertino, which is 7 minutes away. As a result, I do not buy frozen dumplings. BTW, I like the kind with crab roe in it.

Where?!! Must tell where! Have you ever had them at Joe's Shanghai in NYC? Are they as good as those?

Where?!! Must tell where! Have you ever had them at Joe’s Shanghai in NYC? Are they as good as those?

Never tried Joe's.

Koi Palace has passble Shanghai dumplings as well.

I forgot the name in Cupertino, but it is somewhere in the village. I also heard that there is a good one somewhere in San Mateo (B street?).

I also heard that there is a good one somewhere in San Mateo (B street?).

A listing of area restaurants presents about <clickety-click> 8 possible sites on B or 3rd. I must question the locals.

I don't want "passable" dumplings - I can get the Wei-Chuan ones in that case from the store. I doubt Koi's are very good - I would think the better ones would need to come from a restaurant specific to Shanghainese food, like Joe's in NY.

Remember to generously space them on top of paper towel. The paper towel will prevent sticking. I know restaurants like to use cabbage leaves or wax paper for presentation, but I find paper towel works the best.

Robert C said:

"Since I occassionally get paid by politicians for my insight into voter psychology I’m gonna have to call this one."

You know the political game much better than anyone else here so I'll ask the question.....and the assumption to the question is a political opportunity will present itself.

Who do you think will use the coming storm in real estate and it's effect on the financial markets to their political gain. The local boys will get in their moral outrage; but I'm wondering who could use this as a springboard on a larger stage.

Coming from Louisiana, we didn't invent politics or corruption; but I do believe they took it to an artform. Huey Long used Standard Oil as a whipping boy to propel his career....do you see anyone seizing the opportunity if it presents itself? Edwin Edwards is a more recent example; but he's not out of Federal Prison just yet.

On a side note, I grew up a "yellow dog" democrat, switched to republican, and now wish we could throw them all out of office. Any thoughts on there ever being a serious 3rd party in this country.

Would love to hear your perspective......

Thanks,

I believe McCain is in a no win situation should there be a big fallout. If he champions the cause and goes after anyone, being a member of the "Gang of Five" will come up. If he does nothing, being a member of the "Gang of Five" will surface.

Then, again, it's been a LONG time ago and the public has the attention span of a gerbil.

National Consumption Tax....I've always thought that was one of the most fair methods of raising revenue.....but let's see who has the stroke to make it happen.

Doug H: Is that the Keating group? I'm sorry, I haven't had my afternoon bowl of lucky charms so there's too much blood in my sugar supply. Besides, all the old Iran-Contra people seem to be back in play and nobody raised a fuss.

Where?!! Must tell where! Have you ever had them at Joe’s Shanghai in NYC? Are they as good as those?

I was at the Joe's in Flushing a few months ago and imho it's gone a bit downhill in the last few years.

This places is in Milbrae ... ok ... also has gone downhill a little.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/6J2LxhqhVPb0w7X0tL0TqQ

Why is everything going downhill? Or am I going nuts?

Requiem,

Yep, it's the old Keating Group back when the S&L's went down the tube. McCain escaped with only a raised eyebrow or two. If memory serves me the other four were Dems.....but I can't recall their names right now. The S&L fiasco hit close to home so it's something, although the details are blurry after all these years, I've always associated with McCain.

IranContra..Keating..Watergate..SwingingGate..WhitewaterGate..YouNameItGate

They all blur into each other after a while. The same people have been doing the same things long before I was born and will continue past my demise. I do wish we could fire the whole lot....now that's an American Revolution!

eburbed,
Thanks for the tip. Too bad about Joe's. I'm still willing to go again the next time I'm in NY.