Viva Wells Fargo.
by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com
Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime
Deadline Newsroom - The Wells Fargo stage coach is rolling into Vegas this month, loaded with mortgage officers who managed to keep their jobs -- in part -- because of taxpayer money.
The Associated Press reported today the bank, which received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is planning a series of corporate junkets to Las Vegas casinos this month.
It's the latest company to get federal bailout money and then engage in lavish money-burning behavior.
Meanwhile, consumers and small investors who were supposed to get a trickle down payback of their own tax dollars, continue to lose homes, retirement investments and take on extra jobs to pay the mortgage.
Once one of the nation's top subprime mortgage writers, Wells Fargo booked 12 nights at the posh Wynn Las Vegas and its sister hotel, the Encore Las Vegas. The hotels will host the annual conference for the company's top mortgage officers, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Subprime mortgages are responsible for a large chunk of millions of foreclosures. Foreclosures helped trigger the housing crash and, ultimately, the greatest economic recession since the Great Depression.
But at Wells Fargo, it's livin' large and business as usual.
AP reports such corporate getaways are bank tradition.
You know, the kind that goes back to the days of bandits robbing defenseless overland stagecoaches.
Later this month, the Wells Fargo's insurance division gets its hootenanny at the likewise posh Mandalay Bay Hotel.
Previous years have included all-expense-paid helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for more than 1,000 employees and guests, AP said.
In previous years, top loan officers were treated to performances by Cher, Jay Leno and Huey Lewis. One year, the company provided fortune tellers and offered camel rides. Every night, employees returning to their rooms found a new gift on their pillows, according to the AP story.
Rooms at the Wynn and the Encore are among the most expensive on the Strip. Both properties have high-end retail stores, including Manolo Blahnik at Wynn and Chanel at Encore, according to AP.
And few leave Vegas without dropping a bundle at the tables.
Turns out those ATMs are one-armed bandits after all.
• Read the full story and weep.
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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group -- DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. Perkins is also a National Real Estate Examiner. All the news that really hits home from three locations -- that's location, location, location!
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3 comments:
A Mortgage Modification is a process whereby a home owner's mortgage is modified and both the lender and homeowner are bound by the new terms of the new mortgage. The most common mortgage modifications are listed below:
lowering the mortgage interest rate
reducing the mortgage principal balance
fixing adjustable interest rates within the mortgage
increasing the loan term throughout the mortgage
forgiveness of payment defaults and fees
or any combination of the above
Check out this public service site at http://mortgagemodificationinfo.org
Not quite sure what this has to do with Wells' Vegas fiasco, but okay. I guess...
If they're going to meet somewhere, Vegas is the cheapest place to do it. Rooms are very inexpensive compared to other cities.
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