Patrick Rocca suicides
EXCERPT:
Mr Rocca’s death came on the day that a High Court judge was picking through the debris of the vast pyramid scheme allegedly run by another Dublin socialite before deciding to refer it to the Garda fraud squad. Breifne O’Brien, a star in Dublin's party scene, is said to have conned friends out of tens of millions to fund an extravagant lifestyle. The crash in the Irish property market allegedly affected his sources of finance, so that he was no longer able to keep up the pretence of being a gifted investor.

Steven L. Good
EXCERPT:
Chicago real estate executive kills himself, police say
January 06, 2009|By James Kimberly and Mary Ellen Podmolik, TRIBUNE REPORTERS
A Chicago commercial real estate broker committed suicide in a Kane County wildlife preserve, police said Monday.

A maintenance worker discovered the body of Steven L. Good, 52, of Highland Park, Monday morning behind the wheel of his Jaguar parked in a lot at the Max McGraw Wildlife Preserve in East Dundee, said Kane County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler.

Good had suffered a single gunshot wound to the head. Gengler said police recovered a weapon inside the car but he would not identify it. There was no note, Gengler said.


Ruined financiers committing desperate acts
EXCERPT:
Running and hiding is an entirely different reaction. Those who fake their deaths are "people with sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies," Cass says. "They believe they're smarter than everyone else. They think they're untouchable. They don't believe they have to abide by the rules."

In hindsight, Marcus Schrenker's plan to disappear doesn't appear particularly smart. The 38-year-old Indiana businessman, accused of betraying investors by not telling them about hundreds of thousands in fund fees — and facing a $533,000 legal judgment — bailed out of his plane, authorities say, two days after losing his court case.


Brit says Bernie Madoff ponzi scam led to father's suicide
EXCERPT:
He was known for his sharp wit, red hair and shiny hook. Little got to him.

But Foxton, 65, couldn't take losing his life savings to Bernie Madoff's sprawling Ponzi swindle.

On Tuesday, he calmly sat down on a park bench near his house in Southampton and blew his brains out.

Now Foxton's son says Madoff "has my father's blood on his hands."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/02/12/2009-02-12_brit_says_bernie_madoff_ponzi_scam_led_t.html#ixzz0t6Rp2hoW


Rene Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet
EXCERPT:
Access International had connections to wealthy and powerful aristocrats from Europe. Its funds enlisted intermediaries with links to the cream of Europe's high society to garner clients. It had invested a reported US$1.4 billion with the disgraced investor and fund manager Bernard Madoff. De la Villehuchet had also invested his personal money with Madoff's business. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) do not believe de la Villehuchet was involved personally in the US$50 billion fraudulent financial Ponzi scheme which Madoff was arrested for masterminding, on December 11. Bloomberg News reported on January 2, 2009 that the AIA funds had increased aggregate exposure to Madoff from 30% to 75% of a total US$3 billion assets in 2008, for a US$2.25 billion exposure. It also identified Philippe Junot, former husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Prince Michael of Yugoslavia as partner and investor-relations executive, respectively, in the firm; and Liliane Bettencourt, the world's wealthiest woman, the 86-year-old daughter of L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller, as an early investor. [6]

Adolf Merckle
EXCERPT:
Adolf Merckle (March 18, 1934 – January 5, 2009) was a businessman, and one of the richest people in Germany.[1]

Merckle was born in Dresden, Germany into a wealthy family. Most of his wealth came from inheritance. He developed his Bohemian grandfather's chemical wholesale company into Germany's largest pharmaceutical wholesaler, Phoenix Pharmahandel. His family also owns the generic drug manufacturer Ratiopharm, and large parts of cement company HeidelbergCement as well as vehicle manufacturer Kässbohrer.


Alan Greenspan and the mortgage situation
EXCERPT:
Greenspan began slashing interest rates as soon as George W. Bush secured the Presidency in 2000. On December 31, 2000, the Fed Funds rate was 6-1/2%; by May 15, 2001 it was 4%; by November 2 it was 2%. Greenspan kept lowering rates, which he kept below 2% for three three years subsequent to the mild recession that ended in November 2001. Only after Bush secured his reelection in November 2004 did Greenspan raise the Fed funds rate back to 2%. The Fed Funds rate was restored to 4-1/2% when Greenspan left office at the end of January 2006, a few months before the real estate bubble began to collapse.

That $5 trillion incremental increase in home mortgage debt, much of which cannot be repaid, has permanently damaged our country's financial standing. One out of four homeowners with a mortgage has negative equity. The majority of under water mortgages are concentrated in four states: California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada.

When The Government Stopped Policing Fraud

That $5 trillion incremental increase is also traceable to a major policy shift from Clinton Administration policies to root out and prevent mortgage fraud. In 2000, fraud within the subprime mortgage sector was a huge story, covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post and ABC. Major subprime lenders such as The Money Store, First Alliance and ContiMortgage all shut down. After assessing the cumulative data from regulators and academic studies, HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo declared, "Evidence indicates that the vast majority of mortgage fraud and predatory lending activities...occurs in the conventional subprime lending market." In June 2000, a joint HUD/Treasury Task Force recommended, among other things:


Man killed in Tucson
EXCERPT:
Tucson police investigate role of real estate scam in businessman's killing
Jun, 10, 2010 09:04 PM - Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
Jun. 10--Tucson police are looking into whether the shooting death of a local businessman inside a north side fast-food restaurant Thursday morning is connected to a real estate and mortgage scam in which the victim was implicated.

Feds indict 38 for Arizona mortgage fraud
EXCERPT:
Feds indict 38 for Arizona mortgage fraud scams
Posted - 6/17/2010 at 6:01PM

PHOENIX - Federal indictments charging 38 people with taking part in various mortgage fraud schemes have been handed up in Arizona this month.

The indictments were filed against loan or escrow officers, real estate appraisers and agents and so-called "straw buyers" for various fraud or cash-back schemes.