Chapter 3
Insider
It was a hot day for this early in June. Rich was on his way to see Bruce Pierson, Matt’s former criminal attorney. He had told him briefly what he wanted to talk about over the phone, and Bruce seemed intrigued but noncommittal. As he walked across the street from the parking lot that he usually used in this part of downtown Dallas, he wondered if he was being unrealistic in thinking Matt could get reinstated. He sighed as he pushed through the circular doorway into the thirty-four-story Bryan Tower Building, a magnificent light green reflective glass skyscraper. He took the odd elevator bank to the twenty-third floor and walked into the reception area of Bradley, Pierson & Jones LLP. The receptionist looked up.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Hi. I’m here to see Bruce Pierson.”
She nodded. “Yes, have a seat and I’ll tell him you’re here.”
Rich took a seat and picked up the People magazine that was sitting on the coffee table in front of him. He leafed through it without seeing anything, his mind still focused on the upcoming meeting. A door opened and Bruce Pierson emerged.
“Rich,” he said, extending his hand. Rich stood up and shook it energetically. “Come on back to my office,” Bruce said.
They walked down a long corridor to the corner office. The office had a modernistic decor and a fabulous view north all the way to LBJ Freeway and beyond.
“So, how have you been?” Bruce asked.
“I’m doing fine. The bankruptcy business is booming, as usual.”
“Yeah, I bet it is with all the credit the banks are throwing at people these days.”
“Right.”
“So, how is Matt? You said he’s been a bit depressed lately.”
“Yeah, he’s been kind of drifting here lately so Ryan and I thought maybe we’d try to help him out.”
Bruce shook his head. “I was completely devastated when Matt insisted he plead out on the bankruptcy fraud charges. I told him I thought we could beat them.”
“I know. It wasn’t your fault. I just wish Matt would have confided in us. He fell right into Frank Hill’s trap.”
“I was sick for months after Lynn and her sister were murdered. What a tragedy. I know how much Matt loved Lynn.”
Rich nodded and looked away, trying to keep his composure. He’d held up pretty well during Matt’s ordeal. He had to for Matt’s sake, but after the conviction he fell apart and became so depressed that he had trouble focusing at work and spent hours just staring out the window.
“Right,” Rich agreed. “Anyway. We want to look into getting the conviction set aside.”
“Sure. I was expecting you to come in sooner, frankly,” Pierson said. “With Hill’s conviction of the three murders, that corroborates Matt’s story that he was coerced into the plea deal.”
“Yes, well, when Matt got out of prison I’m afraid all he had on his mind was taking down Hill and MidSouth Bank, and he wasn’t worried about how many laws he broken to do it.”
“Right,” Pierson said solemnly.
“He was prepared to live outside the country if things hadn’t worked out. Fortunately, things cooled down and he was able to come home.”
“Well, you’re right. If we file an appeal that will force the US attorney to look again at Matt’s involvement in the credit card scam that led to MidSouth’s failure, we’ll force them to either prosecute Matt or close the investigation. It’s a terrible crapshoot.”
“I know, but there is really no other choice. If we do nothing Matt will never be able to practice law again, and that’s why I think he’s been so depressed.”
“Well, it’s his decision. I can get the appeal going right away.”
“If I get Senator Goss to talk to the Justice Department, do you think that would help?”
“Actually, that’s a good idea. Let him feel them out. Tell them Matt is thinking of appealing his conviction so he can practice law again, but there is no point in doing that if they have Matt under investigation on the credit card scams.”
“Okay. I’ll go see Senator Goss and see if he’ll help us. I feel confident he will.”
Rich left Pierson’s office feeling optimistic. If Goss talked to the Justice Department they couldn’t really discuss the case, but he could probably tell by the reception he got whether there was any danger of Matt being prosecuted. Either way that information would be invaluable to Matt.
When he got back to the office, Suzie, his secretary, advised him Shelly Simms was there to see him. Rich had noticed the woman in the reception area and wondered who she was. She was well dressed and middle-aged and seemed a bit uneasy. Rich went out to greet her.
“Ms. Simms?”
She nodded, grabbed her purse, and stood up.
“I’m Rich Coleman. Come on back.”
Simms followed him back to his office, and Rich motioned for her to take a seat in a side chair. Suzie stepped in and asked if she would like water, coffee, or a soft drink. She declined.
“So, it’s a scorcher out there today,” Rich noted to break the ice.
“Yes. I can’t believe it’s already over a hundred degrees.”
“I know. Wait till August rolls around.”
“Isn’t that the truth?”
“So, what can I do for you?” Rich asked.
Shelly took a long breath. “Well, I’m afraid I’m going to have to file bankruptcy.”
“Oh, really? Personal or business?”
“Personal. I got laid off about six months ago and I haven’t been able to find a new job.”
Rich sighed. “Well, the job market’s kind of tough right now. What did you do before you were let go?”
“I was a customer service manager for North American Servicing,” Shelly advised.
Rich nodded. He knew North American Servicing very well. They were one of the largest mortgage servicing companies in the country and the target of many governmental investigations into their alleged illegal practices. He’d heard horror stories about them from a number of his clients.
“Oh, I see. So, why did they let you go?”
“The two major partners in the business got at odds and one of them, Lucius Jones, left and set up a competitive company, Reliable Mortgage Servicing. I had been in Lucius’s division when the split up took place, so I was let go. Lucius offered me a position in his new company, but he’s a jerk so I didn’t accept the offer.”
“A jerk?” Rich chuckled.
“Yeah. Among other things.”
Rich smiled. “So, you didn’t want to be associated with him?”
“No. Walter Savage was his partner and while they were together he kept a leash on him, but now that he’s on his own there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“What was the cause of the split up?” Rich asked curiously.
“You’ve probably heard about the problems mortgage companies are having with their paperwork these days?” Shelly asked.
“Right. They are buying and selling mortgages so often they don’t always transfer the liens properly.”
“Exactly. So, several of the big lenders came to NAS and asked them to clean up the mess for them.”
“Right.”
“But that would require going back and creating a bunch of documents and backdating them.”
Rich nodded.
“So Walter refused, because he’s not going to be a party to fraud, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“But Lucius wanted to do it because there’s lots of money in it.”
“I see.”
“So, these mortgage lenders told Lucius that if he splits off they’ll give him all their business if he can solve their paperwork problems.”
Rich shook his head. “Well, it sounds like you made the right move. You wouldn’t want to get involved in any of that nonsense. I can’t believe the mortgage lenders think they will be able to get away with blatant fraud.”
“Lucius has promised them he can
handle it very discreetly.”
Rich rolled his eyes. “Well, he may get away with it for a while, but eventually he’ll get caught.”
Shelly nodded. “Anyway, I’m way behind on my bills and need to get a fresh start.”
Rich nodded and pulled out a bankruptcy packet. He started working on a legal services contract while Shelly filled out the bankruptcy questionnaire. Before she left he gave her some checklists to fill out and an instruction sheet explaining everything he would need to file her case. She agreed to put it all together and bring it back in a few days.
Rich pondered what Shelly had told him. He couldn’t believe some of the largest mortgage lenders in the country would be involved in outright fraud. The documents Lucius Jones would be creating would be used in court to prove up foreclosures or as proofs of claims in bankruptcies. Every time one of those documents were filed somebody would be breaking the law. He couldn’t wait to tell Matt that he’d met someone who’d actually had verified what had been rumored in legal circles for months. He found Matt setting up in his new office.
“Hey. How’s it coming?” Rich asked.
“Okay. It feels strange sitting behind a big desk again. I got used to working on a table in the prison library.”
“Well, that’s all behind you now. You can start living like an attorney again.”
“So, how did it go with Pierson?” Matt asked as he sat down in his new executive chair.
Rich took a seat and leaned forward. “He had an interesting idea,” Rich told him and then explained about their plan to have Senator Goss feel out the Justice Department before filing his appeal.
Matt sighed. “Senator Goss is a wimp. I doubt he’ll do it.”
“Well, it won’t hurt to ask, will it?”
Matt nodded. “I guess not. . . . But I’m not going to get my hopes up. I’ll work on your crusade because it sounds interesting and I don’t have anything else to do, but if I don’t get my license back you’ll have to hire someone else to put it in motion.”
“I know. But I’m confident that won’t be necessary.”
“I hope not. So, tell me more about it. What do you want me to do?”
Rich smiled and leaned back. “Okay. Well, in the past year or so I’ve been barraged with calls from people in trouble with their mortgages. I’ve put a lot of them in chapter 13 to stop pending foreclosures, but most of these people never should have been given a mortgage.”
“How’s that?”
“For the last five or ten years lenders have been giving out mortgages to anyone with a pulse and with no money down. Then they sell the mortgages to securitized trusts and make a killing in the process.”
“A securitized trust?”
“Yeah, a pool of mortgages administered by a trustee. Everyone in the pool shares in the profit or losses of all the mortgages in the pool. It evens out the risk.”
“Hmm.”
“Now, due to the recession, a lot of these new home owners can’t afford to pay their mortgages, and home loan defaults are at an all-time high.”
Matt nodded. “That makes sense with unemployment at ten percent.”
“Exactly. So, everyone loses if there is a foreclosure. The consumer loses his house. The mortgage companies take a beating financially when a house is foreclosed. And the government loses if it has guaranteed the loan. Plus every time there is a foreclosure sale in a neighborhood all the home values do down. If home values go down pretty soon you have a bunch of mortgage loans that are underwater, which means the home owners can’t sell or refinance them.”
“Okay, so what can we do about it?”
“Well, the government is putting a lot of pressure on lenders to offer forbearance agreements, short sales, or modifications to cure defaults. Now the mortgage companies are so swamped with customers wanting to take advantage of these programs the servicers can’t handle the volume, so instead of ramping up their operations to deal with it, they are just going through the motions to satisfy the government with no intention of helping the home owners.”
Matt grunted. “Sounds like your typical greedy lender.”
“Unfortunately. So, the moment I put the word out that we’re taking mortgage cases we’ll be inundated with clients and can start suing the mortgage companies and their servicers.”
Matt shook his head. “Sounds like fun. I wouldn’t mind kicking a little mortgage company ass, but foreclosures aren’t illegal as I recall.”
“No. Not if they do them right and don’t cut any corners. But with the volume we’re looking out right now there are lots of mistakes being made. Plus, they are luring clients into a false sense of security by letting them fill out modification applications when they know the modifications will never be approved.”
“Well, we can’t let them get away with that,” Matt said with a grin.
Rich smiled. “My thoughts as well. Anyway, I got some new dirt on the mortgage industry today. A client came in for a bankruptcy, and it turns out she worked for NAS.”
“NAS? Is that a mortgage company?”
“No, North American Servicing. It’s probably the largest mortgage servicer in the country and, apparently, some mortgage lenders recently came to them wanting help with some paperwork deficiencies.”
Rich told Matt what Shelly had told him.
“Wow! That could generate some serious punitive damages if we could prove they were filing fraudulent documents with the court.”
“Yes. If we file a lawsuit and they respond with fraudulent documents, they’ll be in serious trouble.”
“It’s too bad your lady didn’t go to work for Lucius Jones. She could be a spy for us.”
Rich thought about that. “That’s true. She is unemployed. I wonder if we could convince her to take the job that was offered her.”
Matt’s eyes lit up. “Oh, my God! Could you imagine what we could do to them with a mole inside their organization?”
Rich nodded. “Yeah, but there would be nothing in it for Shelly.”
“We can pay her a percentage of each verdict,” Matt suggested.
“No,” Rich objected. “That wouldn’t be ethical, and if that leaked out, her credibility would go down the toilet.”
“Maybe she’d do it just to put the asshole out of business.”
“Perhaps. I’ll discuss it with her and see what she says.”
Rich could see that he’d piqued Matt’s interest in his mortgage company crusade. He knew Matt would spend endless hours now learning everything he could about his enemy. Matt was relentless at research and preparation and once the game began, God help his opponent. Rich chuckled to himself at the thought of it.
A few days later Shelly returned with her paperwork to complete her bankruptcy. Rich went through it with her and together they finished up her schedules and statement of financial affairs. When they were done Rich broached the idea of her becoming an informant.
“Listen. We are about to start taking mortgage cases. The demand is pretty high and my son Matt is coming back to the firm to handle them.”
Shelly smiled. “That should be a pretty lucrative business.”
“I think so, particularly if what you told me the other day is true.”
“It is, believe me.”
“You know, you could do the world a big favor by helping us nail Lucius Jones and putting his company out of business.”
Shelly shrugged. “Sure, but I don’t have any direct knowledge of this. Everything I know is hearsay.”
“That’s why you should take the job he offered you. That way you can keep us apprised of what’s going on.”
Shelly just stared at him. “You want me to be a spy?”
“Exactly. You hate the asshole, you said. So, help us put him out of business.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“Well, unfortunately we can’t pay you anything or you’d lose all credibility. But I’m sure Jones will pay you handsomely, and you need a job.”
Shelly laughed.
“So, he’ll be paying me to spy on his operation and won’t even know it?”
“Exactly,” Rich replied.
“What if the feds come after him? I might get prosecuted.”
“If that looks like a possibility you can turn state’s evidence against him and get immunity. I’ll vouch for you—tell them you were trying to help us take him down.”
Shelly took a deep breath. “I’ll have to think about it. If Lucius found out what I was doing he’d probably have me killed.”
Rich nodded. “You’re right. So, don’t do it unless you really want to. We’ll nail the bastard anyway; we just thought you might want to help us accelerate the process.”
“No, it’s a great idea. Just let me sleep on it. I just don’t know if I could pull off the charade. I’m not such a great actress.”
Rich felt good after Shelly left. He knew she really wanted to take Jones down and just needed time to get up the courage to take the job. He felt a little guilty, though. What if she was discovered and got hurt? Would Jones really kill her if he found out what she was up to? He finally decided they’d just have to be very careful so he wouldn’t find out.
Unconscionable, A Rich Coleman Novel Vol 3 Page 4
