Saturday, December 23, 2006

Employee Rewarded

Nice story in the LA Times about a former WaMu employee who noticed a significant amount of mortgage fraud and spoke up. She faced the wrath of the REIC, however, in the end good prevailed over evil:

A former Washington Mutual Inc. vice president, who claimed that she was retaliated against after raising questions about loan-funding practices, has been awarded $1.24 million in damages by the Labor Department.
The decision, issued Tuesday, is believed to be the first in a Sarbanes-Oxley whistle-blower case in which an employee won so-called front-pay damages from an employer instead of reinstatement, said attorney Marc Susswein, who represented the former vice president, Theresa Hagman of Moorpark.

Hagman, who was unavailable to comment for this story, was hired by Washington Mutual as a vice president and manager of a construction lending unit in Chatsworth in 2001. She consistently received stellar performance reviews and was offered a promotion, according to the judge's written decision.

Beginning in December 2003, Hagman noticed that about 30 loans hadn't been completely funded and had gone into immediate default, something that had occurred only twice the year before. When she raised her concerns with a supervisor, he became angry and, Hagman said, was physically and verbally threatening.

She reported the confrontation to other managers and to the employee relations department, which Hagman said did nothing. She also reported her concerns about the loans and an internal investigation was opened, which eventually vindicated Hagman and found that procedures weren't followed.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good job Ms. Hagman. I often wonder how difficult it would be to work somewhere and see fraid all around you. If you are an ethical person it would start to take it's toll on your health.
This is the tip of the iceberg as far as employee whistleblowers. I absolutely cannot wait for some of these agents in town to get nailed.

Anonymous said...

"fraud"

Anonymous said...

Hang the bastards!

Anonymous said...

Thats great for you, listen to yourself speak of your net worth. WHO sounds arrogant now. Everyone alive is responsible for their own decisions. Those who made risky decisions may pay the price and ALL may pay the consequences. Keep up your hard work in journalism i'm sure its taking you to your next large salary increase.

Anonymous said...

Hey Crispy,

I have noticed an increase in troll activity on the local blogs. It appears the holidays are getting to the concious of some of these subprime loan officers. They are probably meeting with their families and hearing horror stories from loved ones who have been screwed be the loans they are peddling.

Now they come on your blog and attack your first admendment rights. These people make me sick.

These people will get theirs when they go back to flipping burgers or dancing at stip clubs.

Keep up the good work, you have an excellent blog site.

Perfect Storm

Anonymous said...

Bless your hearts, you reference the first right amendements and reference the youth of our society whom respectfully work at burger joints and lower income jobs in the world today. Well your paying for a heck of a lot more people whom don't even work, to live in the world today,think about it before you say it. And do myself and all the other veterans of wars in our country a favor don't go throwing around amendment rights until you have put your life in harms way protecting those rights. The college degree that I was fortunate and rightfully recieved from Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. with a masters degree in dairy science will likely not lead to myself ever stripping. Keep up the hardwork and Merry Chritmas.

Anonymous said...

Citzens of this Country do not have to put themselves in harms way in order to reference the first admendment rights or any other right. That is the right of being a citzen.

Bakersfield Bubble said...

Perfect-

Yes I have. I have deleted several posts here as well. Looks like things have been slow in Dec for the REIC and they are looking for something to do. Kill the messengers.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like some screwed real estate vultures maybe feeling some pain. Feast or Famine and it's going to be famine.