CRL’s Nonpartisanship
Public disclosures show that this “nonpartisan” organization has extremely close ties with some of the most high profile Democrats in the nation. Aside from its suspicious ties with ACORN and $9.7 million-plus in funding from the foundation of known left-wingers Herb and Marion Sandler, CRL has received at least $100,000 from George Soros’ (of “General Betray Us” and MoveOn.org) Open Society Institute.
Who are the founders and supporters. Perhaps some of you with a memory of financial frauds will recognize the names...
Herb and Marion Sandler
Herb and Marion Sandler are the billionaire founders of the Center for Responsible Lending. The Sandlers made a fortune in the subprime mortgage industry, thanks to the success of their bank, Golden West Financial.
Golden West and its subsidiary, World Savings Bank, were among the biggest sources of subprime mortgages, especially of adjustable-rate loans called option-ARMs. Herb Sandler is credited with the invention of the option-ARM, which his bank marketed as “Pick-a-Payment” mortgages. These loans were extraordinarily popular in the years preceding the subprime mortgage crisis, generating billions in profits for the Sandlers’ banking empire.
Recent exposés by “60 Minutes” and the New York Times have focused national attention on the Sandlers’ role in the subprime crisis. The Sandlers’ loans, described in the Times as “the Typhoid Mary of the mortgage industry,” are part of a second wave of toxic debt predicted to default over the next several years, hitting the economy with another $600 billion in losses.
In October 2008, “Saturday Night Live” parodied the Sandlers in a skit about the financial crisis. Their characters appeared in a mock congressional hearing, over the caption, “People Who Should Be Shot.” SNL and parent company NBC removed the skit from the Internet and reruns after the Sandlers protested loudly for censorship. That same strategy worked with the New York Times, which softened its criticism of the controversial couple several weeks after the article’s publication. However, both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are pursuing investigations into claims that Golden West/World Savings lied to investors about the quality of its loans, as well as illegally luring customers into loans they could not afford.
The Sandlers made over $2.3 billion on the sale of their company to Wachovia in 2006, and they have used their fortune to fund organizations advancing their political aims. They have given millions of dollars to left-wing groups, including ACORN (radical activists implicated in election fraud investigations in over a dozen states), and the Center for Responsible Lending (a “consumer advocacy” front-group that lobbied for expanded subprime lending while promoting its funders’ business interests).
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