"Kyle Walker, a former top executive at Fremont Investment & Loan - a once-high-flying subprime lender - has a new firm that is buying distressed homes, some for as little as $1,000... 'We have a pitch book out with Cohen Financial and hope to raise between $6 million and $7 million,' said Mr. Walker. The company he owns and manages is called Home America. His management team includes Bob Clafford, a former executive vice president in charge of wholesale lending at FI&L." NMN
Our first run-in with Fremont was when, despite a timely request for the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data in electronic format, they refused and gave it in a format that could not be analyzed. Later, Fremont settled predatory lending charges for $10 million with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha "Don't Go There" Coakley.
Now Fremont's Walker and Clafford resurface, buying foreclosed homes and renting or "land contracting" them back to lower income people while holding the note or deed in portfolio.
Some might call this impunity. And they would be correct.
