In a Cold, Skeptical World, O.J. Simpson Found Someone Who Believed in Him: Washington Mutual
It's been two years since the Seattle business known locally as "the friend of the family," and known nationally for serving up mortgages to anyone who could be propped up in a chair and made to scrawl something resembling a signature, became better known as the biggest catastrophic bank failure of recent history. And picking through the disastrous legacy of currently un-indicted, former CEO Kerry Killinger continues to yield great goods for enterprising journalists. 
The New York Times made its run at a big, front-page, Sunday "reckoning" last December. But now our Times has weighed in with a far better, more comprehensive, more understandable piece. At 3,000 words, it's also unusually brisk and compact by SeaTimes flag-waving, investigative standards. (Part 2 appears today.) It's well worth a read. But in case you're too busy, say, trying to rent out 7,000 square feet of office space in downtown Seattle, we'll give you the choicest nugget that sums up the whole glorious Wamu enterprise.
The Times reports that Wamu's longtime chief legal officer began to think something might be amiss in early 2007, when she learned the following:
"Someone in Florida had made a second-mortgage loan to O.J. Simpson, and I just about blew my top, because there was this huge judgment against him from his wife's parents," she recalled. Simpson had been acquitted of killing his wife Nicole and her friend but was later found liable for their deaths in a civil lawsuit; that judgment took precedence over other debts, such as if Simpson defaulted on his WaMu loan.It's actually kind of heartwarming. Even while a company as shameless as News Corp. found itself too embarrassed to publish Simpson's book, If I Did It, at that same moment, the broad-minded loan officers at WaMu were willing to give the Juice the benefit of the doubt. Isn't that exactly what "friends" are for?"When I asked how we could possibly foreclose on it, they said there was a letter in the file from O.J. Simpson saying 'the judgment is no good, because I didn't do it.' "
5 comment(s)
frred says:
I wondered how Mark would weave in some lib preaching in an article about the great lib fraud OJ. You did it again!
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 26 2009 @ 2:59PM
chris says:
I'm sure that legal counsel understood they could indeed foreclose on Simpson. In Florida, Simpson's homestead exemption does not allow the Goldman judgment to attach, while the loan papers Simpson signed would allow WaMu to be in a proper 2nd position. Dependent on LTV, the loan was not as risky as you like to present.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 26 2009 @ 5:03PM
a. t. vance says:
i feel like this, we have a legal system are not? if so then let live by it, if the the system had found o.j guilty you would have accepted it, so do yourself a favor, and get a life, all this is, is hate and race base, nothing less, he was found innocent, get it? who do you all think you are? judge and jury, remember we had that already.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 11:05AM
bigbiggityben says:
OJ Simpson has become a drug to so many, even to you so called professionals. What happens when the actual truth leaks out that OJ did not commit these murders; that Goldman's father Fred married the wife of an Illinois Drug Kingpin, attempted murderer, who Freddy G. concealed his actual name 8 times in his 1995 book "His Name Is Ron"; that Nicole was alive at 11PM on the phone with her mother while OJ was in a limo on his way to catch an 11:45PM flight to Chicago. What will you do, because you can't continue to hide from this embarrassment? This scandal continues to slowly leak out!
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 8:53PM
DERRICK says:
hello , my name is derrick , the oj simpson case was a hobby of mine, oj simpson did not commited the murders but he knows who did, det. william dear has a video and book out , it might be intersting reading for the american public , oj did not commit these murders , you arrested the wrong simpson. it would be such an embrassement to lapd , santa monica jury , and the judical branch of goverment in this country , read and be educated before you speak or people will think you are uninformed. i know for sure who did it.
Posted On: Monday, Nov. 2 2009 @ 12:47PM