Bankrupt Banker

Germany and Switzerland have signed an agreemen

Germany and Switzerland have signed an agreemen

Germany and Switzerland have signed an agreement which will make it easier for Berlin to get information about - and tax revenue from - Germ...

Rebecca S. Parrett "She was living comfortably - making friends and going out dancing,"

Rebecca S. Parrett was convicted in a $2.8 billion fraud that led to the collapse of one of the nation's largest health-care financing companies, a debacle that forced a hospital in the District and hundreds of other health-care providers into bankruptcy. Then she disappeared. U.S. marshals and other agents tracked Parrett, 62, around the world, following leads in more than a dozen U.S. states and several foreign countries. But the trail ended Tuesday in a resort town on a lake in Mexico, where Mexican authorities arrested the former owner of Ohio-based National Century Financial Enterprises, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. "I've been doing this for 12 years, and this was the most detailed and far-reaching investigation I've ever been a part of,'' said Drew Shadwick, deputy U.S. marshal in Columbus, Ohio. "She was difficult to find, because she is intelligent, she was a woman of means and she had plenty of time to plan her escape." Parrett was immediately deported under Mexican immigration laws and was scheduled to appear Wednesday afternoon before a federal judge in Los Angeles. "Corporate executives found guilty for their fraudulent activity will not be allowed to escape justice by fleeing the United States," Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said. A federal jury in Columbus convicted Parrett in 2008 of crimes that included conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud for her role in the collapse of National Century. The company, formerly based in Dublin, Ohio, was one of the largest health-care financiers in the nation until it filed for bankruptcy in November 2002. Parrett held numerous high-level positions at National Century and co-founded the company in 1991. She and nine others were convicted or pleaded guilty in a scheme to deceive investors and rating agencies about the company's financial health and how investors' money would be used. The firm's failure helped lead to the bankruptcy filings of about 275 health-care providers, including Greater Southeast Community Hospital in the District. Parrett, who once owned an art gallery, was arrested outside a doctor's office in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico, after an investigation that involved more than 10 federal and state agencies. "She was living comfortably - making friends and going out dancing," said Shadwick, who added that the full story of what Parrett did

Rebecca S. Parrett "She was living comfortably - making friends and going out dancing,"

Rebecca S. Parrett was convicted in a $2.8 billion fraud that led to the collapse of one of the nation's largest health-care financing c...

Apparently, we have run out of lethal injection drugs.

And now the U.S. standing among the world leaders in that business is under siege. Not only do we rank only fifth on Amnesty International's capital punishment league tables for the past year -- behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia -- but today comes the news that the death penalty business that gives America so much of its swashbuckling charm has suffered yet another blow. Apparently, we have run out of lethal injection drugs. Worse, in the eyes of both those Americans for whom the term "made in America" still means anything as well as in the view of the members of this country's death penalty bar, we have been forced to actually import inferior foreign death penalty drugs in order to kill our homegrown, corn-fed American murderers and rapists. Tuesday, the state of Arizona acknowledged that it has been buying its sodium thiopental from Britain, but quickly moved to assure a concerned public that they were buying only the best quality poisons. The state's Chief Deputy Attorney General Tim Nelson said, "This drug came from a reputable place. There's all sorts of wild speculation that it came from a third-world country, and that's not accurate." So, breathe easy America… none of those not-quite-deadly-enough Third World drugs for us. (Well, at least most Americans can breathe easier. For those death row inmates in the 35 states that employ the death penalty, the concern is that use of second-rate chemicals will cause the condemned to suffocate if they are not fully knocked out by the out-sourced sodium thiopental as they would have otherwise been if first-rate American products were used. On this basis, a judge in Arizona blocked one execution already… and Kentucky has decided to hold off signing death warrants because its lone remaining dose of the drug passed its sell-by date at the beginning of this month.) I suppose the good news in this story is that there is still a belief -- among this country's leading executioners and lawyers -- that American quality still counts for something. No second best for the people we are putting to death. None of that willy-nilly use of firing squads or stoning or the hangman like you might get in many of the world's leading death penalty destinations. (Will there be a debate in Iraq about whether or not to use Iraqi-made rope to hang 74-year-old Tariq Aziz, the former foreign minister who was yesterday sentenced to death for his role in the administration of Saddam Hussein? Is this beginning of a new form of subtle protectionism in the important worldwide trade in things that will kill you?) Also, in the good news department, the one company in the U.S. that makes the drug (one of three different drugs necessary for a high-quality state-sponsored murder in the United States), Illinois-based Hospira (… in which the "Hos" stands for the tender hospital care you expect from a drug company… and the "spira" stands for the respiratory arrest that the drug will ensure its victims do not feel as it happens to them…) does plan to resume production as soon as they work out some raw materials sourcing problems, although they say new supplies won't be available until the beginning of next year. So, there are some good American jobs being protected. And in the meantime, we can comfort ourselves knowing that we are importing our replacement sodium thiopental from a first-rate, English-speaking, industrial power… albeit one that will commemorate in 4 years the 50th anniversary of its last legal execution, making it one of almost 100 countries in which the barbaric practice has also been made illegal and one of perhaps 130 in which states no longer arrogate onto themselves the right to put their own citizens to death thus leaving decisions of that sort to higher, better-qualified authorities.

Apparently, we have run out of lethal injection drugs.

And now the U.S. standing among the world leaders in that business is under siege. Not only do we rank only fifth on Amnesty International...

number of Americans aged 65 and older who file for bankruptcy has increased significantly over the past two decade

number of Americans aged 65 and older who file for bankruptcy has increased significantly over the past two decades, according to a study fr...

Banks need to show evidence they own and hold the mortgage on a home when asking judges to foreclose on a property

Banks need to show evidence they own and hold the mortgage on a home when asking judges to foreclose on a property, according to a ruling is...

Wells Fargo described the mistakes as technical and said it has no plans to halt the foreclosure process.

State attorneys general investigating foreclosure practices may begin meeting with lenders this week, less than a month after JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America suspended some home seizures. Tweet 4 people Tweeted this Yahoo! BuzzShareThis “We’ve had several conference calls with major lenders,’’ Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said, declining to specify which ones. “The banks want to sit down with the attorneys general. These meetings are being set up,’’ said Suthers. All 50 states on Oct. 13 disclosed a coordinated inquiry into whether banks and loan servicers used false documents and signatures to justify hundreds of thousands of foreclosures. The probe came after JPMorgan and Ally Financial’s GMAC mortgage unit said they would stop repossessions in 23 states where courts supervise home seizures and Bank of America froze foreclosures nationwide. At least 17 states are conducting separate investigations to determine whether state laws were broken. Each state has its own foreclosure laws, and the lender’s behavior may have differed from state to state, which makes reaching a global settlement difficult, said James Tierney, of Columbia Law School. “These companies are going to act quickly to correct this,’’ Suthers said. He said it’s too early to speculate how the probes will end. Yesterday, Wells Fargo admitted it made mistakes in paperwork for thousands of foreclosure cases and promised to fix them. The San Francisco bank plans to refile documents in 55,000 cases by mid-November; it said not all had errors. Wells Fargo described the mistakes as technical and said it has no plans to halt the foreclosure process. “We don’t believe that there are instances in which the foreclosures would not have occurred otherwise,’’ said Teri Schrettenbrunner, a spokeswoman. Wells Fargo & Co.’s chief executive, John Stumpf, has declined to join Bank of America, Ally, and other banks in suspending foreclosures. This month, Stumpf said the bank is “confident that our practices, procedures, and documentation’’ are accurate. The attorneys general won’t try to shut down all foreclosures, said Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, but “foreclosures done improperly have to be corrected. It’s not permissible to violate state law to expedite a foreclosure.’’

Wells Fargo described the mistakes as technical and said it has no plans to halt the foreclosure process.

State attorneys general investigating foreclosure practices may begin meeting with lenders this week, less than a month after JPMorgan Chase...