The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Bank of America" ...
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"The New Tax Man"
This series of stories by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund examines how tough financial times have affected "ordinary" citizens. Reporters revealed how local property tax collectors were "selling the right to collect unpaid taxes to private investors," which could leave homeowners with large extra fees, and the possibility of losing "their home if they are unable to pay."
Tags: taxes; mortgage; interest; unemployment; property tax; Baltimore; Wells Fargo; Bank of America; hedge fund; Fortress Investment Group
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Wall Street Money Machine
This series of stories reveals that several Wall Street bankers saw indications of the housing market meltdown "long before the public and policy makers." The three-part series offers a different look at the all too familiar results of bigger payouts for the bankers and huge job and savings losses for the public. The series covers the hedge fund Magnetar and the "mechanics" behind the failure of Merrill Lynch.
Tags: Merrill Lynch; Magnetar; CDOs; Wall Street; bankers; gains; payouts; economic crisis; BankAmerica; hedge fund; housing market; bribery
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VA Loan Fraud
The series reveals “major banks and mortgage companies across America were systematically defrauding military veterans who were refinancing home loans”. “Federal mortgage documents show there were potentially more than 900,000 veterans since 2001 who could be victims of the scheme”. As a result of this series, veterans contacted their lenders and eventually repaid the charges.
Tags: Johnny Isakson; congressional; hearings; corruption; federal government; Wells Fargo; loan officers; interest rates
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"Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund"
For over 20 years, The Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund has built up a "powerful political network" throughout the state that provided financial perks to its leader and employees. The fund marketed itself as a "nonprofit," a claim that the Tennessean proved false.
Tags: Charles "Bones" Seivers; Metro Finance; Murfreesboro; Morristown; Rich Riebeling; Bank of America; campaign donations
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"Unique Approaches to Uncover the Size and Growth of Executive Pay and Pensions"
While employees throughout the U.S. experienced pay cuts or were laid off, top executives were receiving millions of dollars in bonuses. Reporters Ellen Schultz and Tom McGinty dig deep to find out exactly how extreme those payouts have become.
Tags: payouts; bonuses; Bank of America; Wells Fargo; Citigroup; executive benefits
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Goldman Sachs: Low Road to High Finance
After the collapse of the financial market in the United States, there were many key components which played a large role in the devastation to many Americans. These key components mainly focus on major financial institutions, which played a large role in manipulating the mortgage and mortgage security markets. Furthermore, the institutions that should be keeping them honest, failed to do so.
Tags: Nation's financial sector; financial institutions; mortgage; market; American International Group (AIG); Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Moody's; Securities and Exchange Commission; Citigroup, Inc.; Bank of America Corp.
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Social Insecurity
Corporate America has turned conventional uses of Social Security and pensions upside down, in some cases harming elderly and disabled retirees and in others helping to enrich Wall Street executives.
Tags: social security; pension; retiree; Wall Street; elderly; disabled; loan; executive; taxes; bank; payday
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Broken Promises
Tax-exempt deals that provided $7 billion in bonds for low-income housing or inner-city schools turned out to be another way for banks and advisers to make money. Bloomberg investigates situations such as a deal in which JPMorgan Chase and Co. and American International Group "pocketed fees, along with their advisers, totaling $12 million." AIG and CDR of Beverly Hills actually had a deal "in which the financial firms made more money and faced less risk if none of the $220 million in bond funds was used by the public. None of it was." There were 70 other such deals across the country in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. The investigation also includes similar situations of schools being neglected while insurance companies, banks and advisers profit.
Tags: school bonds; Wall Street; JPMorgan Chase and Co.; American International Group; Bank of America; housing bonds
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Public Schools, Private Money
Reporters exposed problems with the management and transparency of nonprofit foundations associated with the North Carolina State University system, and excessive fees charged by Bank of America to run the North Carolina School of the Arts Foundation's endowment.
Tags: education; university; higher education; nonprofits; North Carolina State University; North Carolina School of the Arts Foundation; schools; colleges; mismanagement; Bank of America
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Borrowing Trouble
This series looks at how corporations like Payday America use payday loans to target the poor and charge phenomenal interest fees. These stories also look at how traditional banks have helped to keep these businesses going, acting as the main source for business loans for payday lenders. At the same time, these banks are pulling their own branches out of lower income areas and violating the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 by not "serving the credit needs of all communities where they operate, including low- and moderate-income communities." Another story looks at RALs, or Refund Anticipation Loans from places like H&R Block, which also rack up interest rates and fees of 70-700 percent.
Tags: refund anticipation loans; loans; payday loans; Payday America; check-cashing businesses; Community Reinvestment Act; H&R Block