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 "Wells Fargo" ...
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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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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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"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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Way Ahead of the Curve
This is a series of three stories by senior writer David Evans that ran in the February, July and November issues of Bloomberg Markets magazine. In "The Risk Nightmare," (July 2008), Evans pierced the opacity and complexity of credit default swaps, unregulated securities that were supposed to act as a form of insurance and protect investors against risk. He found that CDS had built up so many interconnections that one player could jeopardize the entire financial system. In "Banks on the Edge" (November 2008), Evans reported that scores of regional banks across the U.S. would fail within a year because they hadn't yet realized their losses on defaulting mortgages. In "Peddling Tainted Debt to Florida," (February 2008), he reported that Lehman Brothers was both advising and selling toxic debt to Florida's "money market pool." This disclosure prompted a run on the pool, and it was then shut down as the state investigated its holding and worked to restore its creditworthiness.
Tags: Lehman Brothers; Bear Stearns; Florida; Charlie Crist; bank collapse; Wells Fargo; Washington Mutual; bailout
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Corporate America's Secret Money Trail: "Dirty Money, Clean Banks" , "The $150 Billion Shell Game", "Homeland Security Pork Barrel"
"These three stories document different ways that the largest U.S. corporations break laws and don't get prosecuted, use secret Cayman Island dummy companies to avoid paying taxes, and place top executives on Presidential Advisory boards that award their companies billions of dollars in federal contracts."
Tags: corporate fraud; taxes; Coke; Intel; Cayman Islands; J.P. Morgan; Wells Fargo; banks; money laundering
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Willie Brown Inc.
The series presents how San Francisco's mayor Willie L. Brown introduced an influence system based on personal relationships, political loyalty and campaign donations that became the decisive factor in the awarding of city contracts and distribution of public funds. It is also reported how Brown has created a "patronage army" and how he has circumvented the city's tough campaign finance law to raise millions for his political machine. Specific references to people in his entourage, companies that benefitted from this process and subsequent investigation by the FBI are given.
Tags: mayor; San Francisco; William G. Ruthland; John deCastro; MissionBay; soft money; FBI; charity; indictment; business; civil service; political rewards; lobby; Warren Hellman; Wells Fargo; AT&T; patronage.
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No title (id: 6988)
Wall Street Journal details how a major drug cartel laundered $1.2 billion through small jewelry companies with the aid of American banks and other companies that failed to ask questions about the huge amounts of cash, March 1, 1990.
Tags: fialka la mina gold Continental Bank Corp Wells Fargo Bank DEA