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 "bad credit" ...
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Problems in Paradise
The authors investigated issues facing the City of San Diego including cash flow, poor credit and investigations from the FBI, DOJ, and SEC. Criminal behavior of several councilmen and overall bad management led to indictments, a result aided by the efforts of the reporters.
Tags: City of San Diego; corruption; city government; FBI; Department of Justice; DOJ; SEC; wire taps
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The Specialist
This investigative piece exposes how Scott Wizig takes advantage of low-income, bad-credited house buyers and is punished for it in Buffalo, NY, but his unethical practices are looked over in Houston, TX.
Tags: house; lease; home owner; housing; credit; Buffalo; slum; slumlord; blight; Houston; contract; deed; NTI
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Risky Business: Exploiting a Loophole, Banks Skirt State Laws on High Interest Rates. 'Payday Loans' are a big hit with many consumers, but regulators cry foul. Annual fees can top 500 percent.
Article explains how payday loans work. The story talks about people who needed some quick cash from a payday loan center, but then regretted it later when they had to pay annual interest rates reaching anywhere from 200 to 500 percent. According to the article, "...payday loans--so-called because they typically must be retired by the next payday--have become one of the fastest-growing financial products aimed at U.S. consumers."
Tags: banks; payday loans; high interest rates; banking industry; quick cash; debt; consumers; annual interest rates; credit; bad credit; lenders; lending
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Tax law little aid to poor students
The Morning Call examines the state's new Educational Improvement Tax Credit program. "Supporters pitched the program as a way for students to escape bad public schools. But a year later, there's no evidence that is happening," according an analysis done by the newspaper.
Tags: tax law; students; tax credits; education; Pennsylvania; state tax; Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program; vouchers
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Showing Its Age: Fed's Huge Empire Set Up Years Ago, Is Costly and Inefficient
The Journal reports that the federal Reserve Bank has too many banks, some in wrong places, and is facing losses in check-clearing. The story finds that "rapid changes in technology, consolidation in banking and rising competition in some of their basic services threaten to make Fed banks costly relics. Except for the New York Fed, the system's link to world markets, many Fed functions could be centralized at far less cost and some fed banks could be closed, federal auditors say."
Tags: banking; competition; credit cards; bad debts; write-offs; loans; business; financial services
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Dun Deals: As Many People Sink Into Debt, One Group Of Workers Prospers
The Journal reports on the business of collecting bad debts. The story profiles Joel Krisolofsky, an employee at Abacus Financial Management Services LP, a collection agency. "As more Americans fail to repay debt, collecting has become lucrative work."
Tags: credit cards; finances; debtors; student loans; bankruptcy
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The American Nightmare
WNDU-TV reports on a fraudulent mortgage scheme in which families had their homes foreclosed even though they were making mortgage payments. The fraud affected families who bought homes on land contract because they had bad credit. The fraud was done by Money Solutions, a local company owned by Tamara Sexton. According to FBI, the problem is not confined to Southern Indiana but has become commonplace all over the country, WNDU reports.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; foreclosure; houses; housing; property records; ownership; real estate; fraud
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Debt and the salesman
The New Yorker profiles the billionaire Bill Bartmann, owner of Commercial Financial Services (C.F.S.), which "by 1998 .. was reporting a net annual take of about a billion dollars and a scale of profits higher than Microsoft's." The story details how Bartmann reached "the highest altitudes of wealth by buying other people's bad debts from creditors at radical discounts and making those debts yield." The report follows the ups and downs in Bartmann's life from his childhood to his biggest successes in his forties, and looks at "Bartmann's potential liability in C.F.S.-related lawsuits."
Tags: entrepreneurship; consumer debt; fringe banking; pawnbroking; loans; Tulsa; Oklahoma; venture; bankruptcy; credit-card debt
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Show & Tell: IRE 2001 National Conference (Chicago)
Compilation tape of investigative stories presented at the 2001 IRE national conference in Chicago: Tape 1 1.) KVBC-TV (Nevada) - "Honor Thy Father" 2.) KHOU 11 (Houston) - "Highway Health Hazard" 3.) Inside Edition - "Drink Up" 4.) KOAA-TV (Colorado Springs) - "Mother Goose daycare investigation" 5.) WSTN-TV (Syracuse) - "Pipeline to Crack" 6.) WAGA-TV (Atlanta) - "On the net; on the clock" 7.) KSAZ-TV (Phoenix) - "Capital Credit" 8.) Inside Edition - "Televangelists" 9.) WJW (Fox 8 Cleveland) - "Coats for Kids" 10.)Kelo-TV (Sioux Falls) - "Painful Steps" 11.) WNBC-TV (New York) - "Help on Hold" 12.) WFLD-TV (Chicago) - "Aggressive Drivers" 13.) WXYZ-TV (Detroit) - "Get Out Alive" 14.) WCPO-TV (Cincinnati) - "Airport Security" 15.) KMOL-TV (San Antonio) - "Slum Lords" 16.) WDIV-TV (Detroit) - "Stealing Power" 17.) WSMV 4 (Nashville) - "A few deadly breaths" 18.) WTVF (Nashville) - "Who's Policing the Police?" 19.) KDFW (Dallas) - "Spot Delivery" 20.) WTVJ (Miami) - "The Price of Beauty" 21.) WXYZ-TV (Detroit) - "Weight Loss Scams" 22.)KETV (Omaha) - "Police Complaints" 23.) KDFW (Dallas) - "Identity Theft" Tape 2 1.) WABC-TV (New York) - "Caught Off Guard" 2.) WTMJ-TV (Milwaukee) - "Get out of jail free" 3.) KTVT-TV (Fort Worth) - "INS Application Scam" 4.) KRON-TV (San Francisco) - "Moving Violations" 5.) WSPA-TV (South Carolina) - "Goodwill Firings" 6.) KWTV 9 (Oklahoma City) - "Lemon on the Lot" 7.) WLOS-TV (Asheville) - "Save or Slaughter" 8.) WISH-TV (Indianapolis) - "Tipped off" 9.) WAMI-TV (Miami) - "AIDS Charity Scam" 10.) WITI-TV (Milwaukee) - "Marine Corp Toxic Water" 11.) WFLD-TV (Chicago) - "No prescription, no doctor" 12.) XETV 6 (San Diego) - "Port Perks" 13.) KSTP-TV (St. Paul) - "Lasik Surgery" 14.) News 12 Long Island (Woodbury, N.Y.) - "Bad Medicine" 15.) News 12 Long Island (Woodbury, N.Y.) - "Double Dipping" 16.) KVBC-TV (Las Vegas) - "Mud Slinging Exposed" 17.) KVBC-TV (Las Vegas) - "What Lies Beneath" 18.) KHOU 11 (Houston) - "Sex Offender Teachers" 19.) KHOU 11 (Houston) - "Highway Health Hazard" 20.) WISH-TV (Indianapolis) - "Inspecting the Inspectors" 21.) WCPO 9 (Kentucky) - "NKU Rape Investigations"
Tags: TAPE
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Stolen ID
KETV-TV "addresses the problem of stolen identity and how it can ruin a person's reputation and credit. It also describes how we and authorities tracked down the woman who stole our victim's identity and reveals the extent of damage done to many other victims across the country..."
Tags: TAPE TRANSCRIPT forgery bad checks credit card theft crime credit reporting errors