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 "investors" ...
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Financial package
"Hedge funds in swaps face peril with rising junk bond defaults" examined the complexity of credit default swaps, which are unregulated securities that were supposed to act as a form of insurance and protect investors against risk. "FDIC may need $150 billion bailout as local bank failures mount" reported that many regional banks in the country would fail within a year because they hadn't realized losses on defaulting mortgages. "Exploiting FDIC loopholes enriches former U.S. bank regulators" revealed that three former government employees created a for-profit company that exploits FDIC rules and helps millionaires insure up to $50 million in bank accounts guaranteed by the FDIC.
Tags: economy; finance; recession; bank; bond; FDIC; mortgage; bailout
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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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Which Price is Right?
A massive mortgage scheme that dramatically increased the price of rental homes at the closing table was uncovered by the Journal-Gazette. Novice investors were tricked into paying an inflated price for dilapidated homes with only the highest sale price recorded in official documents.
Tags: real estate; realtor; John Kintz; Jeff Radabaugh;
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Cashing in on Blight
This investigation exposed a development company that used vacant and neglected homes in low-income neighborhoods to make money by sellings them repeatedly at ever higher prices among a circle of investors, who took out larger loans each time. The company's stated goal of renovating the homes to rent them out was not accomplished.
Tags: real estate; housing; FBI; fraud; lending; CM Development; landlords; Section 8; CAR; FOIA
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From Dreams to Debt
This story details a con scheme by unlicensed investment counselors affiliated with an organization called Pacific Wealth Management. The company would pay more than the asking price for many of the homes purchased for investors, then pay the seller's asking price and keep the difference. They sold millions of dollars worth of houses to middle-income families, but when the housing market began to deflate, these people were left with millions of dollars in debt.
Tags: real estate; investments; housing market; scam
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Golden Opportunities
The series "examined how businesses and investors are reaping enormous profits by exploiting the soaring number of older Americans."
Tags: elderly; policyholders; grievances; lawsuits; nursing homes; telemarketing fraud; financial advisors
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Faith in Arlan Galbraith, Onario's Pigeon King
The reporters investigated a pigeon breeding business that some people think is a Ponzi scheme. The business, Pigeon King International, is not transparent about its investors or the debt it owes to them.
Tags: business; pyramid scheme; birds; pigeon; investment
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Speculators bear brunt of foreclosures
"Sun analysis of RealtyTrac data found that new foreclosure filings in Southern Nevada have skyrocketed in the past six months. Further analysis found that 74 percent of all single family homes in foreclosures during the past six months were own by investors who did not live in the homes."
Tags: realty; foreclosures; home; investors; family; Nevada; mortgages;
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Squeezing millions from pennies
"Mark Ellis made millions of dollars from Winsted Holdings, the penny-stock company that he headed. Investors lost essentially everything. His story provided a road map into the bizarre world of penny stocks, an area that regulators generally ignore."
Tags: market; stock; investments; penny-stock; regulations; stock market;
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Takings Initiatives Accountability Project: The Center for Public Integrity investigates ballot initiatives that would radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states
The [non-partisan]Center for Public Integrity investigated 2006 "ballot initiatives that were designed to radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states. They discovered that a trio of "secret donors" accounted for 99% of the propostions' bankrolls, and some of the initiatives did not comply with campaign-finance and other regulations. Then the Center revealed that 85 percent of the funding was coming from a single wealthy real estate investor and Libertarian activist, Howard RIch All but the Arizona inititative failed at the ballot. The Center for Public Integrity set up a stand-alone website-- www.takings initiatives.org-- and filed more than 50 articles on it. "Our general practice-- and a novel one as far as we can tell-- was to mount verbatim transcripts of the interviews on our website, including audio recordings where available. We sought to allow proponents, opponents funders and experts to have a chance to present their side of the story in their own words." The Center also checked with state and federal regulators for compliance of relevant laws and regulations.
Tags: Takings Initiatives; takings clause; ballot initiatives; land-use regulation; environmental regulation; tax-exempt organizations; Howard Rich; Andrea Millen Rich; Council for Responsible Government; William A. Wilson; state campaign-finance filings; public records requests; state freedom of information requests; America At Its Best; Americans for Limited Government; John Tillman; Howard Ahmanson; Fieldstead & Company; property rights; prefessional signature-gatherers; Colorado At Its Best; term limits; nonprofit advocacy organizations; Sam Adams Alliance; Sam Adams Foundation; Legislative Education Action Drive; Parents in Charge Foundation; Social Security Choice.org; Illinois Charitable Trust Bureau; educational vouchers; tuition tax credits; National Taxpayers Union; First Class Education; Susquehanna International Group; Jeffrey YAss; Cato Institute; Alliance for School Choice; Decision Education Foundation; Eric Brooks; Susan Mitchell; Pete Sepp; Kern Family Foundation; Generac Power Systems, Inc.; Milton Friedman; Taxpayer Bill of Rights; TABOR; Laird Maxwell; This House is MY Home; John Whitehead; Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Exoxemis, Inc.; Family Farm Preservation Pact; Citizens for Community Protection; Kelo v. City of New London; eminent domain; New York Millionaires Assistance Act; Wallace Global Fund; Nicholas C. Dranias; PRNewswire; Eric O'Keefe; getliberty.com; George Soros