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 "lender" ...
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Congressional Campaign Marred by Scandal
When federal authorities charged the finance director for Connecticut House Speaker Chris Donovan's congressional campaign with trying to hide campaign contributions, the Courant sought to uncover details of the probe and provide its readers stories that explained the significance of the arrest, peeling back the layers of a conspiracy that reached the highest levels of state government.
Tags: Federal authorities; campaign finance; state government
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Newtown School Massacre
A gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Courant deployed its most seasoned and well-connected reporters after the tragic killing with a goal of providing accurate and detailed information in the hours and days after the incident.
Tags: Sandy Hook Elementary School; shootings; gunman; Newtown
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Bad Neighbor Banks: How Big Lenders Spread Blight
Across South Florida, on block after block, homes abandoned in the foreclosure crisis have become eyesores, depressing property values, and posing health and safety hazards for nearby families. The Sun Sentinel investigated and found who was responsible for letting these homes rot: some of the world’s largest banks.
Tags: Hazards; property; banks; public health; public safety
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The Great Mortgage Cover-Up
These stories reveal one of the hidden causes of the financial crisis- how corporate codes of silence helped lenders to flood the nation with toxic mortgages. They document evidence that major banks and lenders systematically muzzled whistle blowers who tried to fight against forged documents, falsified appraisals, and other frauds in the mortgage industry.
Tags: financial crisis; mortgages; forged documents; crisis
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Pay Day Lenders Skirt Law
The story revealed how a high end race car driver who is also a convicted felon is partnering with an Indian tribe to run a multi-million dollar payday loan business. By partnering with the tribe the lenders do not have to follow any state laws. The lender is currently under multiple investigations by attorneys general.
Tags: payday loan; Better Business Bureau; property tax records
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The Monster How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America -- and Spawned a Glboal Crisis
"The Monster" investigates the history of the subprime mortgage business by unraveling the corporate histories of the industry's two most important players, Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers. The book documents the widespread fraud and law-breaking that were largely to blame for the financial system's meltdown.
Tags: Lehman Brothers; Ameriquest; subprime mortgage; lender
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"Political misuse of a public database, a collection of stories by Harford Courant staff writer Jon Lender"
Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz exploited an extensive yet recondite database of "36,000 Connecticut citizens" by submitting a FOI request within her office. By using her own staff and a "taxpayer-funded budget," she tracked and documented citizen's "political and personal information" and created the database to boost her aspiration of reaching higher office.
Tags: Susan Bysiewicz; FOI; Richard Blumenthal; campaign; taxpayers; Democrat; state attorney general; governor
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A Raid at Fair Finance
The series digs deeper into the downfall of a well-known consumer lender, Fair Finance, in Akron, Ohio. The company's owners financed their expensive lifestyles by raising cash from unwitting Ohio investors. After a raid by the FBI, the company collapsed and lost $200 million coming from mostly middle class individuals and their organizations.
Tags: Fair Finance; investing; FBI; consumer lender; Akron
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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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"Double Dipping"
Nearly 1,000 retired UConn professors are receiving duel payment from the state in the form of a paycheck and a pension. A law was enacted in 2007 that was designed to limit the number of retired professors who could be on the payroll and the length of time they could be hired, but as revealed by the Hartford-Courant, that law has been all but overlooked.
Tags: UConn; pensions; retirees; Connecticut Office of Policy and Management; Hugh Macgill; Ernest Marquez; Central Connecticut State University; Gov. M. Jodi Rell