Mortgage Company Exec Jumps to Death

Source: San Francisco Chronicle-(AP)

Friday, January 18, 2008

(01-18) 17:20 PST Marlton, N.J. (AP) --
An executive of a collapsed subprime mortgage lender jumped to his death from a bridge Friday, shortly after his wife's body was found inside their New Jersey home, authorities said.

Prosecutor Robert Bernardi said Evesham Township police went to the couple's home in the Marlton section of the township around noon after a male caller asked them to check on Marci Buczynski. Her body was found in a bedroom.


..snip

Walter Buczynski was a vice president of Columbia, Md.-based Fieldstone Mortgage Co., a high-flying subprime mortgage lender that made $5.5 billion in mortgage loans and employed about 1,000 people as late as 2006.

However, it has since filed for bankruptcy and now has fewer than 20 employees. The company had recently filed court papers seeking approval to pay about $1.1 million in bonuses that would be divided among Buczynski and other staffers so the company could wind down its lending operations and go out of business.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/18/national/a172052S04.DTL&tsp=1

---

was he feeling guilty???

edited to swap paragraphs from the story for those that don't follow the link

upper income..area..

fly

https://secure.fmcmortgage.com/brokers/
FieldstoneRates

Fieldstone Mortgage Company has temporarily suspended processing and locking loan applications and submissions, and thus information about products and rates are not available at this time. Please check back as we will post new product guidelines and rate sheets as soon as we begin processing and locking loans.

http://ml-implode.com/imploded/lender_FieldstoneMortgageCompany_2007-11-19.html

..snip

According to HUD, Fieldstone closed over 1.2 billion dollars per month.

Looking at the Static Pool Data from their 2007 Securitizations sheet, over 80% and sometimes above 95% of their originations were 2/28 and 3/27 mortgages. Millions of dollars of these loans would have been turning into high interest adjustables this year, considering they accepted FICO's as low as 500 for some products. Please repost this link if it goes missing... we have archived a copy.

We are working on assessing the size of Fieldstone's Retail operations. If you can supply information about the number of employees affected or Retail peak loan volume, contact us and we can complete this entry.

..snip

http://ml-implode.com/imploded/lender_FieldstoneMortgageCompany_2007-07-17.html
About Fieldstone

Fieldstone Investment Corporation owns and manages a portfolio of non- conforming mortgage loans originated primarily by its mortgage origination subsidiary, Fieldstone Mortgage Company, and has elected to be a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. Founded in 1995, Fieldstone Mortgage Company is a nationwide residential mortgage banking company that originates non-conforming and conforming residential mortgage loans through independent mortgage brokers and a network of retail branch offices located throughout the country. Fieldstone is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland.

Fieldstone's stock price had plummeted significantly prior to the acquisition (See this chart from Marketwatch) resulting in C-Bass purchasing Fieldstone at "firesale" prices. As such, we consider Fieldstone "imploded". We are adding this to the imploded list as a "back-add" since the acquisition process started some time ago (Today is July 23, 2007).

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2007/11/26/daily9.html?ana=from_rss

Citing rising mortgage delinquencies and tightening credit markets, Fieldstone Mortgage Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Columbia company's board of directors agreed to the move in a special meeting held Nov. 23, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. Fieldstone said it has liabilities of more than $100 million. Among its largest creditors are Morgan Stanley, seeking $38.5 million, and Bear, Stearns & Co., seeking $15.3 million, documents show. A financial affairs statement and other information were not yet on file Monday.

Fieldstone originates, sells and services residential mortgage loans. Fieldstone's focus is "non-conforming" loans, which do not meet the guidelines of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- for example, because of a low down payment or a borrower with a spotty credit history.

In an emergency motion filed with the bankruptcy court, Fieldstone details how slowing home price appreciation and rising interest rates kick-started a surge in mortgage delinquencies beginning in late 2006. This contributed to mortgage lenders reaping lower premiums on sales of loans in the secondary market. The lower valuations in the secondary market in turn led to mortgage lenders "receiving unprecedented margin calls from their secured creditors," documents show.

regular 30 year fixed. Thanks

pays a lower interest rate for the first two or three years of the loan only to have the interest reset at higher levels in the 3rd or 4th year of the loan.

These loans were issued to people whose credit rating and income level did not qualify them for the traditional 30 year mortgage loan. Such people are known as sub-prime borrowers.

These loans are also at the heart of the financial crisis that we're currently experiencing. Investment banks and hedge funds pruchased these loans and re-sold them to investors as Asset Backed Securities. As these loans reset, the mortgage holders could not afford the higher interest rates and thus their homes were foreclosed. Increased foreclosures has led to a housing glut which in turn has lead to a write down of the value of the homes.

I am truly frighten about our economic outlook. This is the most important election of my lifetime!

They've been living in an artificial bubble, living a lifestyle that could never be sustained forever, not without creating hardship for many people. It was wrong to dangle this carrot from the beginning. Now there is going to be a price to pay if they can't learn to live with lowered, but more realistic, expectations.

That's where a real community would come in and be of some help during these difficult times, but American communities are now as veneered as the houses on the street.

NOT.

I'm sorry, but I am not saddened by this news at all, except that maybe someone below might have been at risk when he jumped.

Is this supposed to be the honest small business man that we hear about? I think not. Is this just possibly the money grubbing, lying, cheating SOB that screws up peoples' lives just so he can see the profit roll in and divide it up, then sneak into the shadows when the world comes crashing down? Sounds pretty probable. Guess the world came crashing down with him inside.

http://jobsearch.ihispano.com/careers/jobsearch/detail/jobId/1058179&from=Indeed&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=jobboard&utm_campaign=Indeed&start=1553058660

Bi-lingual Loan Officer
Source: iHispano.com
Employer: Fieldstone Mortgage Company
Location: Frisco, Texas 75034 United States
Last Updated: 12/26/2007
Job Code: fieldstonemortgage-375585
Apply on employer's website (this will open a new window).

Job Description
Bi-lingual Loan Officer Apr 12, 2007
Frisco, Texas
Send job to a friend
Description:
We are looking for qualified Bi-lingual Loan Officers to join Fieldstone Mortgage Company, a dynamic and growing corporation based in Columbia, Maryland. We are a nationwide leader in the lending arena with a production history of over 7 billion in 2005. Fieldstone is dedicated to a shared corporate culture based on integrity, quality, service, efficiency and teamwork which makes us a leading force in the industry.
The job description is as follows:
Responsibilities include soliciting Company provided and self generated referral sources in the areaThe qualified candidate MUST:
Be independent

Be eager to earn unlimited income (salary + commission)
Be aggressive in sales

Posses a take charge attitude
Be highly motivated

I hope he bounced a few times.

An awful lot of us were pushed out of NJ, in 1990 during the recession & increased property taxes. I was in Medford Lakes..........forced out by an illegal foreclosure move by a savings bank. ( I did sell the house, at a loss and bought, ( outright) a more modest house in Maine) Lotta people up here from NJ! that area!

Our crummy mortgage problem would have been more manageable if we were not paying 1k a month in taxes and ins every month on top. Plus the 1.50 a gall gas being 3.50 now and the price of food doubling in the last few years and my heating oil bill going from 200 a month to 600; it was all just too much.

We plan on bailing from this country or failing that, buy a few acres in the sticks and completely take ourselves off the grid. This is my last election either way. If we can't get someone to give a crap about the working class its time to give up and build my cocoon.

despite his scam being in bankrupcy.

Yup, good old GOP values -- lie, cheat and steal.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/16/ap4540187.html

Among the employees receiving biggest bankruptcy bonuses: CEO Michael J. Sonnenfeld; Vice President Walter Buczynski and Chief Information Officer John Camp will each receive $99,999. Another 20 or so employees would divvy up the remaining bonus payments.

Fieldstone said "the remaining employees are indispensable" for the company to shutter its business. The incentive bonuses are deserved because the "remaining employees are spread thin and working far beyond (the company's pre-bankruptcy) expectations of them."

The bonuses would be paid, in part, from the proceeds of a $3.8 million bankruptcy loan from Fieldstone's parent Credit-Based Asset Servicing & Securitization LLC, which has been funding Fieldstone's Chapter 11 case.

..snip
Bankruptcy-law changes that took effect in October 2005 were meant to curtail a company's ability to pay bonuses to senior company executives while laying off rank-and-file workers.

However, judges have wide latitude to allow the incentive payments so firms can retain key employees, if such payments are justified by the facts and circumstances of the case.

a job that will cause me murder my wife and then jump off a bridge...

about suicide rates during the Great Depression. I've heard both that rates rose during the Depression and that they stayed the same. Certainly the sensational suicides (jumpers in particular) did not occur at the rates our mythology about the period claim. One set of numbers I heard is that the rate rose from 14 to 17 per 100,000. The suicide rate among males in the US now is about 17/100,000 but the overall rate is only 11/100,000 (only 4/100,000 females die by suicide). I can't find any data that averages the rate from 1919 - 1928 and the rate from 1929 - 1938 which would be a valid comparison. Of course, the stock market crash wasn't the cause of the Depression, the economy had been going down the tubes for a while before then so its really hard to determine what suicide rates should be counted as caused by the Depression. I also don't know what off the top of my head what a statistically significant increase would be and I'm not about to run an t-test to figure it out :)

not something I've ever looked at. It's also a period of time when Prescott Bush, Herbert Walker, Allen Dulles and those who financed Nazi Germany were very active in raising money for their cause, including cashing in dollars for gold to ship to Germany.

We've never had a democratic economy --- predatory capitalism has failed many times, naturally ---
only strongly regulated capitalism provides for its continuance.

It was the rich who were killing themselves. For the poor, it was business as usual.

Right?

Somebody shut those damn crickets up!

And, YES, it was the stupidest thing Bill Clinton ever did. Monica isn't even in the running.

The deaths of Walter Buczynski, 59, and his wife, Marci, 37 — the parents of two boys :(

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

:evilgrin:

lol.. I know it's sad, but still I'm sorry, that just grabbed me right in the gut:rofl:

Maybe its nervous laughter?

about the people losing their homes and jobs. More likely he himself is broke - so deep in debt that $99,000 would hardly make a dent. That's my cynical guess, anyway. The higher they fly, etc.

The story says that latter is more likely the case:

"The deaths of Walter Buczynski, 59, and his wife, Marci, 37 — the parents of two boys — were being investigated as a murder-suicide, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office."

It does have echoes of 1929, though.

"Walter Buczynski, 59, and his wife, Marci, 37"

Are not an uncommon feature in these cases, as you point out. The possibility of a younger wife leaving them seems to drive some men to commit murder, and sometimes murder/suicide. The ultimate way to dominate and control, I guess.

I don't know about this particular case, of course.

He was a socio-path, would be my guess.

check the coffins!

> An autopsy found his wife died from blunt force trauma to the head,
> resulting in a fractured neck

Doesn't sounds like a fake suicide to me ... more like a simple, sad, murder.

OTOH, has *his* body been found yet?

Wonder if he "worked out" by swimming ...? :think:

to collect bonuses for a company that is going out of business/bankrupt. Bonuses should not be paid to ANYONE who is responsible for either a company that has behaved unethically, illegally or irresponsibly. Bankruptcy = bonus forfeiture.

Couldn't agree more.

executives rarely, if ever, feel anything for the victims of their scams. In other societies, the concept of shame still exists.

When a foreign executive or bureaucrat responsible for a financial loss or human tragedy kills themselves, it is usually because they are ashamed of the damage they have done and the dishonor they have brought to themselves, their company, family, etc.

When an American corporate honcho offs himself, which is extremely rare, it is because he cannot live with the loss of prestige, money, and power. They never care about the people they hurt - only their own discomfort at being caught.

No matter how grim things might appear, I can't fathom how a sane person could do such a thing to their children. As if taking his own life wasn't bad enough, he had to leave them without a mother as well? So very sad...

Did she kill herself and it was the last loss he could bear? It's a possibility.

Or any of list of other things for that matter, including an argument over his recent failures could have been behind what he did.

It's certainly possible. Or as LoneStarDem suggests, maybe they had an argument. I guess he could have gone temporarily insane.

n/t

So very sad the times ahead

but think how important money must have been to that dude. If I lost my roof, lover, money, health and record collection I still don't think I would kill myself. But there was one time in my life that I thought being broke and living in a squat was not only perfectly fine but also cool. I think I c0uld go back to that as long as I had toilet paper.

He gave $500 to The Mortgage Bankers Assn of America PAC
http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?key=jc3dx&txtName=Buczynski&txtState=(all%20states)&txtAll=Y&Order=N

Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (list recipients)
(54% to Democrats, 46% to Republicans) $339,207
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.asp?strID=C00004812&cycle=2008


Total to Democratic Senate Candidates: $32,907
Total to Republican Senate Candidates: $44,300
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.asp?strID=C00004812&Cycle=2008

would have been one of sadness for them and their family. I would not have had any initial negative thoughts or feelings toward them in this type of case. However, because of the attitudes of these elitist, arrogant and greedy corporatist, my first reaction was to say "about fucking time" hope to see more just like it. Good bye and good riddance, America and the world will be a much better place for it.

I will send them off with a favored salute used by numerous neocons.............

I used to joke about how during the Great Depression it was the businessmen, stockbrokers, etc. who were jumping to their deaths, and how when the next one comes it'd be them again. I've always had a dark sense of humor. However, this isn't funny, and it's only the beginning.

I would want to know

1)Who was the witness who saw him jump? A friend? A stranger? More than one witness?

2)Why jump from a bridge (where body recovery is dicey, at best)?

3)Was the wife having an affair?

4)How did the wife die?

5)Why are these issues not addressed in the press release?

I feel extremely sad for the two boys.

I'll stsrt dancing when its the outsource-erers!

That shows real class.

... sprry, couldn't resist.

No body found yet?

Headed to join his ill-gotten gains?

the start of the Depression in the 1920s?

I am getting that sense of impending doom again!

not too shaby ....http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=38097433

listed for $511,000.

This couple was cheating everyone it appears.

the zillow.com site lists the last sale price of the house not the current assessed value. The only state where they seem to keep it current is FL. Perhaps because the housing market there is such a mess?

Maybe he finally felt the guilt of Raping so many poor Americans with bad business practices... hmmm

a great sense of loss and devastation. May they all find peace.

Males who murder their families (wife, children) in some fit of pique or despair DO NOT have my sympathy. EVER.

:loveya:

Let's all get a tighter grip on our humanity. The times now and those ahead will try to strip it from us, but keeping it is the only victory that counts.

CAPITALISM...making humans miserable since the beginning of civilization.

The market state is a decent concept. Cash and funds in banks can be of good use. Much like hammer or saw, it just depends how it's used :shrug:

Asshole.

I don't agree with some lending practices - but I don't wish this kind of end result upon any human being.

This is just the start, look for the nightmare to worsen as the Stock Market shell game crumbles.

Wow. This is pretty shocking to say the least.

It's difficult to feel sorry for the guy because I can't help but wonder where his compassion and ethics were when he was green lighting 5.5 BILLION DOLLARS in loans that many people couldn't afford to pay?! I don't like to see human misery, but everyone must admit that he brought this mess upon himself. Where's that good old rethuglican "personal responsibility" now?

I do think that those of us who've already been forced to do without will whether this storm far better than those who have never stepped into a thrift store or a pawn shop. But it's not going to be pretty for anyone-except for the elite rich who have all their money in gold and euros-not by a long shot. :(