Employees at foreclosure mill Steven J. Baum PC may very well have destroyed the company’s 40 year practice when they dressed as homeless people during Halloween and proceeded to mock the very people they took homes away from.
First reported by Times columnist Joe Nocera the company quickly apologized for their actions but three weeks later they were out of business.
After the company went belly up the firm’s owner wrote a letter to Nocera in which he said:
“You have destroyed everything and everyone related to Steven J. Baum PC. It took 40 years to build this firm and three weeks to tear down.”
First, if Nocera “tore down” the firm it was all for the best, its blatant disrespect for people down on their luck is despicable at best. However it was more than likely the $2 million settlement over its business practices that actually led to the company’s demise along with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae recently cutting all ties with the company.
Regardless of the reasons for his company’s demise the firms owner writes:
“There is blood on your hands for this one, Joe… I will never, ever forgive you for this.”
To that I say, a firm is responsible for portraying an image of responsibility and the actions of Steven J. Baum PC showed their true colors, as did their subsequent settlement.
I have long supported the idea that home owners are responsible for their own actions, it’s the main reason my wife and I bought a home valued at half the amount we were approved to borrow from the bank, however there’s a large divide between preying on people who have lost their jobs and mocking them for their failures.
[Via Baum Weighs In After Uproar ]
