7.30.12 – On Friday, July 27, the Lt. Governor released the following statement in support of seizing home mortgages by eminent domain, a scheme hatched by Mortgage Resolutions Partners (MRP).
“This may be an aggressive idea, but communities such as San Bernardino, Chicago and others have no choice in these desperate times,” Newsom continued. “We cannot allow Wall Street, who exploited the housing market for financial gain, to kill an idea before it is given a fair hearing.”
Why the Lt. Governor would take the extraordinary step of making a statement on such a controversial local issue is not really known at this time, but it appears that all those who promote this scheme have direct political ties to investment firm Mortgage Resolution Partners and heavyweight politicians associated with the California Democratic Party.
First, the investment firm was founded by former California Democratic Party Chairman and State Treasurer Phil Angilides, who, according to the Wall Street Journal, “resigned from MRP after Reuters reported that the company touted its political connections as its “secret formula” and boasted of its connections in ‘California politics.’”
Also among its partners is former Assembly Speaker and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Brown’s longtime business partner, Bill Falik. According to the Bay Citizen:
“This isn’t the first time Falik, with Brown as an investment partner, has pursued a strategy that hinged on controversial real estate decisions by municipal officials.
“In the boom years of California’s real estate market, then-Assembly Speaker Brown was a partner in a series of Falik-run real estate partnerships that helped turn thousands of acres of Central Valley farmland into new housing developments. In that case, the key was persuading local officials to rezone Sacramento River floodplain.”
And only days after the Lt. Governor endorsed this scheme, we learn that Peter Ragone, the firm’s spokesperson peddling this scheme to the media, was former SF Mayor Newsom’s press secretary! These connections between major Democratic power players and MRP are more than just coincidences.
What we do know for certain is that this scheme is being peddled nationally, with exception to the architect’s home town of San Francisco!