From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:
The bank that originated the loan went defunct and was taken over by the government in 2008. The remaining assets were eventually bought by a private investment group, which completed the foreclosure on behalf of Fannie Mae, the government sponsored enterprise, after paying off the back taxes. Afterwards, Fannie Mae bought the house for $100 at a sheriff’s sale, evicted the woman, and resold the house. The entire saga spanned 2007, when the owner fell behind on payments, to 2016, when a judge approved the eviction.
The article reads like a typical human interest story—until you get to the real purpose of the article near the end. It turns out that Steven Mnuchin, the current Secretary of the Treasury, was part of the investor group that bought the original banks remaining assets, which included Turano’s Fannie Mae-owned mortgage. After Mnuchin left, the bank was investigated by HUD for how it carried out foreclosures under rules that HUD itself set. (The article doesn’t report that second part.) The investigation was cited through a report by Bloomberg News.
Whatever the investigation yields, what that has to do with this woman’s plight is lost on me.