Chief
12-02-2007, 08:07 PM
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004047709_frances02m.html
By Susan Kelleher
Seattle Times staff reporter
Seven years ago, Frances Joy Taylor was living in her own house, singing in her church choir and baking apple pies for friends. The 89-year-old widow had about $2 million in assets — which she intended to leave to her church to help children in Africa.
Today, Frances lives at an adult-care home and spends her days napping in front of a television. Her care is paid for largely by taxpayers, because Frances is now bankrupt. Frances' memory is fading as fast as winter daylight, the result of a steady assault by Alzheimer's over the past eight years. Her financial demise began around the same time, when a businessman named Tyrone Dash took over her affairs.
Acting on what he says was Frances' behalf, Dash methodically liquidated or leveraged almost everything she owned: her bank accounts and securities, her insurance policies, her credit cards, her two apartment buildings and, ultimately, her home.
What didn't end up in Dash's pocket went to others: Contractors who worked on her apartments. A lawyer who rewrote her will. A business group that bought one of her properties at a bargain price.
And tens of thousands went to financial institutions: credit-card companies, mortgage lenders and others that were more than willing to extend credit, assess large fees for questionable transactions and, in one case, violate their own rules to sell Frances high-cost loans she had no hope of repaying.
The companies that fed off her decline are part of a financial-services industry that targets people, looking for potential borrowers with high debt and assets that can be tapped to pay off that debt.
**SCHNIPP**
Long investigative article that's well worth reading. It's troubling that this woman was able to fall through the social services cracks like she did, and doubly troubling that these lending institutions kept loaning her money she had no prayer of ever repaying...
By Susan Kelleher
Seattle Times staff reporter
Seven years ago, Frances Joy Taylor was living in her own house, singing in her church choir and baking apple pies for friends. The 89-year-old widow had about $2 million in assets — which she intended to leave to her church to help children in Africa.
Today, Frances lives at an adult-care home and spends her days napping in front of a television. Her care is paid for largely by taxpayers, because Frances is now bankrupt. Frances' memory is fading as fast as winter daylight, the result of a steady assault by Alzheimer's over the past eight years. Her financial demise began around the same time, when a businessman named Tyrone Dash took over her affairs.
Acting on what he says was Frances' behalf, Dash methodically liquidated or leveraged almost everything she owned: her bank accounts and securities, her insurance policies, her credit cards, her two apartment buildings and, ultimately, her home.
What didn't end up in Dash's pocket went to others: Contractors who worked on her apartments. A lawyer who rewrote her will. A business group that bought one of her properties at a bargain price.
And tens of thousands went to financial institutions: credit-card companies, mortgage lenders and others that were more than willing to extend credit, assess large fees for questionable transactions and, in one case, violate their own rules to sell Frances high-cost loans she had no hope of repaying.
The companies that fed off her decline are part of a financial-services industry that targets people, looking for potential borrowers with high debt and assets that can be tapped to pay off that debt.
**SCHNIPP**
Long investigative article that's well worth reading. It's troubling that this woman was able to fall through the social services cracks like she did, and doubly troubling that these lending institutions kept loaning her money she had no prayer of ever repaying...