I believe "Cheronda" is a female name.

Shouldn't it be "her summer party pad"?

How do you buy $12MM house with a mortgage, that's just ridiculous. Assuming a super jumbo mortgage with at least 50% LTV required that's $6MM down, why on earth wouldn't you just buy a house outright with that money and not have a mortgage hanging over your head?

They invested w/ bernie madoff.. I guess I answered my own question.

@hypnotik_jello: If you can come up with $150k to buy a house in cash, I will give you one for free. People that buy these expensive homes mortgage them just like the rest of us. You would be amazed at how easy it is to get a mortgage on a $12 million house. It is also an investment in that you don't want to plunk down that much when you can pay a monthly off the interest and gains from other investments.

@hypnotik_jello: Probably because they wanted to use "other people's money" to buy the place at 5% to 7% interest and keep their money freed up for the amazing 10% to 12% interest which their super special financial investments were getting them. Making 5%+ profit over paying for it outright.

Great plan had the investments been real...

@hypnotik_jello: As one better-off relative explained it: Depending on when you got the mortgage your interest rate can be pretty low. If that is the case you can better invest that money elsewhere, getting a higher return. Though in this case the owners were idiots for not protecting their own home from a bad investment.

Cheronda was a high level (as in Senior VP of Commercial ORE) exec at WF, 4 years Emory Uni, no degree, then another 3 at USC, finishing with a MBA. She burned 17 years at WF, drinking the Kool-Aid.
[www.linkedin.com]

Talk about getting lax in your duties.. Shame!

Anybody here willing to go in with me for a month's rent in the place around Christmas time?

I have the first $250 covered, so now we only need another $149,750 to rent it. I'm calling the master bedroom walk-in closet for my family...

"Malibu Mayor Andy Stern, who also happens to be a real estate agent, told Reuters that the house could lease for $150,000 a month."

@nstonep: Yes, a few other places got it wrong too...

"a seventeen year veteran of the bank"

I bet her parachute was at least bronze or maybe silver...

@Nighthawke: Still...Emory and USC are nothing to sneeze at. She had to have gotten a bachelors somewhere in there.

PS-->Didn't she work for gray davis, meaning she couldn't have been working for WF the complete time.

Good. That conduct is reprehensible. I'm glad she got fired.

Something tells me this isn't exactly "aberrant" behavior - her story just happened to make the headlines.

@nstonep: Beats me, it's what she put in her linkedin bin. She probably did and didn't enter it for one reason or another.

@Nighthawke: Or maybe she's a "super liar"

Great picture! Notice the guy cowering on the port stern, left rear for the non nautical types.

This sounds like a mini version of the whole banking/mortgage crises: unrestrained behavior with little oversight.

Side note: I'm still seeing a bunch of property developments advertising 0% down and the like. If this is the type of lending that got us into trouble why is this mortgage product still on the market?

Yep-- this kind of thing doesn't just happen- she's only gonna do this if its accepted behavior- she took the keys, let herself in, and invited people to a party- many of whom, I'm sure, also worked at the bank-- and NOT ONE OF THEM whistleblew, or outed her, or reported her to her supervisors- or if they did, they took no action until there was a media headline. Reprehensible.

Since she was partying when the house could have been showing and perhaps caused offers to be missed, shouldn't WF sue her for damages for the cost of carrying the property (taxes and maintenance)? Could/Should she be charged?

@dopplerd:

Bud...they're probably RECOURSE mortgages. Meaning, if you default you're on the hook for the remainder personally.

Note: read the fine print folks. If you get a non-recourse mortgage you can just walk away (there's some congressional forgiveness clause, no DOI or anything!)

@nstonep:

well, we've already seen she CAN throw a super party...

@oneliketadow: Probably not, as the media coverage indicated that Wells Fargo was holding the property off the market for a predetermined time. (I presume that they're hoping that if they sit on the house for a while, the real-estate market will bounce back somewhat, and they won't lose as much money as if they sold it immediately.)

Now if the house was held off the market so that it could be used for parties, then that's a whole different ballgame.

Justice is served.

For those not in the know, a VP in the finance/banking world is simply a middle manager. It doesn't mean that much.

@hypnotik_jello: It would be nice if people would base their comments upon facts rather that assumption, but I'll give you a little help here.

The former owners of the home didn't have a mortgage on the home and it was fully paid for. They had other debts however which could have been any number of things from a line of credit to credit cards to auto loans to business loans... and when they lost a huge chunk of capital to Madoff, coupled with a down economy that indicates their other investments were also in the crapper - they handed over the home to Wells Fargo as part of an agreement to satisfy their debts.

Therefore they didn't have a mortage at all, but in the end I guess it didn't really matter. Just because someone is wealth does not automatically suggest they are wise with their money or an expert at fiscal matters. For all we know they entrusted their savings to a money manager who felt Madoff was a sure thing.

In any case at least Wells Fargo did the right thing on this one and fired the banker who thought she could use the misfortune of others for personal gain.

@QADude: Yep, I'm one promotion away and already surrounded by them. VP titles are handed out like skittles in banking.

@jedthehumanoid:

wait, you get skittles?

FUCK MEDICINE, I'M GONNA BE A BANKER

Nice IF they don't quietly hire him back in a few months.

Cheronda ain't got a motor in the back of her Honda, my anaconda don't want none unless you...oh, never mind.

"We deeply regret the activities that have taken place as they do not reflect the conduct we expect of our team members."

Yeah, they are expected to not get caught when taking advantage of people.

@Parapraxis: *Wonders if she was super in bed.*