On Halloween, Current TV’s Keith Olbermann named him the “The Worst Person in the World.”
In a New York Times article, his law firm is described as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes.
But, the truth is there are no words to describe how low this low-life individual is.
His name is Steven J. Baum and he owns one of the largest law firms representing banks in homeowner foreclosures in New York. The firm represents virtually all the giant mortgage lenders, including Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
Days before this Halloween, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera wrote a column describing the Halloween party held last year by Baum’s law firm.
For the party employees were encouraged to dress up for Halloween as homeless people, carrying bottles of booze, wearing signs that mock those who’ve been illegally evicted.
Nocera wrote that he received photographs of the party from a former law firm employee. The photos showed two Baum employees dressed up to be homeless people. One is holding a bottle of liquor. The other has a sign around her neck that reads: “3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served,” which is meant to mock what they believe is “the typical excuse” of the homeowner trying to evade a foreclosure proceeding.
Another photo shows a corner of Baum’s office decorated to look like a row of foreclosed homes. Another shows a sign that reads, “Baum Estates” and is full of foreclosed houses. Most of the other pictures show either mock homeless camps or mock foreclosure signs — or both.
Earlier this month Baum’s firm agreed to pay a $2 million fine and change its practices in a settlement with the United States Attorney’s Office in New York. The fine was as a result of the firm being accused of filing misleading affidavits, mortgage assignments, and other important documents in state and federal courts.
So, as the nation’s largest banks have been committing foreclosure fraud – illegally repossessing the homes and destroying the lives of tens of thousands of Americans. And, while these big banks have helped to cause the nation’s economic crisis, gotten massive bail-outs and now report record profits, we now have scoundrels like Steven J. Baum mocking the victims.
Thus, one can only crown Steven J. Baum one of, if not the largest, royal scum-buckets in the entire universe.
Steven J. Baum, the Biggest Scum-Bucket in the Entire Universe
Filed under: Economy, New York Times, Wall Street Tagged: Banks, Forecloures, Halloween, Keith Olbermann, New York Times, Steven J. Baum
