RALEIGH WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY IN MORTGAGE FRAUD CONSPIRACY.
States News Service January 11, 2010 GREENVILLE — The following information was released by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina: in our site employment verification letter
The United States Attorney’s Office announced that in federal court January 8, 2010, MARY ROSE WRIGHT, 43, of Raleigh, North Carolina, pled guilty before United States Magistrate Judge David W. Daniel to wire fraud and conspiring to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and bank fraud.
A Criminal Information was filed on November 23, 2009. According to the Information, from August, 2006, to November, 2006, WRIGHT, working as a mortgage broker for Fairway Mortgage, worked with others to defraud various financial institutions through the submission of false and fictitious mortgage loan applications. Using a falsified Power of Attorney giving authority on behalf of a co-conspirator to execute all documents in connection with the property purchase, WRIGHT then prepared false United States Individual Income Tax Returns for years 2004 and 2005 and a self-employment verification letter and caused to have prepared a fabricated financial statement to use in obtaining the property. She then submitted an offer to purchase a property. go to site employment verification letter
On November 27, 2006, WRIGHT submitted a loan application, which included false representations regarding borrower’s address, employment, bank account information, and rental real estate schedule, in connection with the purchase of the residential Raleigh property. That same day Equity Services, Inc., loaned a co-conspirator $1,537.500 for the property purchase.
In November, 2006, WRIGHT’s co-conspirator gave her $120,000 from a previously fraudulently obtained mortgage loan from Washington Mutual in the amount of $2,996,969 to be used as a down payment for the purchase of the Raleigh property. On November 27, 2006, WRIGHT took possession of the property after executing a HUD-1 statement containing false and fraudulent information. To date, no mortgage payments have been made.
“In recent years we have seen how pervasive bank fraud has become and how devastating it has been to our banking institutions and our economy. This guilty plea is another step in the Justice Department’s effort to deal with this problem and to ensure integrity in our financial systems,” stated John Stuart Bruce, Acting United States Attorney.
Investigation of this case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. This case is being handled by the Office’s Economic Crimes Section, with Assistant United States Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan assigned as prosecutor .
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The three day auction of hundreds of art and furniture collected by the late legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his longtime partner Pierre Bergé kicked off today at 1PM EST. The auction which many have called the “Sale of the Century” is being held at the Grand Palais in Paris under the guidance of Christie’s auction house. The auction includes six separate sales over three days and contains masterpieces by Picasso, Mondrian, Matisse along with several other Art Deco pieces, bronzes, enamels and antiques. The first item sold was a small Italian landscape by Degas for which Berges had said he had a “special affection” for. It was bought for 380,000 euros (485,000 dollars). Proceeds from the sale will go to two charitable foundations set up by Saint Laurent and Bergé. Another early highlighted item sold was a wooden sculpture by Constantin Brancusi which sold for 29.2 million euros (37.2 million dollars) which was a a record for the artist’s work at auction. For up to date results from the auction, visit Christie’s results as they happen.
Still from Kaikai Kiki Animation Episode 1, Planting the Seeds 2007 via LA Times.
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is set to open an animation studio in Los Angeles next summer, 2009. The studio, which should accommodate roughly 30 employees, will take up approximately 9,000 square foot (6,220 square feet on the first floor and 2,760 square feet on the second level) in a building on North Highland Avenue and will be operated by Kaikai Kiki, Murakami’s production and management company.
Murakami said in a statement: “This studio represents a great step in the evolution of Kaikai Kiki and gives me a closer proximity to the community of artists with whom I hope to collaborate as I continue my explorations of animated and live-action film.”
The new studio’s first major project will be an animated feature-length film based on the series of shorts, “Planting the Seeds,” that premiered last winter at Murakami’s MoCA exhibition. Kaikai Kiki has already produced the music video for Kanye West’s Good Morning(as covered by Art Observed here.)
Murakami, who, like Andy Warhol, is known for blurring the boundaries between high and low art, created the superflat monogram for Louis Vuitton and his animated characters are also featured in Louis Vuitton advertisements.
T-shirt and pair of jeans featuring original artwork by Damien Hirst, via BlackBook
Damien Hirst has teamed up with Levi’s to produce ‘Damien Hirst x Levi’s x Warhol Factory Collection,’ a series of limited edition jeans, t-shirts and denim jackets. The collection features over 12 pieces featuring motifs and aesthetics found in Hirst’s art: tropical butterflies, skulls, and an array of spin-painted colors. Buyers can expect to find the collection at a select group of Levi’s stores in major global cities as well as fashion boutiques. T-shirts start at $83, while jeans will retail at $230. There is also a series of spin painted jeans in Levi’s signature 501 style, which will only be available via silent auction in key cities in Asia, Europe and North America–for price tags in the range of $23,000.
H BOX, designed by Didier Fiuza Faustino Portuguese, and produced by Hermès International via Bloomberg
Storied french luxury fashion house Hermès International presents the H BOX, a collapsible screening hall designed by Portuguese artist and architect, Didier Fiuza Faustino. The H Box is a traveling screening capsule that exhibits the video art of 8 international artists: Alice Anderson, Yael Bartana, Sebastián DÃaz-Morales, Dora GarcÃa, Judit Kúrtag, Valérie Mréjen, Shahryar Nashat, and Su-Mei Tse. The H Box will be exhibited in the Tate Modern in London until August 17.
American artist Richard Prince follows his recent Guggenheim retrospective with Richard Prince: Continuation at Serpentine Gallery in London. This show will include recent work as well as Prince’s more established pieces from the past 30 years, such as his cowboy series, where the artist rephotographed and enlarged images of American masculinity from Marlboro cigarette advertisements.
Chanel’s Mobile Art – First Stop, Hong Kong via Museum Lab
The Pritzker prize winning, Iraqi-born, Zaha Hadid is the name marking Chanel’s newest and (potentially) most audacious endeavor to date in the merger of art and fashion. The project is a “portable” exhibition of contemporary art. The Mobile Art project, which is essentially a globe trotting collapsable pavilion, was designed by Hadid and has thus far served to bring contemporary art to the general public at its first world location: Tokyo, Japan.
