Still Spending
The Troubled Asset Relief Program is still spending money -- including $1.8 billion in its most recent fiscal year, with funds going to banks including Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Bank of America Corp.
Prosecutions for misdeeds continue, too. In February an Illinois banker received a five-year prison term after he admitted to conspiring to receive loans to projects in which he held a personal financial interest, including a real estate project with a golf course and surrounding residential lots.
Other recent cases include embezzlement and wire fraud charges.
Last year, in an audit requested by Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, Romero’s team found that the Treasury Department didn’t enforce safeguards around a program aimed at preventing foreclosures.
In 2010, before a single dollar flowed to homeowners, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency acting as middleman for federal funding, staged an evening reception for housing counselors, according to the March 2019 audit. Charges included $855 for the carved beef station with an additional $153 for serving by a uniformed chef; $346 on cake bites; strawberry shortcake martinis, and “mousse shooters of the season”; $507 on imported and domestic cheeses; and $415 on fruits and berries with a dipping sauce, according to the report.
Chocolate Motivation
The culture at the housing finance agency was such that officials could use almost any justification to charge TARP for barbecues, parties, celebrations, restaurant outings, gifts, gym memberships, regular employee meals, and employee cash bonuses, according to the audit that questioned almost $130,000 in spending.
The agency “disagreed with much of the criticism” yet also agreed to return $54,000, Connie Helmlinger, a spokeswoman, said in an interview.
Counselors were at a day-long training session, and “if you have them stay all day, you’re going to feed them,” Helmlinger said. She said the controversy obscures good work by the agency, which helped 30,000 state residents avoid foreclosure.
Spending by the agency included $2,500 for a speaker on Motivation by Chocolate, according to the audit. Helmlinger declined to discuss specific expenditures.