McNeill and Caliber Close Hawaii Retail Without Warning

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Lenny McNeill and Caliber Funding Shut Down Half of Retail Production

Once claiming to BE the future of retail lending, it looks as though Caliber Funding may not even be around to SEE retail lending advance at all. In a swift and unexpected move, Caliber Funding shut down all of its Hawaii wholesale operations and then brazenly fired all retail employees on the Big Island of Hawaii, Oahu and Kauai. The fate of the Maui employees seems temporarily undecided.

Lenny McNeill wants to be like.... the Donald?!?!

An Overdose of The Apprentice Perhaps?The Hawaii retail operation constituted nearly 50% of Caliber's retail funding volume in the month of August, demonstrating that the Hawaii Caliber Funding staff is, or was, stocked full of very talented, hard working and proud people. Yet without so much as a warning, any wind-down period or the meekest offering of severance, the retail employees on those 3 islands were sent packing, when the Director of Production and Lenny McNeill, his National Retail Director abruptly flew in from the mainland and fired these employees on the spot.

Not only were these employees sent packing in an instant, many were the sole income earners, and thus health insurance providers, for their families. Many employees had also been recruited away from their former jobs just weeks earlier, with the executives' promise of a long term commitment to the market.

Supposedly the Director of Production summoned the branch managers to the Oahu Office, while Lenny McNeill snuck over to the other islands to have thier locks changed and immediately scurried out before they returned. In some cases the former branch managers may have to wait weeks beore retrieving any personal items, as the property managers were not in town.

This seems to be turning into a trend for Mr. McNeill, as in the past few months he has dismissed several other committed employees in the same brazen fashion, which in turn, has led to several others making the personal decision to move on on their own accord.

Does Lone Star Funds Have Too Much Money to Care?

This seems an easier way to get rid of unwanted money...

Caliber Funding is owned by Lone Star Funds, which is based in Irving, Texas. Lone Star, having a solid reputation for their acquisition and turnaround of distressed assets, made an attempt to enter the mortgage lending market through the acquisition of a number of defunct lenders such as Bear Sterns Mortgage as well as Accredited a few years ago. However, they soon made the regrettable decision to add many of the former WAMU executives to run the new mortgage entity, such as Bill Fruit, Greg Sayegh and Lenny McNeill. As you may know, WAMU was recognized as the largest bank failure in US history, primarily due to its reckless lending practices, developed in large part by this executive crew.

Now, it looks as though this same crew is heading down the same path with Caliber Funding, and unfortunately, taking the livelihoods of many innocent employees and the good name of Lone Star Funds with it.

Where is Caliber Funding Headed?

Are you familiar with Caliber Funding? Where do you think they're business model is headed? Are they the fresh, new face of the future of mortgage, or are these just the "same ol', same ol'" come back for another round of making (taking?) money at the expense of everyone else?

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  • freeship Feb 6, 2012 @ 5:36 am | delete
    But after losing a family home to foreclosure, under what he thought were fishy circumstances.
    mortgage calculator
  • WaWhooo Nov 18, 2010 @ 5:34 pm | delete
    Back in 2008, as WaMu was collapsing, the FDIC brokered a transaction between the failing S&L and J.P. Morgan Chase. But the question has arisen: "Who should cover billions of dollars from a legal mess that WaMu left behind?" The FDIC took them over, and then JPMChase bought it for $1.9 billion within 2 days - but the deal left open who exactly should cover WaMu's liabilities. (Isn't that covered somewhere in law school?) Chase's position is that it agreed only to take on bank liabilities that were spelled out on WaMu's books during the handoff - which did not include the cost of the lawsuits. The FDIC, supported by bank contributions or the taxpayer, depending on who you ask, has said J.P. Morgan agreed to buy the bank, both the good and the bad. But wait - there's more! WaMu is being sued by large investors who say it sold securities full of mortgages but misrepresented the risk. Deutsche Bank National Trust, who is representing the investors, filed suit against both the FDIC and J.P. Morgan claiming $6-$10 billion in damages for violating contracts.
  • Sirstrength Sep 16, 2010 @ 2:02 pm | delete
    I spoke to this guy when he was trying to recruit me. What a joker! He totally reminded me of a used car salesman - actually, I've met several used car salesmen that creeped me out a whole lot LESS than this guy Lenny did.
  • PhantomCruncher Sep 16, 2010 @ 1:54 pm | delete
    a good friend of mine used to be in the mortgage business in Hawaii. I remember her telling some stories about a guy named Lenny that worked for WaMu that were... less than flattering and less than professional. Something tells me this is the same guy. Creep.
  • MortgageReaper Sep 16, 2010 @ 2:07 pm | delete
    I would put money on it being the same guy!

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