Stern: Down But Not Broke

Although, once again, I'm traveling on business this week, I have torn myself away from lesser matters to follow the latest news in the battle of The Sunshine State against "The Foreclosure King," David J. Stern. In April, we discussed the fact that the Florida Bar had filed a complaint against Stern that sought to take away his law license. As we observed at that time, perhaps a former assistant AG was correct when she predicted that Stern had made so much money from his foreclosure "practice" that he wouldn't care if the state took away his license to practice law.

It looks like we'll get a chance to see whether or not that sentiment is correct, because recently, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Nancy Perez recommended that Stern be disbarred. The judge found that Mr. Stern had visited "massive injury" on the state's foreclosure system. In addition, she appeared to be particularly galled by Mr. Stern's claim that his deteriorating financial condition impaired his ability to withdraw from pending cases, an assertion she called a "misrepresentation."

The linked article lists all the money Stern made from selling his foreclosure-related enterprise before it went belly-up, and the amount of money he paid for real estate in Florida, which, apparently, he still owns. Nothing pays like running a foreclosure mill and bailing out at right time, I guess. The state may be winning its battle, but the only people who seem to care are the folks doing the pursuing. The pursued seems impervious to the financial consequences of the end-game.

In this case, "justice" might not only be exceedingly slow, but exceedingly irrelevant.