 | Saturday, November 7, 2009 |
Background: In January 2004, Metropolitan Mortgage declared bankruptcy, taking down with it the fortunes of many investors who placed their trust in the decades-old Spokane company. Follow developments here.
6/26/2009 | Thomas Masters, a former Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. executive implicated in one of the fraudulent real estate schemes that unraveled the firm, has filed a $26 million personal bankruptcy and moved to Nevada to seek work.
12/17/2008 | A class-action lawsuit involving more than 6,000 Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. investors is moving toward trial in 15 months. 12/17/2008 | C. Paul Sandifur, the former chief executive officer of bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., will pay $150,000 to refund investors and settle allegations that he improperly paid himself dividends as the company failed.
7/27/2008 | About $45 million is set to be distributed to investors of Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Inc. at the end of next week.
6/20/2008 | A long-awaited cash distribution to investors of bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities will be mailed in late July. 6/6/2008 | Another chapter of the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. debacle nearly closed Thursday as the state receiver sold the defunct company's largest asset insurance affiliate Western United Life Assurance Co.
5/3/2008 | A $55 million deal to sell a Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. insurance affiliate received court approval Friday.
4/8/2008 | Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has struck a $52 million deal to sell the key insurance affiliate of bankrupted Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc.
3/14/2008 | Saying the state has mismanaged a former insurance affiliate of bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., creditors have asked a judge to force Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler to relinquish control of the valuable asset. 3/2/2008 | The Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. investors' trust has reached a settlement agreement of about $30 million with an accounting firm accused of making mistakes that led to the company's demise.
2/6/2008 | Burned Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. investors will have their day in court against a big auditing firm they accuse of professional negligence.
1/31/2008 | Some legal efforts to win money from deep-pocketed companies that audited Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. are failing, potentially dashing the hopes of thousands of investors who looked to those sources to recover some of their money.
12/6/2007 | WASHINGTON President Bush will announce this afternoon an agreement with major mortgage firms to freeze interest rates for five years for financially troubled homeowners.
10/30/2007 | Disgraced Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. figure C. Paul Sandifur Jr. will pay about $151,000 to settle allegations that he masterminded fraudulent commercial real estate deals that backfired into an accounting scandal. 10/13/2007 | SEATTLE A federal judge sentenced former Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. executive Thomas Turner to prison for two years, saying that Turner shouldn't be held solely accountable for the Spokane company's collapse.
9/15/2007 | Key figures in the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. accounting scandal have reached deals to settle costly lawsuits filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
8/24/2007 | A settlement requiring auditing firm Deloitte & Touche to pay $167.5 million to an Adelphia trust provides some buoyancy to the recovery of money from firms that audited Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities.
6/9/2007 | SEATTLE A federal jury convicted former Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. executive Thomas Turner of three felonies Friday morning. 6/8/2007 | SEATTLE Former Metropolitan Mortgage executive Thomas Turner is either a scapegoat for shoddy and negligent auditing work, or a sophisticated white-collar criminal. 6/7/2007 | SEATTLE Former Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. executive Thomas Turner testified in his criminal trial Wednesday that he was only doing the bidding of his boss. 6/2/2007 | SEATTLE Metropolitan Mortgage's former auditor Jack Behrens once told the SEC that he thought just about everyone in the defunct Spokane company was untrustworthy. 6/1/2007 | SEATTLE Ernst & Young LLP charged Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. a hefty $1 million each year for auditing services.
5/31/2007 | SEATTLE Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.'s financial auditors counseled executives of the Spokane company about special accounting rules designed to prevent fraud. 5/30/2007 | SEATTLE Federal prosecutors called a former executive of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. a liar who masked losses at the financial conglomerate by deceiving auditors. 5/27/2007 | The criminal trial of a leading executive of defunct Spokane financial conglomerate Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. begins Tuesday in Seattle.
2/2/2007 | Two former Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. executives and a Rochester, Wash., businessman accused of fraud have settled lawsuits by the SEC.
10/17/2006 | Lawyers and other professionals unraveling the tangled business dealings of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. have collected $19.4 million in fees and expenses during the past 2 1/2 years, according to company records and court filings.
9/20/2006 | Richard Ziehnert hurried to the trash can and started digging. At last he retrieved an unopened, nondescript envelope from Wells Fargo. 9/12/2006 | At last. After 31 months, 12,500 court filings and a full-scale federal accounting fraud investigation, Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. is mailing checks today to the thousands of people burned by Spokane's worst corporate financial failure.
Document: Read a copy of the disbursement letter: PDF
7/22/2006 | Investors in defunct Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. will receive a small payout within about two months. It's been a 2½-year wait for thousands of people, who could only watch as the Spokane financial conglomerate went bankrupt and became engulfed in a snarl of accounting scandals and lawsuits.
5/26/2006 | Helen Sandifur, the ex-wife of former Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. CEO C. Paul Sandifur Jr., is fighting allegations that $2.1 million paid to her by the company should be returned. 5/18/2006 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. and its insurance affiliate have resolved part of a bitter dispute that should finally allow the bankrupt firm to release money to thousands of creditors this summer. 5/17/2006 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. investors would split about $15 million under a settlement announced this week. The deal, just one small piece in the litigious web of Metropolitan's bankruptcy, civil and criminal matters, involves money salvaged from an insurance policy that the company purchased years ago to cover the costs of lawsuits brought against executives and board members.
3/14/2006 | The net worth of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.'s insurance affiliate has tumbled to $41.7 million as state insurance regulators continue to rework its financial holdings and strategy.
2/14/2006 | Bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. has sued members of its founding family for millions of dollars, alleging that years of stock dividends, a divorce settlement funded at least in part by the corporate treasury, and other special payouts should be refunded. 2/10/2006 | A federal judge confirmed Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.s bankruptcy plan Thursday. The action begins a series of events that should return money to thousands of regional investors. 2/8/2006 | Federal prosecutors and a former Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. executive accused of deceiving auditors are negotiating a possible plea agreement.
12/22/2005 | A federal judge denied on Wednesday an effort by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to escape blame in the failure of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. 12/14/2005 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. creditors can expect a check early next year to help ease a bit of the sting out of Christmas shopping bills. 12/14/2005 | An auditing firm that signed off on Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.'s financial reports years ago was duped by dishonest executives and can't be blamed for the Spokane company's financial disaster, attorneys for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP argued Tuesday in federal court. 12/6/2005 | An insurance affiliate of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. has leveled a $220 million claim against the bankrupt firm, an action that threatens to delay and cut the cash recovery of investors throughout the Northwest. 12/1/2005 | Insurance regulators in Idaho and Arizona struck an agreement to sell two insurance affiliates of bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., a deal that may return up to $20 million to some creditors awaiting payouts in the wake of Spokane's largest business failure. 11/27/2005 | An accounting firm caught up in the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. bankruptcy has asked a federal judge to dismiss claims that could cost it tens of millions of dollars. 11/1/2005 | The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against former Metropolitan Mortgage executives includes allegations against a whistleblower who's now running a real estate development business in Spokane.
10/25/2005 | A proposed legal settlement involving former board members of a Metropolitan Mortgage affiliate would free millions of dollars to be returned to investors and release the directors from lawsuits and allegations that they took part in a massive financial fraud. 10/2/2005 | EL CENTRO, Calif. Less than a dozen miles from the Mexican border, C. Paul Sandifur Jr. is leading a new life. It's here in a desert town in southernmost California, where temperatures often top 100 degrees in October, that he bought a home and took a new job.
9/30/2005 |  SEATTLE Thomas Turner, formerly the No. 2 executive at the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities group, pleaded not guilty Thursday to seven felony counts of misleading auditors. 9/27/2005 | Top executives of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. were accused of fraud Monday, the first federal charges since the company went bankrupt. 9/24/2005 | The Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. bankruptcy could be wrapped up by Jan. 4, nearly two years after the Spokane company filed for protection from creditors. 9/23/2005 | Current directors of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. have sued their former accounting firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLC, alleging that negligent audits performed in 1999 and 2000 failed to warn them that the Spokane company was headed for a financial train wreck. 9/2/2005 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities' large insurance affiliate is worth half what it was a year ago when state regulators seized control, a worrisome development as creditors await word on the sale of Western United Life Assurance Co.
8/30/2005 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. sold its idyllic Hawaiian properties and netted $16. 7 million, a bit of bright news for creditors of the bankrupt company. 8/9/2005 | A pair of Portland brokers have been targeted by a federal grand jury and ordered to cooperate in a separate U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fraud investigation into Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.'s failure 18 months ago.
7/29/2005 | Festering problems between bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities and its valuable insurance affiliate threaten to cut the amount creditors could get back. "We have a bunch of investors over the age of 70
and all of us should exist only to find as much money for these folks as possible," said Ford Elsaesser, an attorney for another Metropolitan affiliate. 7/15/2005 | A decision on a the fate of three insurance affiliates of bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. might be weeks away, according to the Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner.
6/1/2005 | Bids to buy the three insurance affiliates of bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. will be kept confidential until a purchaser is announced. The companies, including Spokane-based Western United Life Assurance Co.
4/29/2005 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. may sue former chairman and CEO C. Paul Sandifur Jr. and his ex-wife, Helen Sandifur, for millions of dollars, alleging that they profited even as the company began to fail. 4/17/2005 | Sun, surf, sand and serenity. These are qualities that could help creditors in the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities bankruptcy get more money back from their failed investments. 4/5/2005 | The thousands of creditors holding notes from failed Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities should receive a small recovery beginning this fall, according to a reorganization plan filed in U.
3/26/2005 | Insurance commissioners from Washington and Idaho have ordered the combined sale of three insurance companies owned by bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. Money from the sale should boost the financial recovery of Metropolitan creditors, estimated now at around 15 cents on the dollar, and marks significant progress in the bankruptcy case. 3/20/2005 | Gerry Hanson stands to lose more than $1 million in the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities fiasco, and he wants some answers. Hanson, who lives in Sparks, Nev., was recovering from prostate cancer when the company he entrusted much of his money with began to stumble. 3/12/2005 | A Bankruptcy Court judge has given Metropolitan Mortgage an April 1 deadline to file a reorganization plan a document that's likely to say investors will recover about 15 cents on the dollar.
2/17/2005 | A judge's ruling Wednesday scuttled efforts by Metropolitan Mortgage to collect potentially damaging documents pointing to alleged malfeasance by its former auditor. The ruling is a small victory for that auditor, Ernst & Young LLP, which is fighting claims that it was negligent in an accounting fraud that ultimately sent Metropolitan into bankruptcy. 2/17/2005 | James Colson lost everything to Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. Inc. Although the Spokane company and Old Standard Life Insurance Co., a Metropolitan subsidiary, were only indirectly involved in the swindle that cost him his home, they should have known what kind of deal was going down. 2/6/2005 | Workers have stripped the big green letters that once glowed "Metropolitan Financial Center" from the downtown Spokane highrise. At 17 floors, the white building beamed strength and prosperity.
1/5/2005 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities plans to sell its stake in GenPrime Inc. for $451,780 in cash to help settle its bankruptcy case. The sale is essentially a stock buyback for GenPrime, which will pay Metropolitan a fraction of the stock's original purchase price.
12/18/2004 | One of downtown Spokane's tallest buildings will soon bear the name of a company that's growing in the region, rather than one that recently went bankrupt. 11/20/2004 | The federal bankruptcy court will auction off the 77-acre Summit property Wednesday in a transaction that could draw millions more for the Spokane River land than previously expected, benefiting creditors of Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. 11/3/2004 | Spokane developer Jim Frank went to court this week in an attempt to acquire the 77-acre Summit property overlooking the Spokane River, a move protested by the bankrupt landowner, Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities.
10/29/2004 | Fifteen brokers who sold Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. stocks and bonds have been accused of violating the Securities Act of Washington. The charges brought by the state Department of Financial Institutions are not criminal. 10/28/2004 | Longtime Spokane political strategist Erik Skaggs has taken a $55,000-a-year job as Spokane County's new director of economic development. Until last year, he also was a key figure at Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities, Inc. 10/26/2004 | A court-ordered report suggests that bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities' entire family of so-called independent companies be merged. If adopted by the court, such a consolidation would drop claims the companies have against each other and treat investors in Metropolitan and its sister company Summit Securities Inc. 10/23/2004 | Davenport Hotel owner Walt Worthy has abandoned the idea of turning the 17-story Metropolitan Financial Center into a hotel. Worthy said he's looking instead at building a five-to-10 story hotel with parking on the vacant lot at First and Post, which is a block to the west. 10/15/2004 | Washington's insurance commissioner has sued Ernst & Young LLP, accusing the auditing firm of failing to uncover, divulge and stop accounting abuses at bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. 10/9/2004 | A Kirkland, Wash. , investment and development firm has submitted the winning bid for Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. 's 77-acre Summit property on the Spokane River just north of downtown. 10/2/2004 | The proposed sale of the Metropolitan Performing Arts Theater in downtown Spokane concludes next week with a deadline that will decide if more than one bidder is interested in the historic building.
9/26/2004 | ODESSA, Wash. When Metropolitan Mortgage collapsed this year, Odessa was hard hit. Of the 940 people in this tidy farm town west of Spokane, about 70 stand to lose most of the money they invested in the company. So do community groups, churches and businesses. The total losses in Odessa could reach more than $4 million. 9/15/2004 | The legal costs of defending former Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. executives and board members are adding up. Law firms representing the bankrupt company's former officials want to draw fees from a $17 million pool of insurance money.
8/29/2004 | Thousands of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities creditors may receive a small check next year as the failed financial firm is pulled apart and sold off piece by piece. 8/27/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. said Thursday it has signed an agreement to sell the historic Metropolitan Performing Arts Theater to Spokane residents Mitch and Cindy Silver. 8/24/2004 | A court-appointed examiner investigating Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities will now focus on business dealings between the company and its many affiliates. Federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Patricia Williams said Monday that inter-company transactions should be studied to ensure fairness to different creditor groups. 8/21/2004 | Creditors in the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. bankruptcy case want to hire a law firm by next month to sue the big accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP, the creditors' lawyer said in a hearing Friday. 8/20/2004 | Investors in bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. could recover as little as 15 cents on the dollar, a devastating loss of wealth for the thousands of people who entrusted their savings to a company that's now plagued by accounting scandals and federal investigations. 8/17/2004 | If court documents filed Saturday are approved, Davenport Hotel owner Walt Worthy soon will be the proud owner of the 17-story Metropolitan Financial Center. "Bankruptcy Court still has to approve it, and we're hopeful it'll be done this week," Worthy said. 8/14/2004 | Costs in the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. Inc. bankruptcy are piling up, even as creditors worry about recovering at least some of their investments.
7/21/2004 | The man who some describe as the internal whistle-blower at Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. has resigned to accept a job closer to home in California. 7/15/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. will abandon a multimillion-dollar mall project in the Tri-Cities. The bankrupt Spokane firm owes more money on the factory outlet mall than what appraisers say the entire project is worth. 7/9/2004 | Spokane Mayor Jim West said Thursday that the city is no longer interested in buying the Metropolitan Financial Center. Facing a budget crunch and skeptical voters, the city is just not ready to embark on such a bold proposal as buying the 17-story white high-rise in downtown Spokane and moving City Hall there, he said. 7/8/2004 | A court-appointed examiner wants to continue investigating Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. 's collapse. Specifically, examiner Samuel Maizel wants to scrutinize the work of Ernst & Young LLP, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP deep-pocketed accounting firms that for years signed off on questionable bookkeeping at Metropolitan.
6/13/2004 | If you want to believe that the demise of Metropolitan Mortage & Securities was the sad consequence of well-meaning people making honest mistakes, don't read the special examiner's report. 6/10/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. is selling all of its properties to repay investors as executives wind down the company's 50-year business run in Spokane. 6/9/2004 | Investors burned by unscrupulous sales practices and fraudulent financial reports at Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. may find payback by reaching into the deep pockets of prestigious accounting firms and wealthy former executives, according to a court-ordered investigation.
5/11/2004 | Deborah Bortner, the state's securities chief and a tenacious critic of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc., has been demoted as part of a political shake-up. 5/1/2004 | A federal grand jury is investigating Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc., an indication that the bankruptcy case could include criminal elements.
An attorney representing the company suggested the issues were akin to those at Enron, Adelphia and WorldCom - scandalous cases where executives have been accused of looting the companies under the noses of independent auditors.
4/24/2004 | A court-appointed examiner who's been charged with delving into Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc.'s financial dealings has asked the court to pay him $900,000 for that work, which is expected to take 45 days. 4/18/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. made an offshore investment six years ago that the Internal Revenue Service determined was designed to deprive the U.S. government of millions of tax dollars.
3/26/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. wants to freeze all lawsuits against former executives and board members, claiming that the money spent on defense lawyers could run into the millions of dollars. 3/18/2004 | Amid financial turmoil and allegations of corporate malfeasance, Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. is seeking bankruptcy court permission to hire a crisis manager for $80,000 a month. 3/16/2004 | Monday's meeting of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. creditors was reduced to one pressing question: ``Will we get our money back?'' 3/14/2004 | Burned investors may have been shocked by the quick collapse of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc., but regulators have known for years that the company was on shaky financial ground. 3/10/2004 | The success of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc.s bankruptcy reorganization hinges on Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler. 3/4/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. may abandon its bankruptcy plan that envisioned creditors taking ownership of a newly reorganized company. 3/3/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Corp. has lost a $29 million tax fight with the Internal Revenue Service, dragging its large insurance affiliate into receivership.
2/24/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. will try to chart a course through bankruptcy reorganization without a board of directors. 2/17/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. executives seek continued salaries and payments as the company wrestles with bankruptcy. 2/10/2004 | An independent investigator should look into allegations that Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. executives committed fraud, according to the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. 2/8/2004 | With tears and resignation, C. Paul Sandifur Jr. is losing his family's legacy. 2/7/2004 | Beset by investigations, an auditing fiasco and unpaid, upset investors, Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Inc. is betting on bankruptcy as its best chance at survival.
1/31/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. is filing for bankruptcy next week, seeking relief from mounting debts and angry investors.
The company will attempt to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy law, according to a press release issued Friday. 1/30/2004 | State officials are investigating dozens of former Metropolitan Mortgage brokers who allegedly used unscrupulous sales practices to sell risky stocks and bonds. 1/28/2004 | C. Paul Sandifur Jr., whose father founded Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. half a century ago, resigned Tuesday as chairman and chief executive of the venerable but troubled Spokane company. 1/28/2004 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. announced Tuesday that it has asked to be delisted from the Pacific Exchange, a move that may put the company under the regulatory regime of the Washington state Securities Division. 1/23/2004 | An accounting fiasco is unfolding at Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. as independent auditor Ernst & Young LLP quit after concluding the financial books couldn't be trusted. 1/21/2004 | Investors accused Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. of fraud and filed two lawsuits Tuesday to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars from the troubled Spokane firm. 1/11/2004 | Investors stung by Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.'s decision to suspend bond and stock payments are turning to lawyers for relief.
12/30/2003 | The financial challenges facing Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. Inc. deepened Monday as payments on more company securities were suspended, state officials took control of insurance subsidiaries, and the American Stock Exchange began the process of delisting its stock. 12/16/2003 | Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. shut down its brokerage firm Monday after punishing fines and restrictions rendered it a liability.
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