Till Death Do Us Part

From the Chicago Tribune: This house was a steal.

The new buyers of a rundown graystone on the South Side showed up Jan. 9 to look at the house they won at a foreclosure auction. They took the plywood off the front door and went inside to make sure the utilities had been shut off. Then they called the police.

Sitting upright in the corner of a bedroom off the kitchen was a human skeleton in a red tracksuit. Next to him lay a dead dog. Neighbors told police the corpse was almost certainly Randy Johnson, a middle-age man who lived alone in the North Kenwood house.

The cause of Johnson's death has not yet been determined, but it is just one of the mysteries about 4578 S. Oakenwald Ave. Somehow, Johnson's house was transferred three times to new owners without anyone noticing he was inside. It's a story involving forged deeds, a corrupt title company and a South Side family that has been under investigation for mortgage fraud.

Left holding the bag is Countrywide Home Loans, the nation's largest mortgage lender and a company whose practices are being scrutinized by the Illinois attorney general's office. Countrywide made mortgages of $450,000 on the property. Now it is likely to lose it all because it financed the sale of a home whose rightful owner was in no condition to sell.

Meanwhile the New York Post writes: LET 'EM EAT KOBE STEAK. (yeah! All their front-page articles are all-caps.)

While foreclosed homeowners across America pack cartons of belongings this weekend, a band of junk-mortgage bankers is checking into a lavish Aspen, Colo., lodge to celebrate and dine on $105 steaks - with junk king Countrywide picking up the tab.

The handpicked guests, who'll stay in rooms starting at $750 a night, begin their long weekend with a party at Wolfgang Puck's famed new Spago restaurant at the lodge, where Kobe steak is $105, and Kabocha pumpkin flan is $54.

Death and Taxes? Maybe we should add Fraud to that list!