Wamu bankers sang ‘I like big bucks and I cannot lie’ @ Kauai, Hawaii retreat before bank failed

Wamu bankers sang ‘I like big bucks and I cannot lie’ before bank failed

By Raw Story
Thursday, April 15th, 2010 -- 9:01 am

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0415/wamu-bankers-sang-i-big-bucks-lie-bank-failed/



"I like big bucks and I cannot lie," they sang. "You mortgage brothers can't deny.”

We're not making it up. According to documents released as part of a Congressional investigation, bankers from the failed Washington Mutual rewrote the lyrics to 1992's "Baby Got Back" to celebrate their dominance of the mortgage lending market.

An apparent exhibit of misplaced hubris, Washington Mutual would later become the largest failed savings bank in US history, in part due to their exuberance in extending risky loans.

The bankers also staged a mock funeral for the another big subprime mortgage lender -- Countrywide Financial -- which would also need a huge infusion of cash and was picked up by banking behemoth Bank of America in the wake of the 2008 crash.

Bankers sang about "big bucks" at their 2006 Kauai, Hawaii retreat. As if the lyrics themselves weren't enough, the bankers' chorus was apparently accompanied by cheerleaders who moved in time to the music, and wads and wads of flying fake cash.

Politico notes more of the Wamu anthem's words, as detailed in the documents:



It didn't turn out that way.

On Sept. 26, 2008, the Wall Street Journal crowed, "In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co."

....
The committee's findings were bipartisan. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the panel's top Republican, criticized WaMu management for deciding "to dive headfirst into high-risk lending."

"Something is definitely wrong when you need more documentation to rent a movie than to get a million-dollar home loan," he said.

But Coburn also criticized Congress for failing to properly oversee banking regulators who allowed the problems at WaMu and other financial firms. The commission will hear testimony from regulators Friday about their role in WaMu's failure.

jim.puzzanghera at latimes dot com

Times staff writer E. Scott Reckard contributed to this report.