Among Marc Dann's top priorities are holding accountable a range of people associated with the mortgage industry. He has already won an injunction against one lender:New Century Financial Corporation cannot foreclose on any homes in Ohio without approval from the AG's office. But, he says, his office won't stop there.
Marc Dann: What the goal is, at the end of the day to hold everybody up and down the line, all the way to Wall Street and back, to hold them accountable so that this type of scam doesn't happen again.
To do that, Dann says, his office is working with criminal task forces to prosecute lenders and others who defrauded homeowners. In the civil courts, his office is pursuing two approaches: the first involves representing Ohio's state pension plans that had significant investments in risky mortgage-backed bonds. The second prong involves representing foreclosed homeowners.
Marc Dann: There's no guarantee that we're going to win, but I'm gong to go down swinging if I have to. These people knew -- if they just read the Wall Street Journal -- that people in Slavic Village, that neighborhood after neighborhood was being destroyed. I'm talking about bringing a civil case to make them pay money into the neighborhoods that they destroyed.
Dann also explained his office's ongoing investigation at Cleveland's Myers University, where recent donations totalling two million dollars from individuals associated with a for-profit university allowed the University to remain open when it faced bankruptcy. At issue is whether that $2 million donation constituted a sale of Myers to the University of Northern Virginia. Dann said his office's investigation there is a part of broader work focusing on charitable trusts:
Marc Dann: We're taking a very different approach, making sure that the boards of trustees of those institutions meet their fiduciary responsibilities to those people who give their charitable dollars. I'm not aware of anything illegal going on. There may have been a civil breach in terms of their fiduciary responsibilities, but we're not even sure of that.
Myers University President Richard Scaldini phoned into the program to explain that Myers has been cooperating with the investigation and ongoing monitoring.
Richard Scaldini: There have been no surprises here and we have acted in the best interests of our stakeholders as fiduciaries here. We await the decision from the attorney general's office.
In a role more activist than law enforcement, Dann also advocated for bills in the legislature that would allow individuals to temporarily freeze their own credit, as a way to prevent identity theft. In 2003 California became the first state to allow consumers to freeze their credit -- meaning no new loans or credit cards could be taken out in an individual's name without that individual's approval. Many other states, including New York and Illinois have followed California's lead. Dann says its his office's top legislative priority.
In the last eight months, Dann has stepped on some toes, particularly in the business community. He says, though that hasn't become a political liability at all.
Marc Dann: I've been kind of pleased. I think that the the good acting businesses, the ethical, honest businesses are welcoming aggressive enforcement because nobody wants cheaters to be rewarded.
Dan Moulthrop, 90.3.