BARBARA NEVINS TAYLOR

NEW YORK PRESS CLUB AWARD

It is a difficult time to be a reporter in New York. Many of our colleagues are losing their jobs. News organizations are shrinking, and in some cases news gathering is being cut to the bone. Many of us believe that it is important to have a vibrant, free, press where trained journalists investigate serious issues. That's why on Monday, June 15th, it was particularly rewarding to win the New York Press Club award for Consumer Reporting for our Medicaid Fraud Story. It was a good feeling to be among New York journalists who are proud and enthusiastic about the work that we do.

EMMY AWARDS 2009

My colleagues and I were also honored in March for Investigative Reporting for our story about a New York family that is making millions of dollars a year by abusing the Medicaid system.

We also won an Emmy for Crime Reporting for our story about a fatal traffic accident that took the life of a child and seriously injured his father. We discovered that the driver had a record of serious violations but the state had allowed him to keep his license.

Just in case you haven't seen me on TV, let me introduce myself.

I'm an investigative reporter for the two Fox Television Stations in New York and New Jersey. My work can be seen on WWOR-TV, MY 9 News, and WNYW, FOX5.

Our industry is changing dramatically. Many people have lost jobs, and those of us who remain are doing more work than ever before. And the bad news is we probably aren't reinventing TV journalism fast enough.

It's too bad because our work can be important on any number of levels. As an investigative reporter, I've been able to investigate issues that law enforcement and public officials have ignored either because they don't have the resources to investigate, or the particular issue hadn't come to their attention.


IMPORTANT CONVICTIONS RESULT FROM OUR WORK

FAKE DOCTOR

Patricia Villegas was sentenced to 5 years in prison on December 1st. We first exposed her in 2006 when we went undercover and she brazenly tried to perform a cosmetic laser procedure on my face that only a doctor, or someone supervised by a doctor should perform. There was not a doctor in sight at the time of our undercover investigation.

We began the inquiry because two young women, Jackie Bonnen, and Zaima Garcia told us that she had injected, non-FDA approved silicone into their faces. Both of the pretty young women were disfigured by the silicone which formed lumps and bumps under the skin.

Our investigation and report lead to her arrest.

REAL ESTATE SCAM

On October 1, 2008 a man named Maurice McDowall finally got what he deserves. A federal judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison in connection with a $30 million dollar mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded homeowners and banks. We exposed McDowall in 2006, almost a year before the F.B.I went after him. McDowall’s scheme was cunning and it made him rich. Federal prosecutors say he has at least $2.5 million in assets, and they are looking for more. His scam left homeowners broke, and fighting to keep their homes.

Susan Blaize-Sampeur’s case is typical. Her family was having financial difficulty and they were behind on mortgage payments. Someone she knew recommended she see McDowall. He promised to help her refinance and pay off her old mortgage. But he said her credit wasn’t good enough to get a new mortgage. So he brought in two people, straw-buyers, whose credit was good. The catch was that she had to sign over the house to them, he said, “for six months.” She had no idea what was happening. McDowall took the money from the refinancing paid off the old mortgage, and never made a payment on the new mortgage. The straw-buyers, who were paid for the loan of their names and good credit scores, discovered that their credit was ruined because they were responsible for the unpaid mortgage. And Susan and her family found that their house was in foreclosure, and they had no rights because their name was no longer on the deed. Three years later Susan is still fighting to keep the house, but the cards are stacked against her. Judges have told her that she has no standing because she is not on the deed.

Now here’s the paradox. Susan and her husband could make mortgage payments if the mortgage were renegotiated. But her mortgage like many others was sold off into securities, and now the servicing company that collects the mortgage for the investors has no incentive to renegotiate the loan, even if Suzanne had legal standing. Despite federal and local officials call for renegotiations of these loans, the servicing companies are resisting. One of the reasons may be that they get extra fees when a house goes into foreclosure.

Advocates are asking congress to write new laws that would allow bankruptcy judges to preside over these renegotiations. But that leaves out people who might not declare bankruptcy, but who need to renegotiate.

BEWARE RENEGOTIATING SCHEMES

For every McDowall there are thousands of others who’ve pulled one scam or another and haven’t been caught. There aren’t enough investigators and prosecutors to go after them.

Some homeowners were victims of refinancing schemes that didn’t require them to sign their homes over to another person. George Davis, a man we recently reported about, is typical. He paid off his 30-year mortgage, and needed to make repairs on his home in Southeast, Queens were foreclosures at rampant. When a mortgage broker called offering to help him refinance, he jumped at the opportunity. He was fooled. He didn’t know that he was getting an adjustable rate mortgage that he couldn’t afford. Now his $1,000 a month payment will jump to $2,000. He is not yet behind on his payments, but he is a porter in a hotel and he can’t pay $2,000 a month.

Mr. Davis almost made another mistake. Sales people, former mortgage salesmen, approached him and offered to help renegotiate his mortgage for a fee. But that is a free service that is offered by not-for-profit groups sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. We were on Mr. Davis’s block when the sales people came calling, and decided to report it as a story.

We see this kind of thing frequently. A new idea is floated, and people immediately jump in. They are quick to take advantage of those who may be naïve, or who are simply uninformed.

That’s where we hope our reports have some value. If we can provide information about these scammers, and encourage law enforcement to take a hard look at them, it’s a good day.















We’ll take you into a hellish apartment building, and you’ll see New York City’s homeless services commissioner run away from the camera.

The banking bailout aimed at avoiding another "Great-Depression" is being compared to that era's banking reforms.

With our economy in trouble there is a call for investment in public works projects that will put people to work, and stimulate the economy. My husband Nick Taylor is an expert on the subject.

In the Spring of 2008 he published "American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the W.P.A.: When FDR Put the Nation to Work. Long title. Great book. It tells the story of the federal government's response to the "Great Depression" when millions of Americans were out of work and people were starving. The government created jobs- all kinds. People worked as laborers building roads and schools, as artists, as librarians, as archeologists, as actors, as publicists. You name it. They did it. And they created projects we can still see today. Nick did a great job weaving together the stories and the politics. If you are a history buff, if you wonder why government doesn't do more to fix things now this is the book for you.

SAILING IN THE B.V.I. 2007-2008

Recently my husband Nick Taylor and I took a ten day sailing trip alone aboard a 40 foot Beneteau in the British Virgin Islands. We began when the moon was almost full and we vowed to proceed with caution. We’ve learned from scary experience it’s best to be humble when you are in the water with boats. During this trip there was plenty to be concerned about. Small craft advisories were a regular feature of the daily weather report, and as the forecasters predicted, we experienced high seas, howling Christmas winds, at least one blinding rainstorm, a series of beautiful rainbows, and pastel sunsets. We were plagued with a weird toilet flushing system, a cranky dinghy motor that beached us on a night when Nick was dressed up in a white linen suit, and orange espadrilles. And of course we had our share of anchor and mooring escapades. Through it all we had a terrific time. We hope you enjoy our story, which is on my blog page. And if you are sailor looking for a place to go, we hope this offers useful insight.

BEAUTIFUL SKIN OF COLOR

I'm the author of "Beautiful Skin of Color," with two talent dermatologists: Dr. Jeanine Downie, and Dr. Fran Cook-Bolden. If you are Asian, African American, Caribbean American, Native American, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean from the Indian Sub-Continent, or from the Pacific, this book has important, useful information for you about your skin and hair.

You can find it online at Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. It's available in both paperback and hardcover, and we hope that you enjoy it.

You can purchase Beautiful Skin of Color on-line or at your local bookstore.

THE WORK I DO

I'm an investigative reporter for My 9 News, WWORTV, a Fox Television Station in New York City. Right now I'm looking for a good story. If you've got information about wrongdoing, corruption, or a crime that we can help solve, please get in touch with me at barbara.nevinstaylor@foxtv.com. I will respond.

If you continue to read down this page, you'll see our stories have had spectacular results. Six people who were exposed in six separate investigative reports either went to prison, or have been indicted and charged with crimes because of our investigations.

ECONOMIC CRIME

Most of the stories that I investigate involve economic crimes. These are robberies that occur without guns, but they are often as divesting as a gunshot and their effects ripple throughout our communities. Mortgage fraud is one of the most persistent crimes we run across. Every day I get a call from a distraught viewer who is about to lose their home because they thought they were refinancing to save their home from foreclosure or to get some extra cash. Instead they end up at the wrong end of the deal with the crooks taking all the money from the mortgage loan, and the bank ready to take back their houses. Wall Street's reaction to the mortgage market's collapse is incredible to me. Smart people had to know this bubble was going to burst sooner or later. Small mortgage banks whose names you don't know were in cahoots with mortgage brokers and appraisers. The appraisers inflated house prices, the mortgage brokers arranged for high interest loans for people with shaky credit histories, and the banks made the loans. Then big banks with names you know bought these loans. When the original mortgages went bad the big name banks were left holding the bag. Didn’t they bother to investigate the credit worthiness of the mortgages they were buying? So how surprising it that there was a collapse? Here's a typical example.

MORTGAGE FRAUD

Jeffrey Shepherd bought his house in 1999. He took an adjustable rate mortgage out in about 2004 to finance renovations. When his interest payments ballooned, he couldn't pay the mortgage. A man he knew introduced him to a mortgage broker called Ozelle Neely. It was suggested that Jeffrey get someone else to take the mortgage out in their name because his credit was bad. A waitress in a diner he frequented volunteered to do it for a fee. She earned $20,000 a year, but somehow she managed to get a mortgage. The lawyer representing Jeffrey was brought on board by mortgage banker Ozelle Neely. After the closing, the house was in the woman's name. Jeffrey got some money, but most of it appears to have gone to companies connected to the mortgage broker and his cronies. The young waitress and Jeffrey thought that the broker was paying the mortgage. He wasn't. The house went into foreclosure, and Jeffrey realized he was losing it. The young woman put it on the market to sell because her credit was being ruined and she had no way to pay the mortgage. We conducted an undercover investigation where Neely admitted he owed Jeffrey money. Because of our report the Queens District Attorney is investigating and we're hoping that Jeffrey will get his house back.

LIVING IN HELL

The link near the top of the page takes you to this story.

Recently I investigated a landlord who allows deplorable conditions to exist in a building with about 100 apartments. But my investigation uncovered much more. It turned out a city agency was subsidizing this landlord by placing homeless families in his apartments. The rents were paid with taxpayer dollars totaling more than $200,000 a year.

Can you imagine living in an apartment with little children and your toilet is broken for months and sewerage is backing up, where your kitchen window falls out and isn't replaced, where your shower never turns off and water gushes like a giant fountain so that your bathroom floor is almost collapsing, where ceilings are collapsed and black mold covers what is left of the walls. Real people are living in these apartments in the Bronx not far from Yankee Stadium. Rents are close to $1,000 a month in some apartments.

The city's Housing Preservation and Development agency repeatedly cited the landlord Hamid Khan and finally took him to court, and still can't get him to make repairs. Last year the city's Department of Homeless Services placed at least 20 families in apartments and taxpayers are paying the rent. Our investigation got Mayor Bloomberg's attention, and the Department of Homeless Services has been offering to move families back to shelters. So far a few of them have agreed to move, but others are hesitating. It's a tough problem for them. They want decent apartments, but they are reluctant to start over again in a shelter where they are supervised and under a great deal of scrutiny. In some cases family members have jobs, and a salary that could pay the rent if it were affordable. The subsidy they get through the city program helps, but their plight highlights the need for more affordable housing in New York City.

DEVELOPER GONE WILD

In New York City some developers are tricking the city, violating zoning and building codes and getting away with it for a while. When the problems are caught, it is often the people who have bought the houses, or apartments from the developers who are stuck.

We reported about a developer, Mendel Brach, in Bedford Stuyvesant who tricked the city and built a building twice as tall as the law allows. He then sold apartments to unsuspecting homeowners for $300,000 to $500,000. After the homeowners moved in the city Buildings Department discovered the fraud and told the homeowners that they are living in illegal apartments. They can't get a Certificate of Occupancy. They can't sell. They can't refinance, and they have to move out so that violations can be corrected. Yet it was the Buildings Department that signed off on every aspect of this development. Brach, the developer told me he did nothing wrong.

GUN CRIME

Why don't seem people get it?

Guns are fine for hunting and shooting targets. In the city people are targets and guns are a nightmare.

People get killed and seriously hurt and lives are ruined. This is not sport. When there is a shooting, the victims’ family, the shooter, the shooter’s family and everyone connected with the crime loses. So what is it about this simple logic that fails to add up?

We’re told that college students in states like Ohio are acting as straw purchasers for friends in New York. If you know anyone who is doing this, let me know.

Five EMMY Nominations

I'm thrilled to have been nominated for 5 EMMYs involving our investigative reporting. The stories include the "No Way to Live" report that's featured in the link near the top. It's a story about tenants living in hellish conditions. The story got a lot of attention from city officials and the landlord Hamid Khan was sentenced to jail time for failing to make repairs. On February 21st we were there as he surrendered to the Bronx Sheriff and was taken in handcuffs to the city jail for 9 days. It was extremely rewarding. Two other nominated stories also got action from law enforcement officials. In "What Price Beauty" we reported about a woman who allegedly injected women with silicone illegally. She was arrested and subsequently indicted. She is awaiting trial. In another story, "Contractor Con-Man," we tracked down a contracting salesman who in a previous career had embezzled pension money from retired teachers. He was caught and went to prison. When we found him he had a new line of work, and was stealing money from the home improvement company he worked for and the clients he signed up. He was arrested, pleaded guilty and is currently free on bail paying back more than $150,000. I'm proud of these stories and I hope they win, but they are up against each other and good work by other talented reporters. You never know. Our news team was also nominated for "Best Breaking News," for our coverage of the day Yankee pitcher Cory Lidell's plane crashed into a Manhattan building.
It was great to be nominated. But we didn't win a thing this year. So we'll try again next year.