A Wall Street Whistleblower is raising the red flag on commercial real estate fraud. Are we headed for another financial calamity?
If you remember the last great financial crisis, it was dodgy mortgages loaned against wildly inflated property values that sent the economy into a tailspin.
Fast forward 11 years later and it just might be deja-vu all over again. The only difference is this time, it might be the inflated profits of commercial properties like hotels and office buildings that could implode. A whistleblower exposed the fraud this year.
The gist of the scheme alleges that thousands and thousands of commercial properties have been refinanced in bulk using phony profits to justify huge loans. This year the commercial market will likely take a hit from all of the shuttered businesses as well as those companies that are downsizing their physical locations in favor of remote work.