I had the unfortunate experience of working for "Walsh Street Financial" and Mark Walsh, Kevin Medeiros and Brad Forbes. Not only did the office and (what turned out to be a scam) job seem a little odd, but the way the employees were treated made things worse. Checks being late, taxes not being turned in to the government, etc. On top of that, employees were told to coerce customers—often times senior citizens and people ALREADY trapped in upside-down mortgages—into "loan modifications" and other products. Being a former banker, the process seemed odd to me, and Mark was always unable to give a reason for his practices nor do much more than convince desperate, lost people into giving him 4 points' (sometimes more) worth of fees for him to "negotiate" with banks. More than not, he was well aware the houses were already in foreclosure and unrecoverable—yet he would go out of his way to get the pertinent and highly sensitive information from each client and then charge them for a lost cause.
The team also had a penchance for taking said ill-gotten gains and heading to the racetrack, often when they were supposed to be at the office and working with a client. Several times, a client I had obtained for Mark (unbeknownst to me that they were in as dire a situation as they were, as Mark was quite good at keeping my department from their files per client—for that would have made it perfectly clear what was really happening) had a verified phone conference meeting with Mark, and that specific day and time he was nowhere to be found and did not answer his cell when I called on the client's behalf.
I finally realized what was truly going on when I gave him a "package" for a former client of Countrywide who was about to lose their home to foreclosure. I had sat up for several days explaining their mortgages to them (they did not understand the loan agreements, and their loan officer at the time had scammed them into 2 mortgages at the beginning and not informed them of the details of the adjustable mortgage) and then went to Mark thinking that he actually could possibly help them. After two weeks of him selling little more than sleazy charm to them—and trying to weasel several thousand dollars to "talk to the banks" and then charge them 4 points after that if the modification went through—the house was indeed lost to the bank and Mark reprimanded ME for not being able to convince them to cough up the money immediately.
This is one of many; several clients called in tears after they gave the company money to save their homes, and Mark was either unavailable or had some excuse as to (a) why he couldn't get the banks to agree to the modification, and (b) why he refused to return their money.in reality, in several of those cases, he had never contacted even one bank in regards to their situation.
I am sad to discover that Mark now has 4 outstanding warrants in San Diego County, and 5 pending civil lawsuits—including one by National Home Loan Assistance Inc. His warrants are listed on the San Diego County Sheriff's Department webpage, and the lawsuits on the Superior Court of California webpage, San Diego County. Look under "2009". I hear he has fled the state of CA; that information I have not been able to verify at this point in time.
After leaving the company, I moved away from San Diego and lost track of Mark (gladly, I may add); however, I kept tabs on the company due to my efforts attempting to keep others from being hurt by Mark and his team's unethical practices. I can only hope, for the sake of those they financially damaged/ruined, that someone finally catches up with him.
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