Aeon Financial: Giving Vulture Capitalists a Bad Name

Vulture Capitalism seems to be a general term referring to predatory corporate behavior:  foreclosure mills evicting as many homeowners as they can, as fast as they can; Mitt Romney's Bain Capital purchasing a company, laying off most of the workers and then selling the company for a huge profit, etc.

Several years ago when I first learned the term Vulture Capitalism, it referred to the practice of buying debts that had been incurred by bankrupt third world governments.  A bank would purchase these debts for pennies on the dollar and then try to extort the full amount of the debt from the impoverished country.

And now there's a much more up-close-and-personal version of Vulture Capitalism.  Aeon Financial has bought up more than 1,300 tax liens in the Washington DC area. After purchasing a tax lien, Aeon demands that the homeowner pay the back taxes he/she owes, PLUS Aeon's legal fees and court costs, which is often three times as high as the taxes owed.

Like most sleazebucket organizations, Aeon Financial is trying to hide the identity of its employees and even its location.  Aeon was incorporated in Delaware but claims it's located in Chicago's Willis Tower.  Only, officials at Willis Tower have said Aeon is not a tenant.

Find Waldo.

The Washington Post has tracked the ownership of Aeon to Mark Alan Schwartz, a lawyer who claims he's only “representing” Aeon.  Three other slippery “now-you-see-me-now-you-don't” companies affiliated with Aeon Financial are:  Axis Investment Holdings Trust, Axis Capital and Records Direct.

WTF are these slippery eels trying to hide?

Every time you think Vulture Capitalists can't possibly sink any lower, they do.

Romney’s Vulture Capitalism Being Dragged Into the Spotlight

Ever turn on a kitchen light and see cockroaches scurrying frantically back into the walls?  Right now Mitt Romney and his fellow vulture capitalists are trying desperately to scurry back into the shadows.  They prefer to do their “work” away from the public eye.

They can run but they can’t hide.  Gingrich’s and Perry’s attacks on Romney’s career as a corporate raider — and other rightwingers’ attacks on Perry and Gingrich for “attacking capitalism” — have brought this entire sordid subject into the limelight.  They’ve changed the conversation.

Corporate raiders, private equity firms — and whether these companies help the economy or only enrich a few at the expense of the many — this subject is being debated and argued furiously throughout the country.  Several months ago you could have put an entire room to sleep if you said “Bain Capital” or “private equity firm.”

This new public scrutiny is the last thing Wall Street wants.  They liked it better when the entire subject was too complicated for the public to understand, and too boring for anyone to even care if they understood it or not.  Those days are over.  The rock has been lifted and the public is getting a close look at those squiggly creepy-crawly creatures squirming in the sunlight.

Newt Gingrich referred to the documentary which exposed Mitt Romney’s “job” record:

“Now, this rattled a number of so-called conservatives, who say that to challenge where the money went and to challenge what deals were cut is to be anti-free enterprise.  I'm not going to back down or be afraid to say we, the American people, have the right to know, and any candidate for president has an obligation to tell us, and I think that these extraordinarily wealthy institutions are going to somehow bring enough pressure to bear to say, 'You better shut up,' tells you just how bad-off the system has gotten.”

Whatever anyone thinks of Gingrich, and whatever his true motives are, that statement was spot on.

While Gingrich and Perry are pretending to be populists so they can derail Romney’s campaign, Romney is being defended by a Who’s Who of the Far Right:  Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Karl Rove, Jim DeMint, and Rudy Giuliani.  Guiliani in particular has made some huge investments in vulture capital firms.

These ongoing arguments and mutual attacks can only be a good thing.  The louder the arguments get, the more front-and-center this whole issue will become and the better informed the voters will be.