'If you had a pulse, we gave you a loan'

But his story pales in comparison to that of Delores Parker-Jackson, a 61-year-old widow living in Los Angeles. In an interview, she said she made a good living running a day care service and raising foster children.

She said her income – ranging between $144,000 and $300,000 a year – enabled her to acquire four condominiums in a gated complex in West Los Angeles, one where she lived and three others with family members and rent-paying tenants.

By 2006, she held at least six mortgages on the condominiums from four lenders totaling more than  $1.3 million. In at least three cases, she refinanced existing mortgages for larger amounts and took out more than $200,000 in cash in all.

To cover the full $499,000 purchase price of the duplex where she now lives, she obtained two loans that were funded through a mortgage broker by WMC, a company at the time owned by NBC Universal parent General Electric.  (GE sold WMC in 2007.)  Those loans were serviced by Countrywide. (msnbc.com is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Two mortgages totaling $296,000 were issued by a subprime lender called People’s Choice Home Loan on another of her condominiums across the street. 

But a review of public records raises questions about whether Parker-Jackson was truthful about her income and financial solvency on her loan applications. 

In the late 1990s, she and her husband filed for bankruptcy several times. The cases were all dismissed. In 1997, the family was evicted from a house in Beverly Hills for non-payment of rent.  The landlord eventually obtained a judgment against the couple, which they failed to pay. Her husband, Tyrone Jackson, died in 2003.

By 2007, Parker-Jackson was behind on many of her mortgage payments.  At the same time, the man with the outstanding judgment filed a legal claim to have it enforced.  Parker-Jackson filed for bankruptcy protection yet again.

Video   Delores Parker-Jackson's story Delores Parker-Jackson runs a day care service in Los Angeles. With four condos and six loans, hear her mortgage mess in her own words in this web-exclusive video. Dateline NBC

After the Chapter 11 case was dismissed, Parker-Jackson filed for Chapter 13.  During bankruptcy court proceedings, she said she had suffered substantial losses in 2005 and 2006 because she did not bring in enough rental income to cover her costs. She also acknowledged she did not have any actual leases signed by tenants.

A copy of her 2006 IRS tax form 1040 reports a negative gross adjusted income of -$6,813.

‘I’m a victim’
In an interview, she acknowledged falling behind on her mortgage payments.  She seemed confused about her income and blamed her problems on lenders and an unjust legal system that are trying to expropriate her.  “I don’t think I got in over my head,” she said.  “I’m a victim.”

Lenders and the Los Angeles sheriff’s office have been stayed from taking her properties while bankruptcy proceedings are pending, but Parker-Jackson has just about exhausted her options in bankruptcy court and is facing the prospect of eviction all over again.

Basic due diligence by lenders might have uncovered some of the discrepancies in Delores Parker-Jackson’s case. 

But how much checking did lenders do? At People’s Choice Home Loan, for instance, Parker-Jackson obtained stated income loans.  So, by policy, underwriters would not have bothered to verify that she really made the $15,500 a month she claimed.

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