Audio By Carbonatix
The Sun-Sentinel attempted to profile David J. Stern (The Man Behind The Crumbling Foreclosure Empire), and the resulting article is more of a report about trying to profile the man than about the man himself. On the surface, it’s remarkably uninformative, but deep down, it shows that the head honcho of arguably the most publicly hated “foreclosure mill” is little more than a ghost.
According to the Sun-Sentinel non-profile profile:
Stern’s marriage license says he was born in Illinois. But
the Sun Sentinel could not determine where he grew up, went to high
school, or anything else about him before he enrolled at Appalachian
State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal
justice in 1982.Nothing about his past or his unremarkable education at South Texas
College of Law — a fourth-tier school where he entered and graduated as a
Florida resident in 1986 — hinted at his future.
When Bob Norman first wrote about Stern on The Pulp, he noted…
…Stern shuns the spotlight. In fact, the photo at left
[the one at the top of this post] is the only one I could find of the
attorney.
Stern is well-liked by some former employees and accused of sexual
harassment by others. He went to an unremarkable law school, but ran one
of the largest foreclosure law firms. He became rich — very, very rich
— then recently put many of his assets (including his yacht and
Colorado vacation home) on the market. He’s a free man, but the state is
investigating his shuddering firm for fraudulent foreclosure practices.
He’s a scapegoat, whether or not he
deserves to be. Yet, publicly, he is nobody — neither apologetic nor
unapologetic, from nowhere with no distinct past. It’s as though the
Intracostal birthed him and hoisted him onto her most luxurious
waterfront property, gave him the keys to a beautiful office building in
Plantation, and sent him on his merry way.
If a true profile of
Stern ever comes to be, it may read like a mythological tale — perhaps
he’s a monster, or maybe a fallen hero, a victim of unfair
circumstance, or the leader of a corrupt culture. If Stern ever
voluntarily succumbs to a true profile, I would love to read it. In
fact, I would love to write it. Could this man be ‘Misunderstood,’ like
the name of his yacht? Is he a good person who did bad things? Is he a
bad person who did bad things?
Who are you, David J. Stern, if that’s your real name?
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