The Center for Public Integrity

Countrywide Whistleblower Sings

Countrywide Financial was the top originator of sub-prime mortgages during in the years leading up to the 2008 economic meltdown. Now we hear first-hand testimony from Eileen Foster, a Countrywide whistleblower who saw fraud on an outlandish scale. In an exclusive interview with iWatch News, the former internal investigator tells how mortgage brokers used scissors, tape and Wite-Out to create fake bank statements, inflated property appraisals and other phony paperwork. Inside the heaps of paper, for example, she found mock-ups that indicated to investigators that workers had, as a matter of routine, literally cut and pasted the address for one home onto an appraisal for a completely different piece of property. Foster was ultimately fired for reporting the violations but has since won a whistleblower case against the company and $930,000.

Congress Investigates Cozy Relationships with White House

House Republicans have launched a broad investigation into White House ties to campaign donors seeking government contracts, loans and other benefits, and are requesting information on White House contacts with LightSquared, a company whose employees made large contributions to Democrats while gaining access to presidential aides. We broke the LightSquared story as well as the tale of the bankrupt solar company Solyndra. Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is concerned about the government “picking winners and losers.” The Center is frankly more worried about big campaign contributors buying access and favors from the government.

Ellen Weiss has been named executive editor at the Center for Public Integrity, one of four recent  hires of top journalists at one of the country’s oldest and largest nonprofit investigative news organizations.

Weiss will oversee the Center’s domestic investigations and editorial staff. She comes to the Center with deep journalism and management experience as former senior vice president of news at NPR. There Weiss managed 36 bureaus, more than 400 U.S. and international staffers and a $75 million budget. Under Weiss’ leadership, the audience for NPR.org grew from four million unique monthly visitors in 2006 to 12 million in 2010. During that timeframe she also oversaw a 10 percent growth in audience for NPR’s news programs to more than 27 million weekly listeners.

Weiss also created and helped lead the NPR News investigative reporting unit and the Planet Money economic reporting team.

“Ellen Weiss is one of the best and most creative news executives in the business,” said the Center for Public Integrity’s Executive Director William E. Buzenberg. “I know the Center will gain enormously from her knowledge of investigative reporting and digital media.”

Weiss spent 29 years at the public radio network, leading the NPR news division for five years. For 12 years she was executive producer of All Things Considered and served as senior editor of the National Desk where she organized and led domestic news coverage for all NPR programs and NPR.org. Weiss had a major role in leading the network’s coverage of the 9/11 attacks and edited large award-winning investigative reporting projects, including reports on abuses that led to changes in U.S. government detention center policies, and reports on soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder that sparked Senate and Pentagon investigations.

The story of the bankrupt solar company Solyndra just gets more and more interesting. White House budget staffers expressed doubts about giving the company $535 million in loan guarantees, according to emails first obtained by iWatch News and ABC News. The loans were ultimately made anyway. Ronnie Greene is interviewed below in this CNN report.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2011 Daniel Pearl Awards for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting.

This award is unique among journalism prizes in that it was created specifically to honor cross-border investigative reporting. It is presented by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity.

This year’s biennial competition drew 70 entries from 30 countries. Topics ranged from the World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control’s handling of the swine flu and H1N1 flu pandemic to the world of human trafficking and sex slavery in Eastern Europe. The seven finalists represent some of the world’s best investigative reporting and include stories from Afghanistan and Iraq, Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the United States.

“I’m honored to present this outstanding work,” said ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle, the group’s first non-American director. “We are acknowledging journalists whose work often places them in great danger and does more than grab headlines; it generates meaningful impact and exposes the truth.”

William E. Buzenberg, the executive director of the Center for Public Integrity said, “I’m delighted to announce these seven finalists. Their work exemplifies investigative journalism’s capacity to uncover hardships that affect people from all corners of the globe.”

Ronnie Greene, senior reporter for iWatch News, was interviewed on Fox News about the demise of Solyndra, the solar-energy firm that went bust last week. The FBI is now investigating how the firm spent almost half a billion dollars in taxpayer-backed loans. iWatch News broke this story with ABC News in May.

The Obama administration's heavy promotion -- and special treatment -- of the company raised flags from the very beginning. Also troubling, Solyndra was funded, in part, by venture capitalist George Kaiser who is also an Obama campaign bundler.

Some members of Congress assert that Solyndra's top executive misled them less than two months ago when describing the company's financial health. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel announced it will hold hearings this Wednesday on the government’s Solyndra loan.

Christine Montgomery has been named chief digital officer at the Center for Public Integrity, one of the country’s oldest and largest nonprofit investigative news organizations.

Montgomery comes from PBS.org, where she is currently the managing editor in charge of developing niche sites to reach and engage new audiences.

“I’m delighted that Christine is joining the Center,” said Executive Director William E. Buzenberg. “We have launched an ambitious new digital offering with iWatch News and I look forward to making good use of her skills and leadership.”

While at PBS, Montgomery launched PBSArts.org and revamped PBSParents.org, and worked on a new multiplatform news and public affairs initiative. As well, she brokered strategic partnerships for content development, distribution, and training.

Earlier in her career, Montgomery was director of Web publishing for the St. Petersburg Times; a deputy managing editor for USATODAY.com and a feature writer for the Washington Times.

"I'm honored to be working alongside such an accomplished team of journalists, and excited about the opportunity to lead the Center's digital strategy," Montgomery said.  She is currently President of the Online News Association and will begin her work at the Center in early October.

Reporter Sharon Weinberger discusses a decade of no-bid military contracting on DemocracyNow with Amy Goodman. Watch the segment here. Read the series here.