"Second Magnus" Rises From The Ashes Of The First One

It’s hard to say whether this counts as "un-imploded" or not…. [Hat tip MR!]

The demise of First Magnus Financial Corp. last August wasn’t even two months old when its former executives were developing plans to start StoneWater Mortgage Corp.

And now comes word StoneWater will start doing business in the third quarter this year in First Magnus’ former headquarters, 603 N. Wilmot Road.

According to the AZ Star:

The emergence of StoneWater comes less than a year after the sudden collapse of First Magnus, a Tucson-based mortgage lender with national reach. The company laid off 5,500 workers throughout the country and filed for bankruptcy last August.

The cast of characters looks familiar:

A list of directors and officers was filed a month later including: Secretary Matthew Thrasher, former in-house counsel for First Magnus; Treasurer Douglas Lemke, former general counsel; Director Dominick Marchetti, former chief technology officer; Director Gary Malis, former chief financial officer; and Director Amit Gurjal, formerly a vice president at First Magnus.

Not everyone is happy:

Former First Magnus employees expressed bitterness over the sudden closure in part because they didn’t receive final paychecks from the lender before it entered liquidation bankruptcy. During bankruptcy proceedings, First Magnus executives said that they were trying to save the company up until the collapse and didn’t realize they wouldn’t be able to pay employees.

The executives gave $2,000 checks as gifts to more than 560 former workers in Tucson but not to employees in other areas. Last week, several former employees reported receiving some of their back wages, but so far only 5 percent of their claims.

It will be interesting to see if "Second Magnus" fares better than the first one.


Related Posts

  1. Tucson Based First Magnus Files for Bankruptcy (August 21, 2007)
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  2. Former First Magnus Employees Not Receiving Final Wages (September 10, 2007)
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  3. First Magnus Asset Auction Draws Only One Bidder (October 3, 2007)
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  4. The Safety Net That Never Was – Part XI (October 16, 2006)
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  5. Bubble Fraud- Let the Lawsuits Begin! (March 4, 2007)
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6 Comments for this entry

  1. Keith says:

    Igor says ‘Turd Blossom’

    No matter what the flower looks like, it’s still rooted in a pile of manure.

  2. freemonster says:

    Business101…Make payroll
    These people should be hounded, exposed, humilliated. Former employees should excercise their rights to free speech and let everyone know what the face of scum looks like.

  3. Hutch says:

    Ah Hah… potential clients for my new, hoped to be launched soon,internet business; “The Reputation Beauty Boutique”
    Dear Client, Thanks to the “Information Data Age” your reputation can now be remodeled, polished and reinvented in weeks if not hours. Submerging the embarrassing beneath a mountain of meaningless (but non-odorous) garbage and highlighting past successes, we can put you back in the running for those high paying executive positions in short order.

    Igor says pox

  4. miami zeus says:

    It’s amazing how they got away with this crap, while most of us are owed thousands. And all along they bragged about their private jet.

    Also, it is constantly reported that former employees didn’t get their last paycheck. In the case of the AE’s, we didn’t get our last 2 paychecks. They closed the company like 2 days before they would have paid us for the previous months commissions earned. Then there’s the last month of August on top of that. Ops got paid every 15 days, we got paid a month in arears, so we lost more than everyone states. Then they blamed the BK court, knowing very well that assets are frozen when BK is filed. In the mean time, they started working on setting up the new company. Unconscionable.

    That said, I would take a job there again. This time looking out for myself and not the company, so when I would see the kind of things we’ve witnessed as employees and mgmts ability to “look the other way”, the OTS, or Feds would get an “anonymous” call. Hire me, please. hahaha….

  5. surak says:

    Miami, sounds like a class action lawsuit.

  6. John M. says:

    Hi all -

    We interrupt our regular gloom and doom for a special dose of Ambrose-on-steroids Gloom and Doom. Like Siegfried used to say on Get Smart, “PREPARE TO PANIC!”

    “RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert”, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph, June 17, 2008.

    The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.

    “A very nasty period is soon to be upon us – be prepared,” said Bob Janjuah, the bank’s credit strategist.

    A report by the bank’s research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as “all the chickens come home to roost” from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets.

    Such a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century.

    Igor says “fault,” but Ambrose says “Richter.”

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