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platform, which enables residential property buyers and sellers to complete real estate transactions online. "We are honored to receive this award on behalf of all our colleagues at Auction. com who have built the leading online real estate marketplace," said Jennifer Leuer, SVP and general manager of the consumerto-consumer business unit of Auction.com. "Auction.com has created a democratic online process where buyers can purchase a residential property from anywhere in the world, and this innovation is truly changing the way real estate is transacted." San Diego Paper Names MCT One of the Best Places to Work MCT Trading announced that is has been chosen as one of the 2013 Best Places to Work in San Diego by the San Diego Business Journal (SDBJ). The SDBJ's Best Places to Work Awards are designed to identify, recognize, and honor the best places of employment in San Diego, benefiting the county's economy, workforce, and businesses. The 2013 Best Places to Work in San Diego list is comprised of 100 companies. MCT ranked No. 10 in the small business category. To be considered for participation, companies must be a for-profit business, notfor-profit business, or government entity; to be publicly or privately held; have a facility in San Diego; have at least 15 employees working in San Diego; and have been in business a minimum of one year. Companies were judged using a twopart evaluation process. The first part of the process consisted of evaluating each nominated company's workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems, and demographics and was worth 25 percent of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an extensive employee survey that was conducted to measure the type of experience they have working for their companies. This part of the process was worth approximately 75 percent of the total evaluation points. The combined scores of the two-part evaluation determined the top companies that made the list. "We are honored to again be recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as one of the top places to work in the San Diego metropolitan area," said Curtis Richins, president of MCT. "We offer numerous benefits and 74 have implemented many unique programs for our employees to take advantage of, and we continue to add them. Our success is predicated on recruiting and retaining MCT's greatest asset: its people." California Organization Unveils Servicer Scorecard A federally funded mortgage assistance program in California has announced a monthly online Servicer Scorecard that will evaluate mortgage servicers on such points as the percentage of applications approved, how long it takes to respond to applications, and the total funding issued per program in that particular month. Keep Your Home California's (KYHC) Servicer Scorecard is meant to promote awareness of the program, which works to prevent foreclosures and blight. "We want to help homeowners determine how effective and responsive their mortgage servicer has been to the Keep Your Home California program," said Claudia Cappio, executive director of the California Housing Finance Agency (CHFA), the state agency that oversees KYHC. "The Servicer Scorecard clearly details how closely their mortgage servicer is working with the program to prevent foreclosures in the state." Participants in the program must demonstrate financial hardship such as job loss, cut in pay, divorce, or extraordinary medical bills. The Servicer Scorecard will provide data on both large and small lenders, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, the two largest lenders in the state. More than 95 percent of lenders in California participate in at least one of the four programs offered by KYHC. These programs include KYHC's Unemployed Mortgage Assistance Program, Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance Program, Principal Reduction Program, and Transition Assistance Program. California Lawyer Sentenced for Interfering with TARP Investigation A California attorney was sentenced to seven years in prison recently for obstructing an investigation into investment fraud according to Christy Romero, special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). David Tamman, 46, of Santa Monica, California, was found guilty of 10 criminal counts, including obstruction of justice, for lying to investigators while he was a partner at Nixon Peabody law firm last year. The scheme ultimately defrauded investors of $22 million. At the trial, the prosecution presented evidence showing that Tamman conspired with John Farahi, who orchestrated the Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of $22 million. Tamman served as outside council for Farahi's company, New Point Financial Services. "Today justice was served for Tamman's attempted massive cover-up of John Farahi's multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in which Farahi lied to investors and claimed that he was investing in safe, TARP-backed corporate bonds," Romero said. "Contrary to his claims, Farahi used investors' funds to bankroll his lavish lifestyle and high-risk trading, which resulted in heavy losses for investors and TARP banks. As Farahi's attorney, Tamman was Farahi's enabler, falsifying and backdating business documents to hide the fraud, and as a result, Tamman will spend the next seven years in federal prison. If you exploit TARP or otherwise help others defraud taxpayers' TARP investments, you'll be held accountable by SIGTARP and our law enforcement partners and be forced to answer for your transgressions." Prosecutors said that in 2009, Tamman and Farahi "altered and created securities offering documents and promissory notes." But even after Farahi's crimes were discovered, [Tamman] still did not stop obstructing justice," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. "In 2011, [Tamman] began obstructing the grand jury's investigation of his own crimes," which included lying to federal investigators, giving false testimony at his trial last November, and lying to a probation officer who was preparing a pre-sentence report after he was found guilty. Judge Clears Way for Eminent Domain Seizures A federal judge in San Francisco has dismissed a lawsuit brought by BlackRock Inc. and other asset management companies that sought to block the city of Richmond, California, from seizing underwater homes under eminent domain laws. The city council of Richmond had voted by a narrow margin

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