Alex Pederson, White Collar Criminal or Pawn? The Candidate Running for Seattle City Council with A Past that Must Be Accounted For

November 5th, 2019, Election Day
SITUATION:
1. Alex Pederson is running for Seattle City Council in District 4, my district.
2. Tens of thousands of dollars are pouring in from large corporations to help him to win.
3. His campaign shows little aptitude for developing policy to solve problems; rather, it appears to rely on the appeasement of a few wealthy home-owners and the Seattle political machine to shrug a win.
Yet more importantly —
4. His work experience, resume from top to bottom, suggests a career deeply mired in corporate corruption and fraud — a career that insinuates either criminality or incompetency; it must be accounted for.
THE RESUME, THE SEARCH ENGINE, AND THE LAWSUITS
Herein lies the account of how I came to discover that Candidate Alex Pederson’s work history illustrates a character that was either too obtuse to recognize the deleterious impacts of his work, or one that was intentionally engaged in unethical practices that harmed the same demographics of people that he professes to serve in District 4, with emphasis of harm placed on homeowners and racial minorities.
In early October, I attended the Seattle City Club debate featuring District 4 City Council candidates Shaun Scott and Alex Pederson. After witnessing Pederson’s heavy, yet profoundly vague rhetorical lean on “his experience” paired with his zero-cares-given level of policy preparedness on top of an I-deserve-this attitude, I went to his LinkedIn Profile to suss his qualifications and attempt to understand what this guy’s deal was.
That’s when things got weird.
I was an English Major at UW. I know how to research (as in, use a browser and type in some key words); it wasn’t hard, though it took some time as Pederson’s LinkedIn Page was clearly obfuscated. From links to businesses with slightly different names, to certain omissions such as who he worked for as legislative aid in Oakland, I uncovered each discrepancy like an infinite nesting doll.
All the name variations started to make sense — they made it harder to connect the businesses and people to the lawsuits. Yet, track the lawsuits, I did. The fraud litigations of Pederson’s association over his career have resulted in hundreds of millions in payouts, and in one case, over $16 billion.
Did I find Pederson’s name on court documents? No. Not yet, at least. Was he holding executive level positions and conducting the type of work cited as fraudulent in these law-suits during the time periods cited in the suits? His LinkedIn suggests that the answer is yes.
I wrote the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission to alert them of Pederson’s connections to fraudulent dealings. Below, in part, is what I shared.
LOAN FRAUD/ SUBPRIME LENDING, BANK OF AMERICA (BofA)
Let’s start with the Loan Fraud, Bank of America, 2007- 2008. Pederson was Vice President of the Seattle Community Loan Division during the exact two years that the Department of Justice found Bank of America guilty of defrauding customers via subprime lending that intentionally misconstrued the loans as prime to loan recipients. Yes, Pederson was there.
Herein lies the DOJ’s Statement of facts, and the 2014 DOJ press release, “Bank of America to Pay $16.65 Billion in Historic Justice Department Settlement for Financial Fraud Leading up to and During the Financial Crisis” which speaks to the essence of the type of dealings that BofA, and thus possibly Pederson, conducted at that time.
I wrote to Pederson to inquire after his involvement. He did not reply. Since he was there and at the scene of the crime, at the time of the crime, engaged in the type of activity of the crime, I’m led to believe that Pederson is either a crook or a tool — the former indicative of a lack of morals and ethical stamina, the latter of a lack of acumen.
Either way, does Seatttle need a councilmember who has extensive knowledge in the realms of lucrative-for-the corporation con-deals, such as the ones that contributed to the collapse of the housing market in 2008?
But there’s more.
RACIST LENDING PRACTICES: ARCS COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE, RED CAPITAL, NATIONAL CITY, PNC
Pederson listed a small, mostly scrubbed-from-the-internet bank on his resume: ARCS Commercial Mortgage, Vice President, 1997–2004. He stated in his resume that he closed over $500 million in financing. ‘Atta boy!
The problem is, ARCS Commercial Mortgage is a subsidiary of Red Capital which is a subsidiary of National City (as seen in this 2010 Affordable Housing Finance article that connects ARCS to Red Capital, and this U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission archive that connects Red Capital to National City) which is all important to track because, according to reports, that whole group eventually had to account for racially-biased lending: a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
Pederson worked for work for ARCS Commercial Mortgage/National City and PNC. The timing matches the suit.
According to a 2013 Reuters article titled PNC settles U.S. charges over National City mortgage bias:
“[PNC] had to “pay $35 million to settle U.S. [DOJ] charges that the former National City Corp discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers by charging them more on home mortgages because of their race or national origin.”
From the case profile via University of Michigan School of Law:
“Specifically, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant allowed its mortgage brokers to set wholesale loan prices unrelated to credit risk characteristics and loan terms; did not require mortgage brokers to justify or document the reasons for the amount of broker fees and prices set above the par rate; failed to monitor for disparities based on race or national original because of its policies and practices; and created a financial incentive for mortgage brokers to charge higher fees and interest rates.”
Pederson was a part of National City at that time, giving out loans. Was he engaged in these practices, too? I reached out to Pederson for comment. No response.
SELF DEALING, GOVERNMENT PAWNS, TAX CREDIT FRAUD, ALLIANT
Pederson’s tenure at Alliant from 2008–2012 is perhaps the most alarming for constituents, for Alliant has a way of making pawns of men and putting them in government positions to serve their own corporate cash cow dreams, as exemplified in this 2017 Desmoines Register article:
“A former senior attorney for U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley who worked on passage of a controversial tax break for energy efficient construction is now an executive at a firm that has helped companies reap more than a billion dollars in tax incentives from that same law.”
That firm was Alliant. Pederson worked there, too.
Pederson’s tenure with Alliant, where he “structured funding for clients using tax credits… securing over 200 million in financing…” per his resume, leaves some questions to be asked. Pederson’s tax credit work once again coincided with fraud allegations: a whistleblower report of federal tax credit fraud in the hundreds of millions. Pederson was vice president at the time.
Bloomberg describes the tax scam as a major operation, even calling it a RICO Violation, a group a laws made to fight organized crime.
“Alliantgroup LP is a politically connected advisory firm that helps companies apply for lucrative tax credits. The firm also helps companies sidestep taxes, two former employees alleged in July 2009. In a 32-page submission filed with the Internal Revenue Service, along with internal e-mails and documents, they claimed Alliantgroup’s clients could owe the U.S. Treasury as much as $712.5 million in refunds over wrongly claimed tax credits.”
We do not know about Pederson’s role in the tax credit fraud because the case was never opened: the IRS director of the whistleblower division took a career turn and left the IRS to sit on the board of Alliant. (See above Bloomberg article and this Houston Press article.)
The public deserves to know if Pederson’s work was implicated in this whistleblower allegation, or if Pederson was otherwise engaged in the cited tax credit fraud, for Pederson was with Alliant doing that work at the same time. Pederson must be held accountable.
EFFORTS TO REPORT
As mentioned above, I reported this to the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission who said they can’t do anything because Pederson is not a city employee; it’s out of their jurisdiction, and that people are not responsible for the crimes of their companies.
But what if he was the one committing the crimes?
I sent this information to every news publication I could in hopes of inspiring a proper investigation — by a newspaper, perhaps, such as The Seattle Times, who endorsed Pederson. Wouldn’t they want to know the truth about their candidate? Apparently not.
As far as I know, no other people are looking into these matters. Maybe a politician who is possibly involved in political self-dealings, financial crimes, and institutionalizing racism, on top of ties to other fraud cases doesn’t seem like hot news, but this is important. The people deserve to know if their City Council Representative has a vast history of fraud and white collar crime allegations behind him.
Seattle deserves to know.
MORE QUESTIONS AND OTHER WORK HISTORY THAT IS NOT YET ACCOUNTED FOR: LEGISLATIVE AIDE, CBRE, HUD
- Pederson served as a legislative aide to a guy in Oakland who according to reports from the East Bay Express got into some self dealing and bribe schemes, too. New car for contracts? Sure! Was Pederson party to these self-dealings, too?
- CBRE, the corporation Pederson was just working for prior to the campaign just paid out 100 million for embezzlement against mostly senior citizens in senior housing — oof, as can be seen in this Bloomberg article. Was Pederson engaged in these kinds of financial frauds, too?
- During Pederson’s time at HUD, the Housing Secretary Cisneros, and other HUD staff/affiliates were indicted with Conspiracy to Defraud, Conspiracy to Commit Offenses, False Statements and Representations, Concealment of Material Facts, Obstruction of Justice, Money Laundering, and Housing Fraud in a 30-month special prosecutor investigation. Was Pederson involved in these conspiracies to defraud, too?
The list goes on. Even if you believe Pederson is innocent and just caught up in bad business, it still reflects poorly on his ability to lead without terrible ethic violations and fraud calamities taking place all around him. He is a financial liability for Seattle, who if elected, could cost tax-payers millions, or even billions as his work history demonstrates in payouts because of intentional or accidental legal messes that consistently surround Pederson.
Further, how can we know that Pederson will be working for the people with all his deep connections to known predatory corporations?
Pederson is running on an accountability platform, but he’s been hiding from public events. He is the invisible candidate. One org, Civic Alliance for Progressive Economies (CAPE) even put up a missing poster for him, stating he’d missed over fifteen forums. Pederson is hiding himself, and all this.
Seattle deserves better than this. Luckily, we have a way out of this near disaster.
THE ANSWER
The best way out of all that muck and mire is by hustling to get your ballot in today before 8 pm, or getting to one of the same-day voter registration locations and voting for District 4 City Council Candidate, Shaun Scott.
Scott is the real-deal, make-Seattle-better-for-all, endorsed by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, working for the people candidate. He was early-in on the Seattle Green New Deal, a faithful mass transit supporter, Sierra Club supported, independent contractor advocate, and feminist candidate/torch bearer of Emily Meyer’s vision for accessible childcare. He has a compassionate plan for the homeless, and a vision backed by policy that cares for his constituents across demographic differences that historically split this district, such as renter, and homeowner. Scott is the candidate for all of us.
District 4, you know what to do. Pederson’s sour corruption smell is not what we need.
Vote for the candidate that we know is working for you and me: Vote Shaun Scott for District 4. Please — and thanks. Seattle now allows for same-day voter registration. Ballot boxes open until 8 pm. You can even call me if you need a ballot pickup.
QoQo (C.M.) Weber is a teaching artist, student advocate, and community organizer who resides in District 4. Weber has worked in community mental health as a counselor and case manager for reentry and sentencing alternative programs as part of King County’s initiative to reduce recidivism. Weber also taught in King County Correctional Facility in downtown Seattle and at Path with Arts, a free school for Seattleites who’ve recently experienced homelessness and other traumas. This fall, Weber produced a Seattle Town Hall Event with local art collective, TUF, that focused on uplifting marginalized folks including people of color, women, queer, trans, and gender nonconforming identities through a day of music, art, and dialogue, and asked the question: How can a rapidly changing city make space for and center those who are historically pushed out and towards the margins? You can contact Weber at qoqomariaw@gmail.com
