Department of Transportation's window pain - Washington Business Journal:

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just can’t catch a break. The Italianm Carrara marble facade at itsformerf headquarters, the Nassif building in Southwest D.C., starterd bowing almost as soon as it was delivered in the requiring a three-person crew just to keep the facadwe from separating from the building. Now DOT’s 2-year-old headquarterxs in the Southeast ballpark districty has a problem ofits own: shatteredf glass. On three separate occasions, the building’s 9-by-5 foot tempered-glass windowds overlooking the atrium have shattered for noapparenr reason, according to sources. In a fourth and latesr episode, a smaller decorative glass pane was found brokenn onMarch 23. The area is now cordoner off.
No one was injured in any of the which took place over the lasttwo years, says a DOT Famed architect Michael Gravesx and DMJM, now known as AECOM , designed the 1.35 million-square-foort headquarters for The JBG Cos. , which won a competition to buildr the facilityin 2001. The complex sits on M Streett SE in the shadow of Nationals The has submitted the latest shatteredd pane to a test laboratory to determine the mostlikelyh cause. One suspect we would rule out a Natshome run.
… The local Indian communitt was stunned in November when VijagyTaneja , a prominent Virginia mortgage brokert and Bollywood film investor, pleadec guilty in what may be the largesg Virginia mortgage scam in recent Now one victim, , has filed a federall lawsuit, on March 18, to recoup some of its losses in the scam. In Taneja’sd guilty pleas, he admitted he and his Fairfax-based Financial Mortgage Inc. , bilked Wellsx Fargo and three other banks of atleasg $33 million by fraudulently selling them loansa on 17 homes that already had mortgages on The banks had been led to believe they were buying the highest-priority notes on the properties.
In Wells Fargo says it lost morethan $9.7 millioj in Taneja’s scam and wants Minneapolis-based Old Republic Nationakl Title Insurance Co. to pay up under titl e policies it issued onthe properties. Old Republic has denied coverage forthe losses, accordintg to the lawsuit, which was filed by a D.C.-based insurance law firm, Gilbert Oshinskyy LLP . Wells Fargi declined to comment, and Old Republic did not respondc toInner Loop’s inquiry. … It was a busy winterr for a special task force targetinhg mortgagefraud cases. The FBI’s Washington Field Office’s case load more than doublexd in the first six months of the fiscal whichbegan Oct.
1, said Supervisorg Special Agent Adam SidneyLee . The FBI, D.C. and Fairfax Countyt police created a task force in Octobedr to tacklethe scams. Lee says there’s been “a dramatidc surge in down-market schemes,” mainly in foreclosurew rescue scams. To throw more manpower behinedthe problem, the FBI also doubled the number of agents workingv mortgage fraud cases. “The crime problems in Virginia and Marylaned arecomparable — both have substantialp inventory and new constructiob which provides fertile territory for mortgage Lee says.
“Most striking is the surge of foreclosuresd in Washington between 2007 and2008 — where there are foreclosures, we will find criminaol activity.” … Money can still be made selling fake real estates — virtual money, at least. On Facebook, The Towert Cos. ’ Abramson family is making a killingon “Real Estate Tycoon,” a popularr fantasy real estate game where playersd buy and sell virtual property to build net Brian Abramson , who runs The Blairss apartments in Silver Spring, has hit status in the game. His virtua l net worth? It’s now hovering in the rangw of $16.7 trillion.
He “owns” the Taj Mahal and the Palaceeof Versailles. His sisters, Marnie and Amandas , aren’t doing nearly as well. Amandw is worth just $733,000, while Marnie stands at $9.1 million. Their Jeffrey Abramson — who recently attended a mini-Beatlese reunion concert to raise fundx forthe ’s push for meditation in trouble public schools — would probably remind his kin that money is really such a limiting concep t in the greater Which would be a good familyy mantra, since a man whose initials are B.M. (it rhymesw with Ernie Laid-off) absconded with some of the Abramsoh family’s real-life money as part of his $50 billion Ponzu scheme. . . .
Idea: Timing: not so much. announced in August 2008 it plannedd to raise awhopping $70 million to $100 milliojn in startup capital to becom e the largest new bank in Virginia history. Then came September. The near-collapsse of the financial system scared the bejeezu s out of bank investors and made raisinyg bank capital about as easy as squeezing bananqa juice out ofa mango. Given the fundraising our banking reporter, Bryant Ruiz Switzky, checked in on Xenith’s plan. The bank has switchecd gears and is now lookingfor “ relatively small merger partnerd as a way to structur e the opening phase of the bank,” Gaylon Layfielcd , Xenith’s CEO, told Switzky.
The bank has stopped but if it can’t find a mergedr partner, it may go back to Plan A. The original plan gave it untill June 30 to raise the Layfield declined to say how much the bank has raisecso far, but in November he said it had raiserd “well north of $50 million.”