Nigel Swaby Seeks Internet Asylum

Since Casey Serin has kicked his former little buddy Nigel Swaby to the curb, the "Man of a Million Blogs" mortgage lender has been seeking internet asylum. Sticking to his old trick of trying to garner as much redirected traffic as possible, Nigel Swaby seems once again pulled into the aura of the ExUrbanNation crowd...the very same folks he has repeatedly gone out of his way to repudiate.

I haven't spent a lot of time at EN lately. The sheer volume of posts and comments have been difficult to keep up with. So imagine my surprise when I read through several posts and find Nigel and some Haterz yukking it up.

To clarify, in just March of this year, Nigel Swaby, a licensed mortgage broker who has access to financial and credit software, decided to post the identities of three frequent posters at EN. I don't know if he abused his professional position in order to triangulate his information. But it is incredibly unsettling that someone in this position would do that, particularly considering the "grand offense" that catalyzed his actions. Per Nigel:

"...Finally, one hater impersonated me on IAFF. Unfortunately for him, I knew who he was. So I made a comment at IAFF to clear my name. I “outed” said hater and EN erupted. They emailed my boss and some other people unrelated to my company. They “reported” me to the State board - Your action was childish and vindictive. I have reported you to your state board.

The “outed” hater called me the next day. Do you know what he did? He apologized. We had a good talk about the whole thing and he apologized. He asked me to remove reference to him at IAFF and do you know what? I did.

As far as my boss [at Integrity First Financial] goes, he had this comment - I looked at your post 109 and fell off my chair. Great humor, way to put the dweeb in his place. This whole blog thing is a frickin hoot! Happy traffic!"

So whomever Nigel spoke with apologized for utilizing the user name Nigel Swaby in the comments section of the website "I Am Facing Foreclosure." In return, Nigel Swaby posted pictures and brief bios on these people, who, to my knowledge, don't even maintain blogs...they were just regulars to comment at ExUrbanNation.

Considering this history, I was confused as I read through EN and noticed Nigel Swaby and some of the "Haterz" being pleasant to one another. I decided to poll the audience for answers:

"I'm unclear as to where all the Nigel love has come from of late. Do people have such short memories that everyone has forgotten the outings, the "full of hate" comments, the sneering "I don't like you" bullshit?

I'm just not on board. Because, Nigel, it seems you've been playing both sides against the middle since the beginning. This latest outpouring of hand-holding around the campfire seems to coincide with KC officially kicking you out of his inner circle. So is this just any port in a storm?

I don't see any grand revelations coming from you...merely confirmations of things already proven as fact. Why take so long to divulge what are some inconsequential factoids? Why still pandering (like way back on the SDCIA boards) with the "I'll post that later...patience" routine?"

The first person to respond said, "Congratulations are in order to everyone that caught on early, you clearly are more 'people smart.' Some of us are not. The shame of that is punishment enough, no?"

I can't answer that, because it's a logical fallacy. This isn't about kicking someone when he's down. Because Nigel Swaby wasn't just Casey Serin's biggest cheerleader. He was a vindictive, awful man-child who went out of his way to publish information about prominent Casey Serin critics in the hope of intimidating them into silence.

That's not an "oops!" offense.

In response to my query at EN, Nigel Swaby responds:

"Aspeth,

I think the change in attitude came from the 2nd haterzcast I called in on. Yes, I supported Casey publicly and privately for far too long. I probably would have continued to do so had he not abandoned his wife. I have a real problem with that.

The change in tone has come in part because people now see me as a real human being and no longer as some sort of character or caricature. I'm an honest person and have been sharing what I can to paint a clearer picture of what's been going on. I've protected Casey in the past when I probably shouldn't have.

Like Mark, Duane and even yourself I now think Casey needs to be stopped. I didn't consider him dangerous before, but now he's hurting real people. He's shirked all consequences to date and now I am doing my part as probably his strongest online supporter to show the world what he truly is: a deluded, selfish child that needs to grow up and face his mistakes."

So, wait...Nigel made a phone call, pulled a few jabs at himself and now it's all Kumbaya and s'mores?

"I Like M. Singh" pointed out that Nigel Swaby has offered no apologies for his previous behaviour, saying

"Please accept this note in support of your comments regarding MR SWABY. We have seen three of his 'outed' publicly "forgive", though not in so many words, MR SWABY's nefarious actions. My response to this is, for one, there remains the nice gentleman with the Scion and the Comics, and two, it was still a wrong act in principle and no public apology has been proffered- only a veiled suggestions that perhaps MR SWABY has grown from this experience, and so on.

I am one of those that MR SWABY compared to rats being shone light upon."

I was interested to hear Nigel Swaby's response to these, and other criticisms that have been levied against him. I asked the following, but not surprisingly, Nigel Swaby decided to lurk rather than respond.

"As I've stated before in my award-winning blog, I've always found it incredibly dodgy that a mortgage lender would befriend and defend a mortgage fraudster. And that was just confirmed with your comment, Nigel, that only now is KC "hurting real people."

Was he somehow not hurting real people by appropriating $2.2 million from various banks? Was he not hurting real people by letting those properties fall into disrepair and fall into foreclosure?

Lawnmower man, I appreciate your point but no, I didn't see any revelations. There had already been much talk of KC shopping for a million-plus w/cashback, even before the Utah trip. To say that speculation over Nigel's boss being "g" is what prompted that is utter bullocks. That speculation has been going on for months...again, it only comes out after KC kicks Nigel out of the clubhouse.

Thanks for the clarification, ILMS. I was wondering if an apology had been proffered for the outings. I mean, Jesus, Nigel...you outed a FED! The idea that someone with gov't-issued professional licensure would do such a thing is beyond the pale!"

Nigel Swaby has tried to make nice with with Casey Serin's critics several times before, most notably when Casey gave him the boot by tossing out their business agreement. In short order, Nigel returned to his petulant thin-skinned ways.

We are often, in life, required to suspend disbelief in order to grasp a clearer picture of any particular situation. For me, I suspend disbelief in the early stages of the relationship. And when behaviors repeat themselves, it becomes easier to determine who the person is behind the social mask.

If someone I knew of but didn't know personally were to walk up and slap the person standing next to me, I would not only form an opinion, I wouldn't avail myself to be party to such a circus again.

In much the same manner, Nigel Swaby could be a multi-faceted person that becomes more agreeable as you get to know him. But based on the past behaviour that Nigel has exhibited, I've experienced all I can stomach, and I'd rather stick with my well-formed opinion than volunteer to be batted about.

Good Riddance

Akubi wanted me to write something about Casey Serin's final Friday night fraudcast. So after the obligatory jogging and yoga, I spent the afternoon listening to the replay.

I've been a bit surprised that I haven't really been able to muster any feelings one way or the other about Casey Serin's disappearance into the ether. I think this comes, in large part, from just not believing a damn thing that comes from Casey Serin or his "I Am Facing Foreclosure" site.

As I said to Schnapps earlier this morning (and, I later learned, was reflected in many callers' attitudes as well) that by changing out the mainpage, Casey Serin is still in fact blogging.

And I just don't believe that he'll be able to cut his losses so easily. Galina may have taken his shiny tech toys away from him by confiscating the cell and laptop, but he's obviously finding ways around this, with or without Galina's slack consent.

My complete disinterest in the demise of "I Am Facing Foreclosure" was washed away by listening to yet another round of Casey Serin playing the victim on his chat show. Perhaps because I actively avoid spending any great deal of time with slack-jawed imbeciles, I've just never seen someone who so completely and thoroughly misses the point every flipping time.

Casey Serin's false wisdom comes out straight away, with his assessment that "Realtors are eager to show vacant homes." In fact, the opposite is true largely because, without the feel-good elements of living spaces defined for them, most buyers are unable to immediately relate to the space.

A simple Google search reveals real estate agents all over the country discussing the challenges of selling vacant homes. Not to mention that an entire peripheral industry that has sprouted to alleviate the burdens of selling vacant homes.

Casey Serin then makes it clear that simple facts still elude him. When asked about his job hunt, he replies that he's basically still mining his Inbox for gold, rather than making any outside effort for employment. When it is pointed out to him that the contract with Galina stipulates that he look for a job as soon as IAFF goes down, he says "If the contract says that and I broke it, then that's your opinion."

No, asshole, it's not an opinion. Facts are facts. The dictionary reminds us that a "fact" is "something that has actual existence." A fact exists at face value. The process of query and debate ends upon conclusion that something is indeed factual.

Casey Serin tells the world that "I resent and hate that it worked out his way," clearly a reference to Galina and the families' intervention. Again clueless to reality, he still insists that Galina Serin regards the IAFF blog as Casey Serin's mistress. Wrong again, little dude. Galina's fed up with scrubbing toilets while you sit on your ass. Plain and simple.

Casey sneers to his caller "Thanks for your negativity." Actually, you're the one pouting and crying, Casey, so the vast majority of negativity was actually spewing out of your lying mouth.

A caller named "internet" picks up on this and calls Casey Serin out on his inability to commit, follow through, and live up to his word. Casey Serin whines again, his tired "I'm so misunderstood" routine, and bitches that he's being picked apart. The funniest part of this exchange is when Casey Serin asks his caller if he would chastise a child for falling down while it's learning to walk.

If the child in question burned down the house as it fell down while learning to walk, then YES, every blessed one of us would chastise the child, Casey.

Casey Serin doesn't appreciate "internet" pointing out that he's not a child and shifts the blame from Galina to the Haterz as being the reason for shutting down "I Am Facing Foreclosure." No one sees, in Casey Serin's opinion (which, again, holds a different definition from the aforementioned word "fact") the voluminous positive changes he's been able to make.

You know what, Casey? You're correct there. No one has been able to see that. Because your "positive changes" are like an imaginary friend that you carry around in your pocket and feed cracker crumbs to.


Now a special word to Casey Serin's last vocal supporter, Mocha. I don't know where you came from, sweetheart, but you're obviously new to this game. When you popped up on an earlier fraudcast, I took you at face value as a young, overeager little queen who was twittering from all the drama.

But since you're repeatedly inserting yourself into the line of fire, here's the dish, Mary. In all of your exuberance in supporting Casey Serin, you're just playing out the newbie routine--oh the Haterz are so hard on you! and all that nonsense. Did it escape you that Casey Serin treated you like everyone else who has earnestly offered him advice? He smiled and nodded and then continued to traipse down his merry path of picking dandelions.

I had a whole coterie of post-brunch queens with me this afternoon as I listened to your bullshit. And they all rolled their eyes and laughed out loud in recognizing the hubris of the young gay male.

On that topic, maybe you should have asked Casey Serin how he feels about queers...what fun tidbits of information he's picked up from his fundamentalist teachers. Because we've already seen what he's been reading about the world's non-white population.

One of my queens pointed out that, as a particularly flamboyant little thing, you must have really been put through the ringer at some point to identify and even align yourself with the downtrodden Casey Serin. Fair enough. But I find your ignorance appalling. You can't see Nigel Swaby for the seedy hanger-on that he is, so it's not surprising that you won't acknowledge Casey Serin as a criminal, fraud, and liar.

Even Casey Serin doesn't take Nigel Swaby seriously. He's ignored everything Nigel has ever said to him, dangled the carrot in front of him regarding bringing Nigel into "I Am Facing Foreclosure," and doesn't even read Nigel Swaby's multiple blogs.

In fact, when Nigel Swaby called in to talk to Casey Serin, Nigel smugly made reference to one of his blogs, asking Casey to acknowledge and thereby publicize it. After several seconds during which I swear there were crickets chirping, Casey admitted he hadn't seen it. A defeated Nigel Swaby then hung up.


Through all of Casey's pouting during the Friday fraudcast, one thing is clear. He's pissed off that he couldn't control the story. And maybe that's the thing that finally drove Galina Serin, the Serin family, and the Suprun family to the edge. The fluffy articles about "Casey and Galina Serin as victims of predatory lending or the real estate bubble" are gone. Instead, they've been replaced by stories of "The World's Most Hated Blogger."

So, Casey, you can be as angry as you like over the fact that, from the earliest days, the Haterz controlled the story. The reality is that you never could have existed without them. They linked to you, increased your page rankings, and stirred up interest in all corners of the blogosphere on your behalf.

We were always going to win this one. Because at the end of the day, you're going to fade to obscurity, known for little else but a dancing monkey on the internet for a few months. We've all got our careers, our friends, our families, not to mention our hopes, dreams and futures. You've got that gnawing pit of dread in your stomach, waiting to see when the next shoe will drop, who will be coming for you next.

Just do us all a favor...when the po'po does eventually come to take you away, be sure to pull an O.J. so that we can all watch the v-dubs careening down the 101 in a desperate attempt to make a run for the border.

Consider it a final blog entry for the Haterz.

Some Things Stay the Same

While I've been away from the water cooler, the blogosphere has churned away without me. In reading various blogs, one of the ironic comments I keep coming back to is Nigel Swaby's claim that "No wonder bloggers never get taken seriously."

For someone who has repeatedly shelled out cold hard cash for paid press releases of his own myriad blogs, I find this statement highly amusing on its surface.

But in the nanosecond that follows, I can't help but think about how this is just yet another completely asinine extrapolation from the king of bullshit.

Note to Nigel Swaby, blogger extraordinnaire: Rule number one of blogging is that if you don't have anything to say, don't. If this is your ultimate wisdom on the blog format, why spend such a great deal of time registering dozens of free Blogger blogs?

(On that note, rule number two of blogging is that it's stupidly unprofessional to run a lead-generating enterprise from a freebie wysiwyg blog. But I digress...)

Obviously Nigel Swaby is so out of touch with media, technology, and well, reality, that it has escaped him that bloggers comprise a significant portion of information streams.

Once again, let's have the smart kids go ahead and do all the heavy lifting. Here is a condensed list of blogs and bloggers that are regularly quoted, sourced, and in fact scoop mainstream media:

Left-wing politics, Daily Kos

Right-wing politics, Michelle Malkin

Libertarian politics, Reason

Celebrity nonsense, TMZ

Beltway nonsense, Wonkette

Marketing, Strumpette

Environment, Treehugger

Auto industry, GM Fastlane

(ahem) Real estate, Inman

Of course, this doesn't even begin to touch on the increasing number of traditional journalists who maintain blogs in order to stay relevant in a continually shifting information marketplace.

In fact, the topic of John Edwards' campaign blogger has garnered dozens of traditional media stories in and of itself.

John Schwartz of the New York Times admitted that traditional journos were outmatched by the blogosphere in their coverage of the 2004 tsunami, saying “For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs.”

J-schools have echoed the same sentiment for years. "The question now isn’t whether blogs can be journalism. They can be, sometimes. It isn’t whether bloggers “are” journalists. They apparently are, sometimes. We have to ask different questions now because events have moved the story forward. By “events” I mean things on the surface we can see...and things underneath that we have yet to discern."

Meanwhile, Nigel Swaby says, "In real journalism, a juicy tidbit like this would be thoroughly vetted before ever having a bit of ink splashed on it."

Unfortunately, Nigel, a couple of glaring exceptions immediately come springing to mind. Remember a little thing called the 2000 Election? Or a high-profile journalist by the name of Jayson Blair?

I could go on, but really, why bother? Clearly, this is just yet another example of Nigel Swaby just not getting it. Even more, I don't think he could find "it" with both hands.

With that in mind, I'll leave it at this... unless you're a blogger trying to corner the market on "smug, half-baked kook," shop those thoughts around the wide world of webs in search of information that may confirm or deny your knee-jerk lunacy.

And if you can't do that, keep your hands off the keyboard.

Live Long and "Prosper"

"Prosper, America's first people-to-people lending marketplace, was created to make consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone.

The way Prosper works is intuitive to people who have used eBay. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using Prosper's online auction platform.

People who want to lend set the minimum interest rate they are willing to earn and bid in increments of $50 to $25,000 on loan listings they select. People who lend can easily diversify using "standing orders", which automatically make many small loans to different borrowers.

In addition to criteria commonly used by institutional lenders, such as credit scores, people who lend can consider borrowers' group affiliations. Groups on Prosper are critical to bringing people together for the common goal of borrowing at better rates. Groups earn reputations according to their members' repayment records. Groups with successful repayment histories should attract more lenders offering lower rates.

Borrowers create loan listings for up to $25,000 and set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender. Then the auction begins as people who lend bid down the interest rate. Once the auction ends, Prosper takes the bids with the lowest rates and combines them into one simple loan. Prosper handles all on-going loan administration tasks including loan repayment and collections on behalf of the matched borrower and lenders.

Prosper's rigid privacy policy reflects co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Chris Larsen's longstanding history as an advocate of stringent consumer financial privacy protection laws and practices. Prosper does not sell, rent, or share members' personal information with third party marketers. Prosper members are in control of how much personal information—if any—is revealed on the website and with other members. Prosper's security and identity verification systems are state of the art, and consistent with those used by banks, brokerages and institutional creditors.

Prosper generates revenue by collecting a one-time 1% or 2% fee on funded loans from borrowers, and assessing a 0.5% or 1.0% annual loan servicing fee to lenders. Backed by Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, Fidelity Ventures, and Omidyar Network, Prosper has raised approximately $20 million. Prosper's marketplace platform is patent pending."


So when Casey Serin talks about a strange $8k loan to a stranger in Dallas, I tend to think that this was the vehicle. Conversely, are some of Prosper's various lenders facilitating the shell corp, cash-back schemes, or penny stock debacle?

Not Suspending Disbelief Just Yet

Fuck. Just getting caught up. Basically sat here all day waiting for a client to make a fucking decision and he calls 1) near the end of the day, 2) kept me on the phone for nearly three hours, 3) making my fuck-all do-nothing Friday actually seem like a lot of work, since I 4) didn't finish until after normal business hours.

All that aside, thank God I'm not Casey Serin.

V-dubs has been broken into and stereo equipment stolen. Sister-in-law Yulia has had it with the deadbeats and says that Casey and Galina Serin have to pony up four months' rent (about $2200, I think?) by May 1 if they want to stay there.

Here's the rub, though...I'm not sure I believe this stuff. Sure, Yulia's got to be sick to death of him, but interesting timing. If he's as insolvent as he claims, where would he come up wtih 2 grand?

Hmmmm...rather curious to have such an eventful day after a week of no blogging. His traffic must be through the roof. Now I'm the disbelieving cynic, wondering if this post isn't just a completely emotional troll that sets the stage for BEG-A-THON NUMBER 2, "GOING FOR THE GOLD!"

After all, Haterz, Casey scored his blood money on a Friday night. He knows that after a hard week of actual work, we like to settle in with a drink or nine and that he can manipulate his way to riches.

He's already batting 1,000 on begging.

More good things to come.......

Out Like A Lamb

While March is considered the month that comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, so too is Casey Serin...just a month later.

We all know by now that Casey Serin isn't very good at doing things in a timely manner, so it's all good.

In case you've forgotten, today is the day that Casey Serin's final property is scheduled for foreclosure. Since Casey Serin has managed to keep himself off of his own blog for a record-setting seven days now, we can only surmise what's happening in the Serin household these days. It can't be pretty. But I'm fairly sure that it's still quite the delusional scene.

Now that Casey Serin will have shed his properties like some mistaken English translation of "spring cleaning", I'm betting that he tries to file bankruptcy to rid himself of the approximately $200,000 in credit card debt that he and Galina still hold.

The idea of shuffling that debt behind some kind of corporate veil doesn't seem to have panned out, as Hammar Investments is currently suspended by the State of California. So with the final property off the books, bankrupcy must look like a mighty fine avenue for the boy to travel next.

"I am facing foreclosure" becomes inaccurate today. As the clipboard hits the top of the trash can, IAFF can be any number of things...I was crushed by foreclosure; I tried to lie, scam, and scheme my way out of foreclosure; I lost all my homes to foreclosure and all I got was one of Nigel Swaby's lousy Haterz t-shirts.....?

The possibilities are endless. What do you recommend IAFF be called now?


Sidenote: Cheers to an "Anon" at ExUrb who pointed out another naive story on Casey Serin.

The Things You Find in Your Blog's Logs...

Most of the time, a blogger's logs are a great tool for gauging the traffic for any given topic about which we may write. To this day, I bemoan the fact that the satiric piece I wrote about Anna Nicole Smith's death got far more pageviews than, say, the piece on the Most Popular Event in the World.

In rare instances, logs reveal more than we might expect. For a couple of weeks, I had noticed some strange Google queries that led someone to my page. I only gave it a cursory look, and didn't think much more of it.

Then Nigel Swaby posted the identities of frequent ExUrbanNation posters on his creepy "don't hate casey" blog. I spent most of the day thinking about how disturbing it was that someone with access to personal financial data had done that.

Later in the evening, I recalled those curious Google searches. I pulled up the logs and took a closer look. And sure enough, queries such as "Where does Aspeth live?" originated from Utah terrorities such as Salt Lake City.

While Nigel Swaby says that he only picked the 'low-lying fruit' through simple searches, there were numerous such queries within a three week period. Nigel Swaby spent a lot of time trying to track down the Haterz.

Some days, there were a dozen or more queries, trying to determine my age, address, phone number...any identifying information that would be useful. And these were just the searches I could see.

I emailed Rob Dawg and we had a brief exchange about Nigel Swaby's latest escapade with Casey Serin's critics. I'm sure that blogs like Housing Panic had similar searches.

Since the Google queries showed that *someone* in Utah (since it can't be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was Nigel Swaby) was also searching for the profiles of folks who had posted here, I made sure that my logs couldn't be accessed without passwords.

Obviously, the queries on those leaving comments here didn't turn up much. By and large, they weren't people who had a deep involvement in Casey Serin's story, or were people with fairly anonymous user names. Still, the creep factor remained.


Conversely, a blog's logs can also make you laugh. Nearly everyday, someone from a mental health facility in Utah Googles Nigel Swaby. This alone raises a world of possibilities.

It's been said before, but I'll reiterate it. Nigel Swaby will give his "expert" real estate and mortgage opinions at the drop of a hat. Personally, if I were a consumer shopping for a mortgage broker, I'd look for one who doesn't spend so much time playing on the internet.

A poster at ExUrb asked how Integrity First Financial's clients would feel about doing business with someone so willing to proffer personal information when he feels wounded. According to Nigel Swaby, when he told his boss about what he had done, his boss laughed and told him "happy traffic."

I guess that answers the question.

More Casey Serin Nigel Swaby Bad Bidness?

Does anyone else find it strange that Nigel Swaby announces he's going on vacation, and at the same time, Casey Serin goes missing?

I'm just saying...the last time both Casey Serin and Nigel Swaby went quiet from the internet, they were trying to set up some shady sweet deals in Salt Lake City.

Let the conspiracy theories commence...