and we were thousands of dollars behintd. reporter: say they one west told them to stop paying their mortgage. then they failed to qualify for federal loan relief and lost their home. when donald trump nominated his treasury secretary, he said that steven mnuchin had run his bank have professionally. but a source close to one west s loan modification office says the bank was overwhelmed with just too many home loans under water, a loan modification office was disorganized and swamped with work, bank employees were getting confusing and differing sets of instructions from executives above. and as a result, homeowners suffered. the palumbos found that out first hand when they got two letters from one west bank on the very same day. the first telling them the bank was still conducting our review of their home loenl modification request. the second letter telling them their home had already been sold
and in the process onewest did foreclose on thousands of home owners. relative to the number of loans it had, especially the toxic loans it took over, you can t say one was worse than the other banks. by the way, the new group that took over onewest sent us a statement this afternoon saying it s strengthened what it calls the overall operations and controls at onewest bank. we ll see what steven mnuchin says about it tomorrow. we certainly will because indie mack one of the worst actors. all a lot more complicated than it seems just looking at the headlines. next, my interview with the man putting all of this together, the biggest parties in town for donald trump s inauguration. i ll take you inside for a first sneak peek. and the former president george h.w. bush and his wife barbara are both hospitalized in texas tonight. the latest on their condition.
through the government s federal program, aimed at saving people from foreclosure. his bank had been bought by one west, owned by trump s treasury nominee, steven mnuchin, and his partners. we contacted them that seriously we need the modification. and they said that we don t qualify because we have never missed a payment. okay, so i ll do that. so we skipped two months. reporter: one west denies it gave that advice to customers but customers say there was a repeated pattern, a number of customers saying the bank told them to stop paying their mortgage for at least two months to qualify for federal help, help that didn t materialize. u.s. treasury officials tell cnn there was no requirement to stop paying mortgages in order to qualify for assistance. nicholas and eloise say it happened to them, too, though they admit they didn t manage their money well and got in over their heads after their mortgage ballooned. i told them that we need help
out front next, trump s pick for treasury secretary on the hot seat tomorrow. does steven mnuchin make a billion dollar fortune on the backs of home owners during the crisis?
and jobs at his hearing. as for leron and vicky lee, after a four-year battle with onewest, they agreed to a settlement and have kept their home. senate democrats are going to slam steven mnuchin about this, right? one of the labels they ll try to put on him the idea he was a foreclosure king, prosmted on the backs of regular americans. is that fair? reporter: you have to put this in context. steven mnuchin in 2009 bought the remains of a bank off the federal government. indie macwas in receivership. it failed and the reason it failed because it was one of the worst lenders, subprime loans, loaning people money who quite frankly did not have the ability to pay it back. so he takes this bank and all these toxic mortgages off the government s hands, gets a great deal, yes, and then, though, is left to work through all the mortgages, many of which can simply not be saved but many are. in the end he saves the bank, he sells the bank for a big profit,