For Immediate Release – April 20, 2010
Contact: Dallas Woodhouse, 919.671.1050 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              919.671.1050      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

What: Protest/ Media Availability
When: Wednesday, 4/21/10 at 2:30 pm
Where: Center for Responsible Lending, 302 W. Main Street, Durham, NC 27701

Raleigh, NC – Americans for Prosperity announced today an effort to expose the role of Durham-based Center for Responsible Lending in the national financial crisis and so-called reform efforts designed to reward donors and expand lobbyist influence.

Regarding Senator Chris Dodd's pending permanent bailout legislation which creates a huge new bureaucracy called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency -- and the breaking Goldman Sachs scandal involving hedge fund Paulson & Co. run by billionaire John Paulson, AFP Vice President for Policy Phil Kerpen said:

"It looks like John Paulson made a fortune based on a scheme in which he paid the Center for Responsible Lending $15 million to shake down and harass banks into making bad loans, which Paulson then bet against with the help of Goldman Sachs.

"Now Treasury official Eric Stein, who for years worked for the Center for Responsible Lending, is expected (if the bill he helped design passes) to be installed as the head of the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a huge new bureaucracy with sweeping powers to reward CRL donors and supporters while punishing competitors who aren't in on the scheme.

"This bill must be stopped until a full investigation into John Paulson, Goldman Sachs, the Center for Responsible Lending and its lobbying activities has been conducted. We demand Eric Stein be dismissed from the Treasury and barred from any future federal appointment until the investigation has been completed."

Americans for Prosperity North Carolina State Director Dallas Woodhouse is leading the effort on the ground in North Carolina to hold the Center for Responsible Lending accountable for its role in designing and lobbying for this latest scheme:

"North Carolinians are opposed to Wall Street bailouts and questionable lobbying schemes. It's unfortunate that the Durham-based Center for Responsible Lending is right at the epicenter of the current scandal and the push for sweeping new federal powers, potentially to be exercised by its own former vice president, Eric Stein.

"We're committed to slowing this bill down and educating the public about this scandal until there has been a full investigation."