Herbert (left), and Marion (center) Sandler, and SC Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort), sponsor of S.910 | HerbSandler.com / MarionSandler.com / SenatorTomDavis.com
Herbert (left), and Marion (center) Sandler, and SC Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort), sponsor of S.910 | HerbSandler.com / MarionSandler.com / SenatorTomDavis.com
A group opposing small dollar loans for South Carolina consumers has received more than $25 million during the past ten years from a foundation started by a N.C. couple who Time magazine ranked among “25 people to blame from the (2008) financial crisis.”
That’s according to a review of U.S. Internal Revenue Service non-profit 990 filings from the Sandler Foundation, founded by the late Herbert and Marion Sandler, the billionaire subprime lenders and founders of World Savings Bank.
The filings show a sum of more than $25 million in payments from 2016 to 2022 from the Sandler Foundation to the "Center for Responsible Lending," the Durham-based advocacy arm of the Self-Help Credit Union, whose South Carolina President is Kerri Smith.
2008 Saturday Night Live skit "spoofed" the Sandlers
| Unz.com
Smith is also currently running unopposed in the June 11 State Legislative Republican Primary for the 28th SC. House district, since incumbent State Rep. Ashley Trantham (R-Greenville) quietly resigned this past week.
Who are the Sandlers?
Herbert and Marion Sandler were “junk-mortgage billionaires” and the “pious-talking loan sharks who founded World Savings Bank, through which they gained riches by being the first to push an exotic mortgage product called the “option ARM” (Adjustable Rate Mortgage),” reported the Capital Research Center.
Marion died in 2012 and Herbert died in 2019.
“In the early 1980s, the Sandlers' World Savings Bank became the first to sell a tricky home loan called the option ARM,” reported Time. “And they pushed the mortgage, which offered several ways to back-load your loan and thereby reduce your early payments, with increasing zeal and misleading advertisements over the next two decades.”
“The couple pocketed $2.3 billion when they sold their bank to Wachovia in 2006,” reported Time. “But losses on World Savings' loan portfolio led to the implosion of Wachovia, which was sold under duress late last year to Wells Fargo.”
Upon Herbert’s death, the Los Angeles Times reported, “The financial crisis of 2008, triggered by the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market, brought new scrutiny of the Sandlers’ legacy.”
The Sandler’s role in the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 was so well-known that Saturday Night Live even “spoofed” the Sandlers in a skit.
The Sandlers in 2006 committed $1.3 billion to start the Sandler Foundation, which “financed the creation of the Center for Responsible Lending.”
The foundation also founded, along with former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, the left wing Center for American Progress (CAP). CAP supports “abortion, LGBT advocacy, a $15-per-hour minimum wage, legal status for illegal immigrants, climate change alarmism, and gun control,” reported InfluenceWatch.
The current president and CEO of CAP is Patrick Gaspard, the former head of the Open Society Foundations, which is funded by “Democrat mega-donor” George Soros. Soros also contributed more than $2 million to the Center for Responsible Lending since 2018, reported the Greenvile Leader.
The Sandlers’ daughter, Susan, who died in 2022, announced in 2020 a fund within the Sandler Foundation to spend $200 million to support “racial justice groups.”
Sandler’s husband, Steve Phillips, is “a San Francisco attorney and Democratic donor who helped raise $11 million for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.” Sandler and Phillips helped fund Stacey Abrams, the perennial Georgia Democrat gubernatorial candidate, and the Sandler Foundation helped fund Abrams’ New Georgia Fund.
South Carolina Bill to Limit Small Dollar Loans
Self-Help Credit Union and the Sandler- and Soros-backed "Center for Responsible Lending," both created by North Carolinian Martin Eakes, are currently lobbying the S.C. State Senate in support of S.910, a bill that would limit companies from making smaller-dollar loans to consumers in the state.
Smith is leading the effort to pass S.910, testifying on behalf of the bill and promoting her lobbying efforts on her campaign Facebook page.
The SC Policy Council said the bill would "hinder competition in the lending sector by singling out short-term lenders while exemptions big banks and credit unions," reported Palmetto State News.
S.910 was introduced on January 9 and is sponsored by State Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort), as well as Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg), and Sen Deputy Minority Leader Ronnie Sabb (D-Greeleyville).
The bill is currently being considered by the SC State Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce, and Industry.
How much has the Sandler Foundation paid out to the Center for Responsible Lending since 2015?
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