Mejappz
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2005
- Professional Status
- Certified Residential Appraiser
- State
- Florida
Whoever is funding the operation better come clean now.
WHO IS FUNNELING MILLIONS INTO PROFESSOR’S LAWSUIT AGAINST APPRAISER?
VENTURA, Calif. (Feb. 21, 2025) – Court filings show a Washington, D.C., civil rights law firm has billed more than $3 million on behalf of a black-studies professor at Johns Hopkins University in his lawsuit over the appraised value of his home.
Court records show that over a two-and-a-half-year period, the law firm Relman Colfax billed 5,411 hours to the case at an average hourly rate of $583 with total expenditures reaching $3.15 million. The source of the funding is rife with speculation.
The Hopkins professor, who is black, alleges a Maryland appraiser, who is white, undervalued his home in 2021 due to racial animus when the appraiser’s opinion of value failed to reach the roughly $550,000 necessary to make his refinance work. Professor Nathan Connolly has built his academic career addressing racism, historical grievance and class struggle. His 33-page resumé can be viewed here.
Shane Lanham, a state-licensed real property appraiser based in Parkville, Maryland, had the misfortune of being assigned to appraise the professor’s home on behalf of nonbank lender loanDepot. The lender was also named as a defendant in Connolly’s lawsuit. LoanDepot has since quietly exited the lawsuit by paying what one attorney familiar with the case believes was approximately $400,000 to the plaintiff. Lanham is countersuing for defamation after being labeled a racist and having his business and reputation damaged. Lanham is confident in his opinion of the home’s value at the time of the appraisal.
For someone preoccupied with the minutiae of class struggle, Connolly has found the time to develop very pointed ideas about the banal, such as the exact market value to the typical home buyer of a tankless water heater he said he installed. He believes the water heater alone should have increased the market value by $5,000. (According to the publication Forbes Home, the cost of a tankless water heater is from $500 to $1,500.) Connolly and his now deceased wife, who was a co-plaintiff in the case, bought the home in 2017 for $450,000. Lanham’s opinion of its value in 2021 was $472,000.
The politics-drenched enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – both in conservatorship with the Federal Housing Finance Agency – are suspects as the deep pocket in Connolly’s lawsuit against the appraiser.
The federally backed mortgage giants became bullies during the Biden administration, particularly against a vulnerable class of truth-tellers uniquely engaged for their independence, the nation’s 70,000 state-licensed real property appraisers. The mortgage giants have been eliminating conventional lending safeguards, such as title insurance and credit scoring. They’ve also engaged in an orchestrated effort to discredit and sideline appraisers, promoting a malicious narrative that the nation’s appraisers render value opinions based on the race of the property owner.
Sen. Tim Scott, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, accused Freddie and Fannie’s regulator last month of colluding with the mortgage giants to engage in illegal activity.
“In just a few short years,” wrote Scott, “FHFA went from an agency carefully considering how to preserve and protect the safety and soundness of the failed Enterprises to a politicized husk reacting to the whims of the administration and completely disregarding the law.”
Brian Jarrard, a former subject-matter expert in collateral valuations at Fannie Mae, speculated the money bankrolling Connolly’s lawsuit was most likely diverted grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has been flush with cash from funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Many grants were made with little oversight under former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, who has since become a Washington lobbyist.
“HUD is the highest authority in the land when it comes to housing,” said Jarrard, “but it’s been unable to track the grant funding it has been handing out. Where did this plaintiff, a university professor, get $3 million to go after an appraiser?”
Mike Ford, executive board member of the American Guild of Appraisers, OPEIU, AFL-CIO, believes the money may have been part of a DEI payout or diverted grant funding.
“This could be money that originated with HUD,” said Ford. “My suspicion would be the diversion of grant money or the diversion of lobbying funds. There are other suspects, such as venders involved with automated valuation modeling, financial services companies and a handful of exclusive vendors of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The deep pocket could be any number of DEI-dependent organizations.
“Three million dollars may be enough to crush an individual,” said Ford, “but it’s a crumb when compared to the billions that were handed out by HUD to grantees with a long-term objective of eliminating human appraisers.”
What is known for sure is that a murky Beltway nonprofit called the Appraisal Foundation paid over $500,000 to Relman Colfax in 2022, according to its IRS Form 990. The nonprofit, which wants to write the standards for automated valuation products, has received tens of millions of dollars in grants from an obscure federal entity that has also been promoting false narratives about appraisers. The latter is known as the Appraisal Subcommittee of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. The tiny federal entity receives its budget outside the congressional appropriations process and has little accountability to the public.
After having his name and reputation tarnished in the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, on television and across national wire services, the appraiser, Lanham, is now fighting a David-vs.-Goliath battle to clear his name. In early 2023, he filed a countersuit against the Hopkins professors for labeling him a racist, making false and defamatory accusations, and causing severe harm to his business, his reputation, and his well-being.
He has also filed a motion to dismiss the initial claim, arguing that the Hopkins professor and his deceased wife failed to show any facts that support he discriminated against them. As of this writing, he has raised over $50,000 in funding on his GoFundMe page. You can find it here.
Jeremy Bagott, a licensed appraiser and former newspaperman, sends up a warning flare in his 2019 book “Dispatches from the Cosmic Cobra Breeding Farm.” He takes the reader deep inside a tiny Washington, D.C., foundation that has managed to have its copyrighted code of conduct enshrined in federal and state law. All 50 states, even the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, now enforce it. The nonprofit, known as the Appraisal Foundation, has parlayed the arrangement into a lucrative publishing cartel. In his journey, the author uncovers a troubling trend deep in the plumbing of government.
*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***
WHO IS FUNNELING MILLIONS INTO PROFESSOR’S LAWSUIT AGAINST APPRAISER?
VENTURA, Calif. (Feb. 21, 2025) – Court filings show a Washington, D.C., civil rights law firm has billed more than $3 million on behalf of a black-studies professor at Johns Hopkins University in his lawsuit over the appraised value of his home.
Court records show that over a two-and-a-half-year period, the law firm Relman Colfax billed 5,411 hours to the case at an average hourly rate of $583 with total expenditures reaching $3.15 million. The source of the funding is rife with speculation.
The Hopkins professor, who is black, alleges a Maryland appraiser, who is white, undervalued his home in 2021 due to racial animus when the appraiser’s opinion of value failed to reach the roughly $550,000 necessary to make his refinance work. Professor Nathan Connolly has built his academic career addressing racism, historical grievance and class struggle. His 33-page resumé can be viewed here.
Shane Lanham, a state-licensed real property appraiser based in Parkville, Maryland, had the misfortune of being assigned to appraise the professor’s home on behalf of nonbank lender loanDepot. The lender was also named as a defendant in Connolly’s lawsuit. LoanDepot has since quietly exited the lawsuit by paying what one attorney familiar with the case believes was approximately $400,000 to the plaintiff. Lanham is countersuing for defamation after being labeled a racist and having his business and reputation damaged. Lanham is confident in his opinion of the home’s value at the time of the appraisal.
For someone preoccupied with the minutiae of class struggle, Connolly has found the time to develop very pointed ideas about the banal, such as the exact market value to the typical home buyer of a tankless water heater he said he installed. He believes the water heater alone should have increased the market value by $5,000. (According to the publication Forbes Home, the cost of a tankless water heater is from $500 to $1,500.) Connolly and his now deceased wife, who was a co-plaintiff in the case, bought the home in 2017 for $450,000. Lanham’s opinion of its value in 2021 was $472,000.
The politics-drenched enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – both in conservatorship with the Federal Housing Finance Agency – are suspects as the deep pocket in Connolly’s lawsuit against the appraiser.
The federally backed mortgage giants became bullies during the Biden administration, particularly against a vulnerable class of truth-tellers uniquely engaged for their independence, the nation’s 70,000 state-licensed real property appraisers. The mortgage giants have been eliminating conventional lending safeguards, such as title insurance and credit scoring. They’ve also engaged in an orchestrated effort to discredit and sideline appraisers, promoting a malicious narrative that the nation’s appraisers render value opinions based on the race of the property owner.
Sen. Tim Scott, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, accused Freddie and Fannie’s regulator last month of colluding with the mortgage giants to engage in illegal activity.
“In just a few short years,” wrote Scott, “FHFA went from an agency carefully considering how to preserve and protect the safety and soundness of the failed Enterprises to a politicized husk reacting to the whims of the administration and completely disregarding the law.”
Brian Jarrard, a former subject-matter expert in collateral valuations at Fannie Mae, speculated the money bankrolling Connolly’s lawsuit was most likely diverted grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has been flush with cash from funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Many grants were made with little oversight under former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, who has since become a Washington lobbyist.
“HUD is the highest authority in the land when it comes to housing,” said Jarrard, “but it’s been unable to track the grant funding it has been handing out. Where did this plaintiff, a university professor, get $3 million to go after an appraiser?”
Mike Ford, executive board member of the American Guild of Appraisers, OPEIU, AFL-CIO, believes the money may have been part of a DEI payout or diverted grant funding.
“This could be money that originated with HUD,” said Ford. “My suspicion would be the diversion of grant money or the diversion of lobbying funds. There are other suspects, such as venders involved with automated valuation modeling, financial services companies and a handful of exclusive vendors of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The deep pocket could be any number of DEI-dependent organizations.
“Three million dollars may be enough to crush an individual,” said Ford, “but it’s a crumb when compared to the billions that were handed out by HUD to grantees with a long-term objective of eliminating human appraisers.”
What is known for sure is that a murky Beltway nonprofit called the Appraisal Foundation paid over $500,000 to Relman Colfax in 2022, according to its IRS Form 990. The nonprofit, which wants to write the standards for automated valuation products, has received tens of millions of dollars in grants from an obscure federal entity that has also been promoting false narratives about appraisers. The latter is known as the Appraisal Subcommittee of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. The tiny federal entity receives its budget outside the congressional appropriations process and has little accountability to the public.
After having his name and reputation tarnished in the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, on television and across national wire services, the appraiser, Lanham, is now fighting a David-vs.-Goliath battle to clear his name. In early 2023, he filed a countersuit against the Hopkins professors for labeling him a racist, making false and defamatory accusations, and causing severe harm to his business, his reputation, and his well-being.
He has also filed a motion to dismiss the initial claim, arguing that the Hopkins professor and his deceased wife failed to show any facts that support he discriminated against them. As of this writing, he has raised over $50,000 in funding on his GoFundMe page. You can find it here.
# # #
Jeremy Bagott, a licensed appraiser and former newspaperman, sends up a warning flare in his 2019 book “Dispatches from the Cosmic Cobra Breeding Farm.” He takes the reader deep inside a tiny Washington, D.C., foundation that has managed to have its copyrighted code of conduct enshrined in federal and state law. All 50 states, even the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, now enforce it. The nonprofit, known as the Appraisal Foundation, has parlayed the arrangement into a lucrative publishing cartel. In his journey, the author uncovers a troubling trend deep in the plumbing of government.