In her affidavit in the city of Baltimore’s lawsuit against Wells Fargo, former subprime mortgage broker turned whistle-blower Beth Jacobson describes how subprimes were sold to African Americans: "African American brokers were sent into Black churches," she says. "White brokers weren’t allowed to go," she told GRITtv.

Brokers were encouraged to strike up a relationship with the community. The church goers didn’t come to the bank, said Jacobson –the bank came to them.

Often, the Wells Fargo brokers framed their sessions as "wealth building/empowerment seminars."

"Plenty of people there might not even have thought of taking out loans or leveraging their property," –but there, loan officers found a motherload of clients who they steered into subprime loans, even clients with good credit scores.

The rewards for the brokers were massive: what some Wells Fargo brokers called "ghetto loans" brought upwards of twice the fees that they could make off prime-rate loans.

But the cost for borrowers — and cities like Baltimore — were deadly. Hence the city of Baltimore’s suit.

Looking for a relationship with the Black Community? Churches are nice, but how about the nation’s leading African American talk show host and author?

Wells Fargo has sponsored Tavis Smiley’s TV show for years — and his annual State of the Black Union conferences.

It’s chilling though, in light of all this, to learn that for many years, Tavis Smiley and Wells Fargo teamed up – to offer free Wealth Building Strategies Seminars to African Americans all over the country.

Press releases went out to the media and black newspapers: "Share Information About Building Generational Wealth and Family Financial Security" — Wells Fargo billed themselves as the nation’s leading originator of home loans to ethnic minority customers.

On a widely circulated press release from 2005, Smiley and Wells Fargo salute each other in their efforts to provide the path for families dreaming of home ownership.

Smiley’s company no longer accepts sponsorship from Wells Fargo and next year’s State of the Black Union won’t be Wells Fargo-sponsored. But the Tavis Smiley Show still seems to be Wells Fargo-sponsored. Perhaps he could use some of that sponsorship money to dig into the Wells Fargo story more.

The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, public television and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com

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