Banker Fired After Using Foreclosed Malibu House for Parties

(MoneyWatch)  This post was updated September 16, 2009
Why buy when you can just live off of Bernie Madoff's crumbs?

That's a question to ask a Wells Fargo senior vice president, who reportedly spent weekends partying at one of the bank's foreclosed properties, a $12 million Malibu beach home.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the house was in prestigious Malibu Colony, a high-end gated community on the ocean whose residents include investment bankers, media executives, and Tom Hanks. The former owners were real estate investors who took large losses in the Madoff scandal and gave their 3,800-square-foot place back to the bank in May. Since then, neighborhood residents say, the bank exec (whom they identified as Cheronda Guyton) spent long weekends at the house.

That is, until August, when there was a party so big that 20 people arrived by water, taking a dinghy from a nearby yacht. (While I do wonder why I continue to work hard and pay my taxes, now is a good time to point out that I am not making any of this up.) Guyton was apparently identified because she'd gotten a parking permit from the Colony association for her 2007 Volvo SUV. No word on whether the yacht had the proper parking papers.

The home is listed by top Malibu agent Irene Dazzan-Palmer of Coldwell Banker Previews. According to the L.A. Times story by E. Scott Reckard and David Sarno, Wells Fargo declined to comment, saying it didn't discuss specific employee situations "for privacy reasons."

Update1: the news as of September 15th is that Guyton has been fired.

Update2: the news as of September 16 from Lauren Beale in the Los Angeles Times is that the house has been listed for sale by Chad Rogers of Hilton & Hyland (the firm that is also selling Cher's estate) for $21.5 million. Since the estimate of value that was made in May was $12 million, that partying must have left some really great traces!


Photo courtesy of Coldwell Banker Previews.

Read More:

• Will Homeowner's Insurance Help Madoff Victims?
• Four Ways Your House is Better Than Bernie Madoff's