What I Wanna Know

The First Magnus headquarters in Tucson, April 2007

A story on ere.net says that FMFC will be filing Chapter 11. (A news story out of Hawaii says the same, attributed to "sources.") They mentioned that the FMFC website now only has one page, containing a notice about no new loans and such. I went to the site to read the notice, but it stopped loading partway through. When I reloaded, the entire page (at least according to Firefox and my dial-up connection) was the following:

Employees looking for HR information should check back soon.

Another reload, and that was preceded by a single sentence aimed at borrowers. The page source lists the earlier notice as a jpg, but it doesn't seem to be online now.

It's not just morbid or idle curiosity for me. My effort to file for unemployment online today was hampered by two things: an Adobe updater for Acrobat deciding to reboot my computer without my permission, and my lack of knowledge whether my final paycheck from First Magnus Financial Corp, due on Monday the 20th but expected to be "delayed," will include any vacation pay, and if so, how many hours' worth. Heck, I don 't even remember what my annual salary was, although I can and should look that up in my 2006 TurboTax forms. An article in the Arizona Daily Star said to call FMFC's main number with HR questions. I did, and got a recording that routed employees to a voice mail box. John says I shouldn't expect a reply, but I'm not quite that cynical, even though so far there hasn't been one. It's only been an hour or two, and the HR people are all friends of mine. I always tried to keep them amused with little quips in my emails about payroll reports and stop payment requests.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions filed a complaint against First Magnus over the closing. The article about this, from the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, says something about pulling FMFC's license and fining it for shutting down so abruptly, and not providing regulators with info on pending loans and financial condition. This all seems a bit absurd to me. It doesn't look as though First Magnus is going to have any need of a license, ever again. And fining a company that suddenly has no money, and for not providing info that it has no employees to prepare, doesn't seem very reasonable. Heck, I was in the accounting department, and now there isn't one. Who is supposed to prepare the reports? The company founders? The lawyers? This is exactly why it didn't make sense to me that we were all sent home yesterday. Even a company that's just gone under needs someone to do that accounting stuff. The only thing I can figure is that an outside firm will be brought in to do it, many one that specializes in bankruptcies and forensic accounting. But it still seems that people who know their own pieces of FMFC's accounting puzzle could be helpful in doing this.

I haven't accomplished much today. I've talked one of the temp agency managers, and started that unemployment app, and searched Google News, and done some dishes, and researched and written two paragraphs about James Thurber on Wikipedia. Where has the rest of the day gone? But I'm still trying to convince my brain to stop thinking about the July depreciation entry and the 1072 rec (no, you're not meant to know what that means). It seems to be a little hard at the moment to think about anything that's entirely unrelated to First Magnus or finding a different job.

But in the good news department (well, potential good news, but only if I get more bad news first), my friend Linda emailed me some leads on YA publishers. If DAW says no, I now know exactly where the manuscript is going next.

Aha! I just refreshed the Google News tab, and found a helpful news story just posted on www.azstarnet.com by the Arizona Daily Star. Although there's some question about whether paychecks will be mailed Monday as originally scheduled, and whether direct deposit is still set up for employees, it does sound like the payroll is coming soon, in some form. Meanwhile, Pima County’s One-Stop Career Centers has set up a hotline for former First Magnus employees. (The number is 243-6677, in case anyone from First Magnus happens to read this.) I've already called it and left voicemail with my number and email address.

First Magnus itself is going to host a job fair for former employees only on Monday, Aug. 27, at the Westin La Paloma. John is hoping I'll already be employed by then. It bothered me a little that it's being held at one of the high end resorts (although it is off-season), but it turns out the resort is donating the space, a pretty classy thing to do! There's also a job fair set for next Friday, sponsored by local mortgage industry folks, but that's for underwriters and processors and such, not, I assume, accountants.

Another Friday news article quotes from the bigwigs and gives better numbers and perspective on the company's history. The impression I get from this, and everything I've read, is that given their past success in the way the company did business, and the company's relatively responsible lending practices, the officers thought they could ride out the storm and keep everything afloat. Instead, the people who loaned the money and the people who bought the mortgages suddenly bailed out, leaving First Magnus high and dry.

Am I angry and bitter over all this? No. Am I saddened? Yes.

Karen

Update: The web site now has a FAQ for FMFC employees, with more info said to be "Coming Soon." That's a step in the right direction!