- Binyamin Appelbaum
Binyamin Appelbaum, a reporter for the Washington Post, grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and attended the University of Pennsylvania. Appelbaum previously worked for the
Florida Times Union , theCharlotte Observer and thethe Boston Globe . And while in college, he was editor of theDaily Pennsylvanian .At the Charlotte Observer, Appelbaum led a team of reporters that helped shed light on the area's high rate of housing foreclosures and questionable sales practices by Beazer Homes USA, one of the nation's largest homebuilders. The Observer's reporting led to FBI, IRS, SEC and HUD investigations of Beazer Homes, which has since stopped making mortgage loans nationwide and stopped building homes in Charlotte. [ Observer series named Pulitzer finalist; `Sold a Nightmare' couldn't have been done without readers, by RICK THAMES, Charlotte Observer, April 8, 2008 [http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/571168.html] ] [ Globe writer wins Pulitzer Prize for criticism, by Don Aucoin, Boston Globe, April 7, 2008 [http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/04/_susan_chalifou.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6] ] [ [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/08/globe_arts_writer_feeney_wins_pulitzer/ Globe arts writer Feeney wins Pulitzer - The Boston Globe ] ]
The series won a
Gerald Loeb Award , aGeorge Polk Award and was a finalist for thePulitzer Prize in public service.A profile of his reporting on the mortgage crisis in Business Journalism described how, well before the nation knew about the coming crisis in mortgage lending, Appelbaum "noticed a strange pattern while compiling a list of foreclosed homes in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County --clusters were concentrated in new developments. Appelbaum wondered if faulty loans were behind the trend." [ [http://www.businessjournalism.org/pages/biz/2008/01/the_charlotte_observers_sold_a/ Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism ] ]
References
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