I may be stealing mr. S's thunder here, but IndyMac (independent mortgage acceptance Corp.) Bank did most of there business with so-called "liar" (I think the correct term is "stated income" ) and NINA (no income no assets) loans ( basically, no verification was done re:borrower's income or assets). Reminds me of a story on NPR a while. A lady had a gross income of $24k/year, but qualified for a $2000/month mortgage.
Most of folk with $ in in Indymac were there because of their interest - Bring ti mind the old axiom i learned in B-school - the higher the return, the higher the risk.