(Image source: The New York Times)

BY BRICE SANDER

You're watching multi-source video news analysis from Newsy.

If you’re one of the nation’s leading foreclosure firms, what better way to increase business than by openly mocking your clients, right? Fox News explains.

CLAYTON MORRIS: “Talk about a heartless Halloween trick- look at this. A foreclosure firm threw a Halloween party using a homeless theme for their foreclos- it was a foreclosure-themed Halloween party in the office.”
ALISYN CAMEROTA: “I get it.”
CLAYTON MORRIS: “That’s great. Classy- and we’re not kidding about that.”

San Diego’s KGTV takes us back to the bad taste bash, which happened last year.   

“The New York Times recently posted these pictures sent to them from a former employee of Steven J. Baum, which represents big banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America. One picture shows employees holding a sign that read, ‘I lost my home and I was never served.’ According to the former employee, that’s a typical excuse made by homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure.”

The firm argues it did not purposefully throw a “homeless Halloween,” calling the New York Times piece an attack. But an American Banker writer says, so what?

“… some things deserve attacking … Throwing a Halloween bash like that, knowing how easily a set of embarrassing photos can travel in today's digitized world, was like donning a jacket with a bull's-eye on the back.”

But The Hollywood Reporter found one New York Times reader willing to defend the firm-

“‘The photos are in bad taste but, as it was intended only as an inside joke, I think we need to keep things in context … This picture was never meant for the greater public's view.’”

Inside joke or not, the New York Times suggests this is another setback the firm didn’t need.

“It recently agreed to pay $2 million to resolve an investigation by the Department of Justice into whether the firm had ‘filed misleading pleadings, affidavits, and mortgage assignments in the state and federal courts in New York.’ (…Baum acknowledged only that ‘it occasionally made inadvertent errors.’)”

The firm is now saving face, releasing a statement that this year’s party benefits the American Red Cross. It also sent a memo to employees, reminding them to avoid “offensive” costumes.