If you ever got picked on as a kid, and handled it by clinging to the belief that life was fair and your nemesis would get a comeuppance, then this is for you:

Fremont General Corp. once one of the nation’s top 10 subprime lenders, has agreed to pay $10 million to resolve charges it preyed on low-income borrowers and used misleading terms to sell them loans they couldn’t afford, the Boston Herald reports. The Herald called Fremont “America’s most notorious subprime mortgage firm.” And according to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who brought the suit against Fremont, its practices provided a model of the kind of predatory lending that caused the housing crisis.

The Attorney General’s Office filed suit on October 5, 2007, in Suffolk Superior Court against Fremont and its parent company, Fremont General Corporation based on the defendants’ unfair and deceptive loan origination and sales conduct. The complaint specifically alleges that the company was selling risky loan products that it knew was designed to fail, such as 100% financing loans and “no documentation” loans.  The complaint further alleged that the company sold these loans through third party brokers and provided financial incentives to these brokers to sell high cost products.

That pretty much covers just about everything that went wrong with lending during the boom.

Fremont is in bankruptcy now after shuttering its subprime lending operations. But the settlement is still noteworthy, as a reminder of the kind of lending that went on. It also means Fremont finally faces some consequences for its predatory behavior — along with the $10 million fine, Fremont agreed to not foreclose on “unfair” loans, Coakley’s office said. That means at least some borrowers who got steered into high-rate Fremont loans will get a break.

Speaking of foreclosures, just last week we noted the sad case of an 85-year-old widow in California who was losing her home of 50 years to foreclosure.

Her lender? Fremont.

Maybe it’s California’s turn to face down the neighborhood bully.