Articles Related To Mortgage Servicing Fraud

*Date*	Article (Recent Additions)	*Author*	*Comment*
7/27/10**	New York Superintendent of Banks Calls for More Servicer Supervision	Amilda Dymi Mortgage Servicing News	He warned the industry "cannot rely solely on servicers and hotlines to address the growing needs and concerns of borrowers-whether it's homeowners that have just applied to the program or those whose trial periods have ended." In fact despite efforts to assist them, hundreds of thousands of homeowners may be left worse off after they qualify for a trial HAMP but fail to qualify for a permanent modification. Neiman sees "the ever-increasing number of homeowners being pushed out of HAMP" as a reason to raise "serious questions" about whether servicers are properly processing these loans or "continue to be plagued by the same documentation mistakes" seen in the past.
7/26/10	Lenders Working Hard to Avoid Mortgage Modifications.	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	The reports from the federal government regarding the number of homeowners that have obtained permanent mortgage modifications under the HAMP program show once again how hopeless it is to rely upon government programs to resolve the mortgage crisis. Clients and advocates continue to ask me, “Why won’t the lender work with me on a modification?” I believe the answer is both simple and complex.
7/25/10	Gretchen “Gets It” but misses the mark “If Wall Street’s profits went up as the quality of mortgages went down, isn’t the obvious incentive to create increasingly bad paper?” Deutsche Bank named also.	Gretchen Morgenson - NY Times with comments by Neil Garfield	As investigators delve deeper into the mortgage mess, they are finding in too many cases that Wall Street firms did nothing when they learned about problem loans or improprieties in lending. Rather than stopping practices of profligate originators like New Century, Fremont and Ameriquest, Wall Street financiers, which held the purse strings for these companies, apparently decided to simply look the other way.
7/25/10	Who’s To Blame When Mortgages Aren’t Modified or Short Sales Are Not Approved? No one Knows?	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Why are we allowing billions of dollars in property and capital be transferred by judicial process to corporations that cannot be identified and who engaged in fraud and potentially criminal acts?
7/24/10**	Foreclosure defense – finding reputable attorneys amidst a sea of lawyers	Stopa Law Blog	How can the average homeowner tell the difference between an experienced attorney, who is likely to help, and a “johnny come lately” who is not?
7/24/10**	When Denying Loan Modifications, Mortgage Servicers Often Wrongly Blame Investors	PROBULICA	Arthur and Alberta Bailey are about to lose their home near New Orleans, and their mortgage company says one thing stands in the way of relief: The investors who own their mortgage won’t allow any modifications.
7/24/10	Are Circuit Courts Complicit in The Latest Wall Street Con Games?	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Judges all across this state are granting billions of dollars in foreclosure judgments, but they have absolutely no idea who they are granting these judgments to.
7/24/10	South Florida foreclosure mill lawyer sued over steep drop in stock price	Susan Taylor Martin Tampa Bay Times	Specifically, the suit states, Stern and DJSP were slow to disclose a "substantial decrease'' in foreclosure cases referred to Stern's firm by one of its bank clients in April and May.
7/23/10**	Mortgage Securities Big Problem for the Fed	Neil Garfield J.D.	The real reason the government can’t sell these securities is that nobody will pay for them. Any due diligence down to the loan level will reveal that the loans were never subject to legally required execution, delivery and recording of transfer or assignment documents, together with indorsements etc. In some cases, this is correctable — at considerable legal expense. In most cases, they are not correctable. The bottom line is really simple: the obligation was created, the note was extinguished, and the security instrument became unenforceable, and separated from the note. The illusion that it is otherwise is what is keeping us in stagnation, preventing a solution.
7/23/10**	OUT-[RAGE]-OUS! 17 Bailed-Out Banks Stealing Homes Overpaid Executives $1.6 Billion	Associated Press	Kenneth Feinberg said 17 banks receiving taxpayer money from the $700 billion financial bailout made "ill-advised" payments to their executives. But he stopped short of calling them "contrary to the public interest" — language that would have signaled a fight to get the money back. The Obama administration's pay czar said Friday that he did not try to recoup $1.6 billion in lavish compensation to top executives at bailed-out banks because he thought shaming the banks was punishment enough. Instead of receiving prison sentences, Bank executives responsible for stealing millions of homes and creating the foreclosure/financial crisis received $1.6 billion in overpaid bonuses. MSF
7/22/10**	TRICKED, CONNED, SCAMMED- ANOTHER HOMEOWNER’S HOME SOLD WHILE IN ACTIVE NEGOTIATIONS WITH LENDER	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Actually it probably happens hundreds, perhaps thousands of times a week across the state. A hapless but hopeful homeowner is working with his lender (or someone he thinks is his lender), thinking that he is on the verge of a mortgage modification, when behind the scenes, the lender has convinced a judge to grant foreclosure and the home is sold. elliott v. aurora
7/22/10**	CAPACITY IS A FORECLOSURE CASE KILLER!- OCC LETTER: TRUSTS NOT EXEMPT FROM STATE LAWS	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	There is a growing body of evidence that stands for the proposition that the banks and shadowy trust companies sweeping across our nation to take homes are not in fact exempt from state banking and business regulation. I have posted the Cuomo and Watters Supreme Court cases, but below is a very interesting letter from the Office of Comptroller and Currency which makes an even more compelling presentation of the facts and should be included in your pleadings.
7/22/10	The Banks Win, We All Give Up, You Can Have The Keys To The Courthouse	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Forget about the abuse of court process, the fraud, the mistakes the faulty titles that this mess of a foreclosure crisis has dumped in our courtrooms….just think about the very real and practical impact of all this faulty inventory flooding the real estate marketplace
7/21/10**	Fannie Mae Execs Were Showered With Countrywide VIP Loans In 1998, Countrywide sold $25.6 billion in loans to Fannie and $17.7 billion to Freddie. By 1999, the figures were $30.8 billion to $11.2 billion in Fannie’s favor.	4closureFraud	In a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency – the government agency that regulates Fannie Mae and a smaller competitor, Freddie Mac – Issa said Countrywide’s 153 loans to 37 Fannie employees were part of a attempt to vastly expand business with Fannie to the detriment of Freddie.
7/20/10**	FORECLOSURE FAILS: THE CASE TO FOLLOW IN FLORIDA SOVEREIGN BANK, v. FLORIDA DEFAULT LAW GROUP	4closureFraud & Foreclosure Hamlet	Defendants compounded their errors and failed to timely and properly advise Plaintiff of the steps to take to reclaim the excess funds. Instead, the Brandts, the parties in default, petitioned for and received the $376,200.50 in excess funds… And you know what? The homeowners took the money and ran… HAHAHAHA!
7/20/10	Family Averts Foreclosure & Plants a Cherry Blossom	Jorge Newbery Read Mike Dillon's comments	Reuters’ financial blogger Felix Salmon publicized the Bakers’ plight, scolding Litton Loan and their parent Goldman Sachs for opting to lose money by foreclosing and evicting the family rather than recovering more by approving AHP’s offer. As a result of the publicity, Litton postponed the sheriff’s sale, approved AHP’s offer and the short sale was completed last week.
7/20/10	Trial in a foreclosure case – my thoughts the day after If you’re facing foreclosure, don’t give up!	Stopa Law Blog	If you fight, and defend your foreclosure case, you give yourself leverage to settle. If you give up, you lose all leverage, enabling the bank to foreclose without opposition. Admittedly, defending your foreclosure case does not guarantee a settlement, but at least you give yourself a chance.
7/20/10	Deputies serving an eviction notice were met with gunfire and explosives Two bodies discovered	kolotv.com	Records show that the house was sold on July 1st of this year. The neighbor said they knew Christenson was working through some type of foreclosure issue.
7/19/10	Loan modification are scamming desperate mortgage holders	allnews365	It is important to note that the Banks are also making promises that cannot be kept; make representations that your home will be saved, or that they will lower your monthly mortgage payment. MSF has heard from homeowners where the Bank's so-called modification actually raised their monthly payment amount.
7/19/10	Banks Fighting Subpoenas From FHFA Over Access to Loan Files Neil says: every day that goes by is another day working in favor of those who stick it out and fight for what is right. DO NOT GIVE UP!	LivingLies	The battle being waged by bondholders over access to the loan files underlying their investments was brought into the national spotlight earlier this week, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator in charge of overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, issued 64 subpoenas seeking documents related to the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in which Freddie and Fannie had invested.
7/18/10	Who benefits from foreclosure? When I see judges (some, not all) doing everything possible to “push through” foreclosure cases – often on behalf of a plaintiff nobody can identify – I often wonder: Who do you think you’re helping, judge?	Stopa Law Blog	Many times, the plaintiff filing the mortgage foreclosure lawsuit is not a Florida corporation (which are required to be registered on the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, and can be found at www.sunbiz.org), a foreign corporation, or a national banking association. Often, the plaintiff seeking foreclosure of our neighbor’s home is not an entity that exists in a way that the laws of the State of Florida require. In these cases, the plaintiff lacks the capacity to sue and the Complaint should be dismissed, as one Florida judge recently ruled in this Order granting the Motion to Dismiss
7/18/10	Foreclosures bring wealth, rebukes for Florida lawyer	Susan Taylor Martin, Tampa Bay Times	Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper was outraged. "The purported assignment was … fraudulently backdated in a purposeful, intentional effort to mislead the defendant and this court,'' Tepper said in dismissing the case with prejudice — meaning the bank cannot file the case again.
7/17/10	The MERS Mortgage Twilight Zone- Judges Not Afraid to Do What’s Right	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	New York trial court judges Arthur Schack and Jeffrey Spinner have received international attention for their courageous opinions denying foreclosure to banks when the banks present absurd foreclosure cases in front of them and demand judgment. The point is that opinions like the ones they get attention for could be written by every single circuit court judge in this state if judges would take a deep breath, step back from their courtrooms, and really think about what they are doing.
7/16/10	A.I.G. to Pay $725 Million in Ohio Case	MICHAEL POWELLandMARY WILLIAMS WALSH NY Times	The American International Group, once the nation’s largest insurance group before it nearly collapsed in 2008, has agreed to pay $725 million to three Ohio pension funds to settle six-year-old claims of accounting fraud, stock manipulation and bid-rigging.
7/16/10	Yellow-dots-of-mystery on your original “Promissory Note and Mortgage”	Mario Kenney	The information here shows the manner in which promissory notes and mortgages are photocopied and presented to the court as an original. Photocopies are not recognized by the Uniform Commercial Code.
7/16/10	Massive Fraud Nets Goldman Sachs a Petty Slap on The Wrist instead of paying back ALL the money it stole.	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Goldman Sachs engaged in massive fraud when it packaged many of the mortgages now being foreclosed on by entities like Deutsche Bank. Homeowners continue to be victims of this fraud, while one of the chief players in the fraud, Goldman Sachs, walks away from its financial crimes with a petty fine.
7/15/10	Manhattan banker sentenced to 12 years for nearly $300 million fraud	Monika Plocienniczakan, Evan Buxbaum, CNN	Nemazee admitted before Judge Stein that he duped Bank of America, Citibank and HSBC out of $292 million in deceitful loans from 1998 to 2009 "to finance his posh life and create a reputation as a political kingmaker," United States Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
7/15/10**	Applying for a loan modification does NOT mean you can ignore your lawsuit!	Stopa Law Blog	One of the frauds that I see banks commit on a daily basis is when they tell homeowners – “Don’t worry about that foreclosure suit we just filed; we are evaluating your loan modification.”
7/15/10	Banks repossess US homes at record pace	Lynn Adler -Reuters	Banks took control of 269,962 properties in the second quarter, up 5 percent from the prior quarter and a 38 percent spike from the second quarter of last year. Repossessions will likely top 1 million this year.
7/14/10	Follow-up on Disqualification of Counsel – Certiorari Petition Denial of Motion to DQ – Cert Petition	Stopa Law Blog	The Petition also contains numerous real-world arguments on why this is a big issue in the Florida court system and why the Second District should stop allowing the systemic fraud being perpetuated by banks in cases throughout our courts.
7/13/10	Wells Fargo Charged With Fraud In Mortgage Morass	Alex Gabor Seattle Real Estate Examiner	The complaint alleges that Wells Fargo, their Directors, Officers and Major Institutional Stockholders including Goldman Sachs knew or should have known that billions of dollars in first and second mortgages originated, packaged and sold as securities by Wells contained false financial information provided by real estate brokers. mortgage brokers and borrowers, making it impossible for the borrowers to pay back the loans or to be qualified to even make the monthly payments without refinancing over and over during a 30 year period that falsely inflated the cost of housing in the United States and the world over as a result, causing serious economic damage to hundreds of millions
7/13/10	Bank of America Admits to 'Dollar Rolling' $10 Billion in Debt	Sue Reisinger Corporate Counsel law.com	Bank of America said its actions were not "from any intentional misstatement" and were not related to "any fraud or deliberate error." (Bank of America's "intentional misstatements, fraud and deliberate errors" were used to steal homes. MSF) Bank of America admitted it wrongly classified the moves as "sales" when they were really a form of secured borrowing. Critics have said it was an effort by the bank to hide the extent of its investments in risky mortgage securities.
7/13/10	SHORT SALES, FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS AND SELLER/REALTOR SHORT SALE LIABILITY	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Short sales still present massive liability for all parties and it is absolutely critical that sellers and all agents involved in these transactions obtain the advice of an experienced foreclosure defense attorney. Review my blog and contact me directly for more information about this important issue.
7/13/10	Foreclosures Are A Slow Speed Catastrophe Our Courts Are Allowing To Continue	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	THE BURDEN TO PROPERLY PREPARE AND PRESENT A FORECLOSURE CASE MUST BE PLACED SOLELY ON THE PLAINTIFF - AND NO DEFENDANT OR COURT SHOULD LIFT A FINGER UNTIL THAT FILE IS PROPERLY PREPARED WITH ALL FACTS AND EVIDENCE IN ORDER AND READY TO GO.
7/12/10	MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT DENIED- Affidavits in Support of Summary Judgment are Hearsay!	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Judges in Pinellas County have recognized for some time that the Affidavits in Support of Summary Judgment do not form the basis for Summary Judgment in the majority of foreclosure cases. Now judges from across the state are picking up on this. The laws are the same across the state; we need to be fighting for uniform correct interpretation of these laws. Palm Beach County has been a tough environment for borrowers and homeowner defense, but the tide is turning even in that county, as evidenced from the attached transcript.
7/9/10	INDYMAC IS A FAILED CORPORATION- THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE IN LITIGATION!	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Fight to understand who really benefits if an elected circuit court judge throws their neighbor out on the streets. (Fat Cat Wall Street Bankers and foreign investors like Deutsche Bank) Fight to uncover, expose and disclose who the real owners and beneficiaries of foreclosure litigation are…don’t let them hide behind servicers or straw-man litigants….make them come forward and fully disclose their claims.
3/27/10	Florida Judges, Others: Hoodwinked	caseclarity.com	The next target in the game: judges. The mortgage industry already knew there existed an institutionalized bias favoring banks that it would not take much work to obtain judgments and sell the property. So the industry and their attorneys put in whatever they could get away with in front of judges and got judgments. Truth be told that is still going on. Now that so much has been revealed by consumer advocates across the US, and by judges actually paying closer attention, it’s hard not to think that many judges in this state are now feeling – well, hoodwinked.
3/25/10	Vacate Florida Foreclosure Judgment & Sale? “No Problem”	caseclarity.com	In the end, this well-kept secret will continue to fuel the mortgage industry’s rush to displace homeowners even when there is no right to foreclose in the first place. After all, what’s the risk?
7/10/10	KABOOM – JPMORGAN CHASE, CREDIT SUISSE, BANK OF AMERICA, BARCLAYS, CITIGROUP, COUNTRYWIDE, DEUTSCHE BANK, GOLDMAN SACHS, MERRILL LYNCH, MORGAN STANLEY, UBS ET AL SUED FOR FRAUD	4closureFraud.org	HOW CAN SUMMARY JUDGMENT BE GRANTED IN ANY FORECLOSURE CASE WITH ALL THAT IS NOW KNOWN? FRAUD ON THE BORROWERS. FRAUD ON THE INVESTORS. AND NOW FRAUD ON THE COURTS!!!
7/9/10	FAIR GAME: Mortgage Investors Turn to State Courts for Relief	GRETCHEN MORGENSON NY Times	INVESTORS who lost billions on boatloads of faulty mortgage securities have had a hard time holding Wall Street accountable for selling the things in the first place.
7/8/10	Extra Help Hired to Help Courts Push Homeowners out of their Homes Palm Beach County had just 3,049 foreclosures in 2005. Records show that shot up to 30,227 last year.	Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post	"The whole issue of lenders' rights in foreclosure when there are questions of ownership of the note or where there is a securitized trust involved are really complex," Steele said. "It may take some time for these judges to get up to speed with that." But until the judges get up to speed, the Courts are going to continue kicking tens of thousands of people out of their homes, without determining first if it lawful to do so or not. What sort of backlog will we see when more than 90% of these cases MUST be reversed? MSF
7/8/10	Biggest Defaulters on Mortgages Are the Rich	DAVID STREITFELD New York Times	Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population. By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender.
7/7/10	Wells Fargo adds to job losses by shutting 25 Financial outlets in Washington	Puget Sound Business Journal	Wells Fargo said 2,800 jobs will be cut nationally within two months and 1,000 more will be cut in a year. It was unknown how many jobs will be lost in Washington state.
7/7/10	Suicide victim at fire scene faced foreclosure	Nicholas C. Stern The Frederick News-Post	Frederick investigators are considering whether the possibility of foreclosure may have influenced the actions of a Frederick County man who shot and killed himself after setting his home and barn on fire.
7/7/10**	2009 MORTGAGE ASSIGNMENTS – OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS OF ASSETS TRANSFERRED Two systems of justice: one for Wall Street and one for Main Street, means no justice at all.	Attorney Lynn Szymoniak Fraud Digest	Most of these Assignments, of course, were not actually made in 2009. Trusts and trustees did not rush to acquire over a trillion dollars in sub-prime mortgages in 2009. The vast majority of these assignments were made solely for the purpose of “facilitating” foreclosures. Each day, courts, regulators and law enforcement refuse to act on the issue of fraudulent Mortgage Assignments. By failing to act, they choose to protect the interests of Wall Street securitizers, hedge funds, Deutsche Bank (and other foreign banks), CDO sellers and purchasers, especially Goldman Sachs and investors, particularly Chinese traders. If homeowners had committed the equivalent crime and filed millions of fraudulent “Satisfaction of Mortgage” documents, the courts and prisons would be filled with defendants.
7/7/10**	Fraudulent Foreclosure Affidavits on a Massive Scale	Mike Florida Foreclosure Fraud Weblog	Every letter on every affidavit, whether typed or signed, fell in exactly the same place on each sheet of paper – except the notary stamp. What does this mean? The affidavits aren’t affidavits at all – they’re computer-generated images that some foolish notary has been stamping her seal on. Knowing the volume of legal ads run by this paper, they’re probably generating hundreds of them for every issue.
7/7/10	MERS sued on fraud charges Nevada law firm says Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems deprives counties of fees.	Gregg MacDonald Fairfax Times	"They tout themselves as being a recording-fee avoidance scheme," said attorney Robert R. Hager of Nevada law firm Hager & Hearne, which has filed the suits against MERS.
7/3/10	Foreclosure Rocket Dockets in FL are NOT the Answer – What Can Be Done and What Has Been Done RE: A State Wide Moratorium on Foreclosures	4closureFraud	WITH ALL WE KNOW, WITH ALL THE COURTS NOW KNOW, WITH ALL THE FRAUDS PRESENTED, WITH ALL OF THE INVESTIGATIONS STARTED, HOW CAN THE JUDGES OF THIS STATE GRANT SUMMARY JUDGMENTS AT ALL???
7/3/10	The BP Oil Spill and Foreclosures in Florida- Conspiracies, Failures and Incompetence	Matt Weidner Blog	I am in the middle of researching the surprisingly high number of foreclosure cases that were filed in 2008 and 2009 and did not proceed. Many of these cases were not defended in any way. Judges and some parties believe that the homeowners are in modification, but in the majority of cases I’ve found, no modification or deal is in place. The homeowner continues to live in the home with no payment and no communication from any debt collector, whether phantom or real. Did the law firm or party that filed the case ever have any business filing that case?
7/2/10	Home Prices Could Fall Another 50%	Peter Gorenstein - Yahoo! Finance	Using the S&P/Case-Shiller index as his guide, Suttmeier suggests homes across the country could lose half their value. “If it gets back, like stocks, back to the 1999-2000 levels, that’s another 50% down in home prices,” he says.
7/2/10	Bank of America Settlement -- A Sign of True Progress?	Henry Sommer - Credit Slips	And how is anyone going to find the victims, many of whom have lost their homes due to the overcharges? Will they receive any compensation for the tremendous hardships caused by losing their homes? Will consumers have to find out about the settlement and submit claims? How was the settlement figure of $108 million calculated? Maybe there are answers to these questions, but they are not in the settlement. Whether the tens (perhaps hundreds) of thousands of consumers who were harmed can actually access the settlement will be the ultimate test of whether it is more than a headline-grabbing press release and source of funds for FTC “informational” efforts.
7/2/10**	The New Foreclosure Fraud Battleground, Fraud and Motions to Disqualify Counsel	Matt Weidner Blog	We should all be aware now that most assignments of mortgage and endorsements traveling around in foreclosure cases are of questionable authenticity and veracity. Citimortgage admits its own employees signed an assignment of mortgage, essentially conveying a mortgage to itself.
7/1/10	Woman accused of faking death of self, child to avoid foreclosure	MyFoxBoston	A local woman has been charged with faking the death of a child in the military and herself to avoid the foreclosure of her West Bridgewater home.
7/1/10**	"A Gigantic Ponzi Scheme, Lies and Fraud": Howard Davidowitz on Wall Street Watch the video	Aaron Task -Yahoo! Finance	Because accountants and auditors allowed Wall Street firms to carry assets at "completely fraudulent" valuations, he says the industry looked hugely profitable and was able to use borrowed funds to make leveraged bets on all sorts of esoteric instruments. "Their bonuses were based on profits they never made and the leverage they never could have gotten if the numbers were right - no one would've given them the money in their right mind," Davidowitz says
7/1/10**	Feds: Broward cops, FBI agent in mortgage fraud ring	JAY WEAVER, JAMES H. BURNETT III AND AMY SHERMAN Miami Herald	A new mortgage fraud indictment stands out because it accuses seven current and former police officers and an FBI agent -- along with lawyers and brokers -- of conspiring to obtain millions in illegal loans.
7/1/10**	Beth Cerni – Robo-Signer – A Symbol of America’s Foreclosure Crisis	Lisa ForeclosureHamlet.org	Even if America’s foreclosure crisis doesn’t personally affect you; one day you or your loved ones may be in front of a judge who is immune to fabricated evidence presented by the adversary’s attorney who had an employee create whatever evidence is needed to prove the client’s case. Think about it. This is so much bigger than the banker propaganda. Be very wary of anything or anyone who pushes the view that this crisis is about people who lied on a mortgage application.
6/30/10	BANK OF AMERICA PRACTICES FORCE HOMEOWNERS TO FACE FORECLOSURE “These families were acting responsibly to try to save their homes,” said TRLA attorney Molly Rogers. “But with every bit of contact, Bank of America put up roadblocks to prevent them from succeeding.”	Cynthia Martinez Texas Insider	Instead of providing them with the information necessary to save their homes, Bank of America provided inconsistent information, lost important paperwork, and failed to notify them of the status of their loans. In cases where forbearance and loan modification agreements were made, Bank of America ignored the arrangements and put homes up for foreclosure even though families made their payments.
6/30/10	Judge sentenced for forged signatures on loan documents	Jeremy Roebuck The Monitor	The jury convicted the suspended magistrate on four counts of forgery. Elsa Municipal Judge Hilda Caceres was sentenced Wednesday to five years of probation for faking required signatures on a $227,000 loan application.
6/30/10**	David J. Stern Enterprises, Foreclosure Rocket Dockets and The Catastrophic Breakdown of Law “You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see in one of these cases where a defense attorney cross-examines, takes the deposition of these people and we can see whether they should be charged with perjury for all these affidavits. -Judge Rondolino	Matt Weidner Blog	The pressure to “push foreclosure judgments through” is contributing to a fundamental breakdown in the rule of law and a degradation of the judiciary in general. This breakdown will be dramatically accelerated as more and more courts move to establish “rocket dockets” or when judges operating normal dockets fail to hold foreclosure cases to the same standards of law and rules that all other areas of the law are held to. The short term outcome of such practices may indeed be pushing cases through, but the long-term consequences are profoundly dramatic and potentially catastrophic. Those who recognized this early on will be looked to provide leadership to help find our way out of the incredible mess that was allowed to be created.
6/30/10	Homeowners Association That Evicted U.S. Soldier Gets Death Threats	Candy Evans Housing Watch	Now their case is heating up the Lone Star State, and could become a pivotal argument for changing Texas state law. In years past, bills to protect Texas homeowners from the claws of HOAs have failed.
6/30/10	Who Cares? It’s Only a Foreclosure. "Judge, do you have any idea who you are granting foreclosure to?"	Matt Weidner Blog	In courtrooms all across this country, basic rules of practice and fundamental rules of evidence and law are being totally ignored and cast aside because, “it’s only a foreclosure” and “we’ve got to move these cases along”. But the real question is…. Why the big rush to foreclose on homes?
6/29/10**	Banks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal Wachovia admitted it didn’t do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. That’s the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history -- a sum equal to one-third of Mexico’s current gross domestic product.	Michael Smith-Bloomberg	Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine. The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.
6/28/10**	WITHOUT RECOURSE: Hangman’s Noose	livinglies Collete McDonald & Neil Garfield	Most if not all “assignments” or “indorsements” are without effect, which means that the party having legal title to the instrument is the party named on it. And THAT means that each time the opposition attempts to establish authority under the chain of securitization, they are actually making the case that they have no such authority. You can’t come to court and say I am the Trustee for asset-backed Pool XYZ which has ownership of this loan” and then turnaround and say you also have authority (legal authority supporting the power of sale in non-judicial states and the standing to foreclose in judicial states) to represent the “lender.” Not if the “lender” is named on the note as payee and on the mortgage or deed of trust as the lender. they want to establish some equitable right to enforce the note, they MUST file a judicial action.
6/28/10	Do Mortgage Pools Really Exist?	Foreclosureblues Blog	Problem is – it is very difficult to get through discovery in courts. Documents produced are minimal – and no one will divulge that the acquiring bank – or its SPV conduit – has long rid itself of your loan. If anyone here suddenly ran into large sums of money – and paid the trustee for the SPV that claims to hold the collection rights to your mortgage – you would be paying the wrong party. Your payment would never be accounted for – then how can they be the foreclosing party?”
6/27/10	Wall Street Hiring Jumps Most Since 2008 as Guarantees Return	Michael J. Moore Bloomberg	The removal of uncertainty regarding Congress’s financial reform bill may reinforce the hiring rebound. A deal reached by members of a House and Senate conference last week diluted provisions from the tougher Senate bill, limiting rather than prohibiting the ability of federally insured banks to trade derivatives and invest in hedge funds or private-equity funds.
6/27/10	INFORMATION ABOUT FORECLOSURE ATTORNEY IN FLORIDA IS POWERFUL EVIDENCE OF FORECLOSURE MONEY MOVING OFF-SHORE	Foreclosureblues Blog	We have long suspected that much of the mountains of fraudulent mortgage securitization money, including 3rd party payments, undisclosed yield spreads, CDS profits, and finally foreclosure proceeds has been moved STRAIGHT OFFSHORE! Evidence is starting to come to light…
6/26/10\	Notice of Appeal Filed - Stay of Court Order to Vacate Injunction Stopping Bank of America Foreclosures in Utah Requested	Morgan Skinner KCSG News	Barlow told KCSG News he was “troubled by Court ruling but unrelenting in pursuit of redress for his client (Cox) and other homeowners who have become victims of mortgage lending gone mad.”
6/26/10	SHOCKING- MIND BLOWING INFORMATION ABOUT FORECLOSURE MILL DAVID J STERN	Matt Weidner Blog	I encourage everyone who practices in foreclosure or who cares one bit about the impact foreclosures are having on our state and our courts to read the document very carefully and consider the implications of each of the statements. I wish that every judge and every overworked judicial assistant and clerk of court and struggling homeowner and reporter and concerned citizen would read this post and the attached prospectus very carefully.
6/25/10	MERS sued for fraud, billions in penalties in Nevada, California	FRANK X. MULLEN JR. RGJ.com	MERS serves as the mortgagee of record for lenders, investors and loan servicers in county land records, but doesn’t own any mortgages. The lawsuits argue that listing the firm as the owner of mortgages in which it has no interest, in order to avoid filing fees and taxes that are legally required constitutes fraud.
6/25/10**	Do Affidavits in Foreclosure Form The Basis for a Charge of Perjury?	Matt Weidner Blog	Judge says:“You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see in one of these cases where a defense attorney cross-examines, takes the deposition of these people and we can see whether they should be charged with perjury for all these affidavits.”
6/25/10**	Mass. wins $102m in subprime loan case “Morgan Stanley [knew] they were making loans [designed to fail].’’	Beth Healy Boston Globe	The deal, the first of its kind in the country with Morgan Stanley, followed an investigation by Coakley’s office into the firm for fueling subprime mortgages written by New Century Financial Corp. , a large California lender that went bankrupt in 2007. She said Morgan Stanley knew that New Century was making predatory loans, but continued to provide the lender billions of mortgage dollars by buying the loans to turn them into securities.
6/24/10**	The SEC Just Demanded More Information On JPMorgan Repurchase Liabilities Folks, this is significant. MSF	Menal Mehta, Branch Hill Capital	The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently took a much needed step towards improving the transparency of bank balance sheets, particularly when it comes to the adequacy of reserves for mortgage repurchase obligations stemming from banks' violations of representations and warranties. Due to findings of mortgage fraud and underwriting deficiencies in the mortgage origination process and misrepresentation in the packaging of mortgages, banks have been experiencing a drastic increase in the number of repurchase demands they are receiving, including from Government-Sponsored Entities (“GSE”), monoline and mortgage insurers and other end purchasers of RMBS securitizations, such as the Federal Home Loan Banks.
6/24/10**	They Keep Stealing - Why Keep Paying? You didn't cause this mess. They did.	Dylan Ratigan "The Dylan Ratigan Show"	If you are one of them, chances are you didn't do anything wrong. Almost all of you were not subprime borrowers or speculators, but merely people buying a house that they thought they could afford at the time. You were just unlucky in that you bought a house during a time when an outdated Wall Street and their complicit politicians decided to use housing to regain the income they lost due to the Schwabs and Etrades of the internet age.
6/24/10**	California jury orders Fidelity units to pay $5.7M The company had been sued over a mortgage fraud scheme.	Mark Basch Jacksonville.com	A California state court jury this week ordered two subsidiaries of Jacksonville -based Fidelity National Financial Inc. to pay $5.7 million in punitive damages after finding employees of the companies played a role in a mortgage fraud scheme.
6/22/10	Sparks man's overdue mortgage leads to sledge hammer beating	FRANK X. MULLEN JR. RGJ.com	The driver -- a contractor for Wells Fargo Bank who was "inspecting" the house because Peterson had missed [a] monthly mortgage payment -- pulled over. An argument ensued and the bank's agent, who claimed self-defense, hit Peterson repeatedly with a sledgehammer, according to a police report.
6/22/10	Crisis Weighs on Securitized Mortgage Loan Performance	Amilda Dymi Mortgage Servicing News	The performance of securitized residential and commercial mortgage loans is expected to further deteriorate in 2010 and for several years to come. Loss mitigation and modification efforts of servicers of securitized residential mortgage loans have not been able to avoid redefault among "a sizeable amount of these loans." Just wait until everyone finds out the collateral of more than 60 million mortgages is void and worthless. MSF
6/21/10	Diversified Field Solutions, Inc. Sues Bank of America	BUSINESS WIRE	BKGG, attorneys for Diversified Field Solutions, Inc. a provider of property preservation services for foreclosed homes, filed a lawsuit against Bank of America Corporation today alleging, among other things, breach of contract and fraud. BAC contracted with DFS to render property preservation services to foreclosed BAC properties in 14 states. DFS alleges that it has been damaged by BAC's failure to uphold terms of the contract.
6/21/10	Freddie Mac / Bank of America / Taylor Bean Whitaker – IMPORTANT INFO & STATEMENT REGARDING ASSIGNMENTS… TRANSFERS… NOTE OWNERSHIP!!!	4closureFraud Nye Lavalle	“Indeed, it appears as though many loans and other mortgage-related assets have been double and even triple-pledged to various constituencies“
6/21/10**	Whose Bank to Kick: A Tale of Two Tragedies	Ray Brescia Assistant Professor of Law, Albany Law School	Some intrepid state attorneys general have used their powers to bring some subprime lenders to justice, at times even making them establish the kind of fund BP will create. In fact, Bank of America, to settle claims brought by a small group of states against its subprime lending subsidiary, Countrywide, created just such a fund, of more than $8 billion, which is slowly making its way to bank victims. This and other, similar funds are being used to support enforcement efforts and modify predatory loans, like a $10 million settlement of a lawsuit in Massachusetts against the now bankrupt Fremont Bank. But millions of Americans face the prospect of foreclosure without any form of relief, and, apart from modest efforts to date to get a handful of lenders to create such funds, little has been done to force banks to the table to modify mortgages.
6/21/10	Mortgage fraud sweep includes CU cases	Credit Union National Association	The sweep has credit union ties, namely the now-defunct U.S. Mortgage Corp. and its subsidiary, Credit Union National Mortgage. Unlike previous mortgage fraud sweeps, Operation Stolen Dreams focused not only on federal criminal cases but also on civil enforcement, recovering money for victims, and increasing cooperation with state and local partners.
6/21/10**	Court Rebuffs American Home Mortgage and HSBC that Foreclosed on Same Home Video here	Paola Iuspa-Abbott Finance Made Simple	“It is not uncommon for two lenders to be suing the same person on the same note,” said Fort Lauderdale foreclosure defense attorney Carol Asbury. “What happens is the loans are sold and sold — sometimes even before the ink is dry — two to three times.” That inevitably creates confusion, said Asbury, who is not involved in this case. During the housing boom that ended in 2007, lenders made loans that were later sold multiple times to investors led by trusts, like the one administered by HSBC. But lenders didn’t always pass along the proper documentation, including notes and mortgages. Now, trying to prove who owns what can be difficult, increasing the risk of homeowners losing their homes to the wrong lender.
6/20/10	The Inside Story on the Riggs Reversal- Fighting Ghosts, “Evidence” That Changes, Slippery “Facts”	Matt Weidner Blog	I’ve been arguing for more than a year that Indymac doesn’t have the legal authority to throw my 84 year old woman out of her home because their assets were sold and only the new entity could pursue those assets. (Substitute plaintiff Deutsche Bank is NOT the real party either Matt. MSF)
6/19/10**	The Foreclosing Banks Created The Crisis Through Fraud and Crimes At The Highest Levels	Matt Weidner Blog	The biggest players on Wall Street, JP Morgan, Bear Stearns, Chase, etc... all got together to create larger pools of mortgage backed securities that they sold to investors nationally and abroad. THEY COMMITTED MASSIVE FRAUD UPON THESE INVESTORS BY LYING ABOUT THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE COLLATERAL IN THOSE SECURITIES.
6/19/10	ROBO-SIGNOR When 'Bryan J. Bly' became 'NB,' did he know what he was signing? Florida law says: "Once commissioned, the notary must sign precisely as commissioned by the state of Florida, in the exact name appearing on your notarial commission certificate.''	Susan Taylor Martin, Tampa Bay Times	According to the transcript of a recent hearing, Pinellas Circuit Judge Anthony Rondolino noted that the same individual alleged the same set of facts on affidavits filed in two different foreclosure cases. The only change was that the individual claimed to be a director of one company on one affidavit and director of another company on the second affidavit. "That really increased my interest in this subject matter,'' Judge Rondolino said, "because … I don't have any confidence that any of the documents the court's receiving on these mass foreclosures are valid.''
6/18/10	Unofficial Problem Bank List increases to 781 Institutions	CalculatedRisk	Note: this is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources.
6/18/10	China Could Dump Its Massive Fannie And Freddie Holdings	Vincent Fernando, CFA Business Insider	There's always the risk China could sell down its holdings, hurting themarket valuefor these assets, even though such an action would end up hurting the value of its remaining Fannie and Freddie assets as well. This would be bad news for American holders of mortgage assets, such as financial institutions and the government.
6/17/10	1,200 charged in federal mortgage-fraud probe	Jim Puzzanghera And E. Scott Reckard Los Angeles Times	"We know that mortgage fraud ruins lives, destroys families and devastates whole communities, so attacking the problem from every possible angle is vital," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said. "These schemes are despicable; they are dangerous to our economy, and they will not be tolerated."
6/17/10	North Carolina announces creation of a new Mortgage Fraud Task Force	Chris Baysden Triangle Business Journal	Locally, Gilmore says that the Eastern District office has gotten convictions out of three cases so far and several other cases are expected to move forward in the next few weeks.
6/17/10	House Republicans Want Penalties for Strategic Defaulters	Carrie Bay - DSnews	Here we go again. Penalize the borrowers who entered into a contract in good faith, only to discover the fraudsters not only fatally and egregiously breached the contract, but were actually a criminal enterprise following its highly-engineered "Blueprint to Unprecedented Wealth".
6/17/10	'Save My House' Contest: Saddest Foreclosure Victim Wins A Free Lawyer	Laura Bassett - Huffington Post	In hopes of saving at least one family's home, Avvo, an online legal directory and lawyer rating system, launched a "Save My House" contest this month for Florida homeowners facing foreclosure. Since the contest kicked off on Monday, June 7th, over 200 foreclosure stories have been posted on Avvo's website.
6/16/10	Foreclosure Fraud in America – Murder/Suicide over Foreclosure Stress – Dismissing Foreclosures, It Works	Michael-Edward yourremedyisinthelaw.com	Money problems—and marital troubles that may have stemmed from the man's financial situation—were being investigated as possible motives in Sunday night's shootings. Foreclosure "could have been the issue," said Sgt. Martinez.
6/16/10	More Foreclosure Bloodshed – Owners of Murder-Suicide Home Faced Foreclosure, 3-Year-Old Son, Shot at Least Three Times	4closureFraud	A couple found dead in an apparent murder-suicide that also left their 3-year-old son critically wounded were awash in credit-card debt and about to lose their home to foreclosure, records show.
6/16/10**	Taylor Bean & Whitaker’s former chief indicted THE ORANGE JUMPSUIT! Individuals and companies that violate the law in a reckless pursuit of profits must be held accountable for their crimes," Assistant Attorney General Breuer said in a news release.	South Florida Business Journal	Farkas and his co-conspirators at TBW and Colonial Bank allegedly transferred money between accounts at Colonial Bank to hide the overdrafts. After the overdrafts grew to tens of millions of dollars, Farkas and his co-conspirators allegedly covered up the overdrafts and operating losses by causing Colonial Bank to purchase from TBW more than $400 million in what amounted to fake mortgage loan assets, including loans that TBW had already sold to other investors and fake interests in pools of loans.
6/16/10	Foreclosure Fraud – The Importance of “Truthfulness” in “This Environment” to the Courts RE: Affidavits	4closureFraud	The importance of truthfulness in affidavits cannot be overstated. An affidavit is testimony under oath; the same as if the signor were present in court and speaking from a witness stand. Each fact asserted within the affidavit is done so under penalty of perjury.
6/16/10	DEFAZIO URGES PROTECTIONS TO PREVENT ADDITIONAL TAXPAYER BAILOUTS OF FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC	U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio	(From the letter): After injecting over $100 billion to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac viable, taxpayers have bailout fatigue and do not support further expenditures. However, it appears that without swift action, the taxpayers are at risk of having to pay for additional losses. While I am encouraged that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have increased reviews of delinquent loans, it appears that many lending institutions refusing to honor their obligations to take back high risk loans that do not comply with federal standards. This is unacceptable and I urge you to take immediate action to address this matter.
6/16/10**	American Residential Equities Sues GMAC Mortgage for Mismanaged Loan Servicing Alleges Georgia Elected Official, GMAC Pressured Company for Favorable Treatment	MortgageOrb	According to the lawsuit, Rep. Heckstall contacted GMAC on behalf of his brother and requested that his mortgage be modified a second time. ARE contends that GMACpressured the company to offer a second mortgage modification to Cornelius Heckstall, despite the fact that he had failed to make payments according to an earlier loan modification with identical terms.
6/15/10**	THIS WHOLE JUDICIAL SYSTEM IS A FARCE. A BROKEN DOWN, FRAUDULENT, SHAKY, DISHONEST AND TERRIFYINGLY CORRUPT SYSTEM.	Matt Weidner Blog	The press and the general public is starting to pick up on these major systemic issues that judges, attorneys and other insiders have known about for some time…when the whole system collapses we’ve all got a real mess on our hands….stay tuned.
6/15/10	Former AGs were unaware of scam	Daniel Barrick Concord Monitor	Other lawmakers wanted to know whether Ayotte made white-collar prosecutions a priority as attorney general. One wondered why a mortgage fraud task force she announced in 2008 never caught wind of Financial Resources Mortgage. Others asked why Ayotte’s office did not pursue criminal charges against the company, especially after a former attorney with the Department of Justice told an investigator that he believed Farah was breaking the law.
6/15/10	Foreclosure case dismissed after judge finds he’s been misled by alleged lender	Kim Miller Palm Beach Post	A foreclosure case against a St. Johns County couple was dismissed last week following confusion and possible deliberate “fraud upon the court” concerning the actual owner of the promissory note.
6/14/10	Foreclosure Mediations- What You Don’t Know Will Devastate Your Clients	Matt Weidner Blog	Given the immense pressures the foreclosure crisis is causing across the country and especially in this state, it really is a testament to their integrity when our independent and committed judges stand up and provide real victories in the fight to ensure that individuals rights in foreclosure cases are being upheld and respected. We need to continue to support these judges and continue to provide all judges with real facts and critical information they need.
6/14/10	One Crappy Deal A story that reveals how a toxic cocktail of investment packages helped poison the retirement funds of hundreds of Australians.	Marian Wilkinson ABC Australia	Reporter Marian Wilkinson lifts the lid on the behaviour of investment bank Goldman Sachs in the United States. Speaking to a whistleblower who brought allegations against the company to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI, she also examines key internal company documents that show how the deal was sold in Australia.
6/14/10	Freddie in Uproar Over Bank of America Probe Tied to TBW	National Mortgage News	Bank of America is seeking access to Freddie Mac's books and to question its officials about the mortgage finance company's "extensive business relationship" with TBW.
6/14/10	Use the Bank’s Greed and Deception Against it to Stop Foreclosure	Mortgage Servicing News	For homeowners who have dealt with the loss of a home due to a mortgage company’s fraud, misconduct, or illegal activities, it is little surprise that banks most often win their foreclosure lawsuits against the clients they target. Nearly all of the laws are designed to give some token disclosure notices but, more importantly, make sure that homeowners are kept as much in the dark as possible about what is actually happening to them in the mortgage process.
6/14/10	Rapper Chamillionaire Loses Houston Home to Foreclosure "when the market went down ... the house ended up being worth nothing."	Aaron Crowe HousingWire	The Houston native is getting out of a mortgage for a $2 million home there by not making payments on the mansion and letting it go into foreclosure. The trend of walking away from a mortgage in the down market is hitting even millionaire musicians.
6/14/10	Fla. Supremes Order Bar to Prosecute UPL Against Banks	Neil Garfield - livinglies	What this does is fill out your argument that the entire transaction was illusory and nothing was what it seemed to be. That is what TILA, RESPA and other consumer protection laws are all about. Yes you signed the documents but that doesn’t mean the documents were properly prepared, nor does it mean that a security interest in your property was ever or could ever be perfected. Yes an obligation was created, but that doesn’t mean you owe the pretender lender. If you shop at Target, the neighborhood supermarket cannot collect the money for your purchase at Target.
6/13/10**	Finally, Borrowers Score Points "Law firms that have increased their profits a hundred fold by bringing document fabrication and forgery “in-house” are now up for criminal investigations, indictment, conviction and prison." Finally the ship is turning. More and more Courts are beginning to recognize the fraudulent predatory practices of the nation's largest financial institutions.	Gretchen Morgenson - NY Times Includes important preface by former attorney Neil Garfield.	Though Countrywide’s mortgage contracts specifically barred such practices, they served the company well by generating income during downturns when it was harder to keep making money off new mortgages. This “counter-cyclical diversification strategy,” as Countrywide called it, was designed to “extract the last dollar out of the pockets of the most desperate consumers,” said Jon Leibowitz, the F.T.C. chairman.
6/13/10**	M & T BANK - A CASE OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO FLORIDA FORECLOSURE DEFENSE LAWYERS	LYNN E. SZYMONIAK, ESQ., ED., FRAUD DIGEST	[Upon review of Defendants’ motion, the Court finds the plaintiff lacks standing and is not a proper party to the suit. The Court has been misled by the Plaintiff from the beginning. In its initial Complaint, the Plaintiff alleged it owned the note that was lost. Then Plaintiff alleged that not only was the lost Note found, but the Plaintiff actually owned the Note by Assignment. After both of these Complaints were dismissed, Plaintiff then alleged that Wells Fargo owned the Note, while the Plaintiff was merely a servicer of the loan. Moreover, the Assignment on which Plaintiff relied in its First Amended Complaint postdates the filing of this foreclosure action and is inconsistent with the Mortgage, Note, stamps allegedly affixed to the Note, and the Allonge.]
6/11/10	Australian fund sues Goldman for 'bad deal'	Peter Ryan ABC Australia staff	The product in question was the Timberwolf collateralized debt obligation (CDO) which, it was revealed in recent US Senate hearings, was described as "one shitty deal" in Goldman Sachs internal emails.
6/11/10	BofA can resume Utah foreclosure sales Reversal » Federal court judge dissolves an order issued last month in a 5th District ruling.	Tony Semerad The Salt Lake Tribune	A federal judge on Friday dissolved a court order that had stopped one of the country's largest banks from selling foreclosed homes in Utah. U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups, after hearing legal arguments Thursday, has granted a Bank of America request to cancel the preliminary injunction against its trustee sales in the state. [The case is now on appeal. MSF]
6/9/10**	'America's Foreclosure King' How the United States Became a PR Disaster for Deutsche Bank	Christoph Pauly and Thomas Schulz -SpiegelOnline	Nevertheless, Deutsche Bank's service providers (Litton Loan) repeatedly try to have houses vacated, even when they are already occupied by new owners who are paying their mortgages. This practice has led to nationwide lawsuits against the Frankfurt-based bank. On the Internet, angry Americans fighting to keep their houses have taken to using foul language to berate the German bank.
6/9/10	Disabled homeowner loses Mom, now fears losing home over Litton Loan mortgage servicing abuse	Denise Richardson Givemebackmycredit.com	In March of 2006 my mother received a 4th demand letter wanting $1,341.22. She called them to tell them she was not in default. After being on the phone with them for over 1 1/2 hours she had a spell and died of a heart attack shortly after getting off the phone with Litton employees.
6/9/10	Goldman Faces $1 Billion Suit Basis Capital Cites 'False Representations' in Collapsed CDO; Abacus Factor? The Complaint	JOE BEL BRUNO AND JOSEPH CHECKLER Wall Street Journal	An Australian hedge-fund manager filed a lawsuit seeking more than $1 billion in damages from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., accusing the Wall Street firm of fraudulently selling a "now notorious" financial instrument called Timberwolf.
6/9/10	Three More Suspects Nabbed in Million-Dollar Bait-and-Switch Home Refinance Scam	California Attorney General	As a result of this scheme, many homeowners were forced to sell their homes, come out of retirement, or tap retirement savings. Who is going after the BIGplayers?
6/8/10	Most Servicers Fail To Meet Rating Criteria	Mortgage Servicing News	There is increased interest from servicers and special servicers of various types of assets to get an operational grade by the agency. However, most on both the commercial and the residential side of the market fail to qualify.
6/7/10	Wells Fargo Sanctioned For Contempt and Sloppy Accounting	Matt Weidner Blog	Client makes all payments, but the lenders numbers just keep on changing. This happens in virtually every case. The lesson here is the client kept good notes and records and a good team of attorneys fought for them. Read the opinion and the order and consider how to use these issues in all of your cases: DeLaFuentes, DeLaFuentesOrder. (Also see this lawsuit servicerfraud )
6/7/10	Countrywide Pays $108 Million to Settle Fees Complaint	EDWARD WYATT NY TIMES	The money will go to more than 200,000 homeowners whose loans were serviced by Countrywide before July 2008, when it was acquired by Bank of America. [“Now more than ever, companies that service consumers’ mortgages need to do so in an honest and fair way,” Mr. Leibowitz said.]... How about: "NOW MORE THAN EVER, WE NEED TO PROSECUTE AND HANG ALL THE CRIMINALS AND PARASITES THAT SOLE OUR HOMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
6/7/10 PRESS RELEASE	Countrywide Will Pay $108 Million for Overcharging Struggling Homeowners; Loan Servicer Inflated Fees, Mishandled Loans of Borrowers in Bankruptcy	Federal Trade Commission	According to the complaint filed by the FTC, Countrywide’s loan-servicing operation deceived homeowners who were behind on their mortgage payments into paying inflated fees – fees that could add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Countrywide was ranked as the top mortgage servicer in the United States, with a balance of more than $1.4 trillion in its servicing portfolio.
6/6/10	All Summary Judgments of Foreclosure May Be VOID!	Matt Weidner Blog	Post includes links to documents.
6/6/10	Banks Say No. Too Bad Taxpayers Can’t.	Gretchen Morgenson - NY Times	As profits rebound at many of these institutions, however, artful dodging becomes more disturbing. And when disguising problems winds up harming the taxpayer — the same folks who rode to the rescue of banks with billions of dollars — the denial is downright exasperating.
6/5/10	BOMBSHELL! JUDGE ORDERS INJUNCTION STOPPING ALL FORECLOSURE PROCEEDINGS BY BANK OF AMERICA; RECONTRUST; HOME LOAN SERVICING, MERS ET AL The Judge felt so strong about the case before him, he issued the preliminary injunction order without a hearing halting the foreclosure process.	4closurefraud	The attorney’s for Bank of America promptly filed to move the case to federal court to avoid having to deal with the Judge who is not unaccustomed to high profile cases and has a history of watching out for the “little people” and citizen’s rights. Barlow said, “can you imagine the audacity of the Bank of America and other big mortgage lenders that took billions in bailout funds to help resolve the mortgage mess and the financial institutions now are profiting by kicking people out of their homes without due process under the law of the State of Utah.
6/5/10	Florida Supreme Court tightening foreclosure rules	Todd Ruger - Herald Tribune	The Florida Supreme Court has reaffirmed its fight against the sloppy legal work being used to retake homes in thousands of foreclosure cases across the state. A review of Manatee and Sarasota county cases showed attorneys for banks and lenders had widely ignored a new high court rule that requires them to verify -- under penalty of perjury -- the accuracy of allegations and paperwork in the foreclosure case.
6/4/10	Lenders Not Acting in Good Faith Should be Denied Foreclosure	Matt Weidner Blog	With respect to foreclosures, “the general rule in Florida is that…[the] foreclosure must not be unconscionable or inequitable.” Pezzimenti v. Cirou, 466 So.2d 274, 276 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985).
6/3/10	Bill SB 1275 to Prevent Avoidable Foreclosure Clears California Senate	PR Newswire	"One of the oldest principles of law is that a right without a remedy is no right at all," said Lisa Sitkin, staff attorney at Housing and Economic Rights Advocates in Oakland. "In order for laws to be meaningful, violations must have real consequences, and victims must have real avenues to seek redress."
6/2/10	The “A,B,C’s” of playing the odds and probabilities…by crooks, plaintiffs, and their foreclosure mill fraudsters	Matt Weidner Blog	What follows below is another excellent essay by a normal, everyday guy who’s getting hammered in this foreclosure process. The thing that bothers me so much is he’s pointing out major, fatal assaults that my beloved courts are suffering every day at the hands of the Plaintiff’s mills. I certainly care about my clients, but my much larger concern is how this entire system has degraded and defaced our courtrooms as painstakingly detailed in the attached essay.
6/2/10	WHAT’S THE POINT OF COURTS AND LAWS AND STATUES AND RULES IF THEY’RE ALL WANTONLY IGNORED? Does The Mortgage Loan Trust Even Exist?	Matt Weidner Blog	Has there ever been a time in American jurisprudence where such massive amounts of wealth have been transferred with no evidentiary basis to support the transfers? -Matt From the Delaware Secretary of State: "I do hereby further certify that the records of this office fail to show that a statutory trust of the above title has ever filed a certificate of trust in this department.”
6/2/10	Curious Trading by Federal Reserve Advisor May Result in JPMorgan Chase $1.264 Billion Windfall	zerohedge	One has to ask what the purpose of this turnover is, given it was sold to the public as a portfolio simply being wound down. Just what has BlackRock been selling off and who is buying the discards? (Could it be the Fed itself?) Is this a case of getting stronger paper into the portfolio for the benefit of JPMorgan Chase, run by President Obama’s "Favorite Banker", Jamie Dimon?
6/2/10	Vile Voice Mails Cost Agency $1.5 Million	Michelle Ruiz - Nation	Advanced Call Center Technologies, usually in the business of collecting money for its clients, now finds itself $1.5 million in debt to Allen Jones. A Dallas County court awarded him the hefty judgment after a jury found the agency barraged Jones with harassing and racially charged phone calls.
6/1/10	Legal mess over foreclosures deepening	Tom Ruger - Herald Tribune	An attempt to fix the sloppy legal work plaguing thousands of foreclosure cases in Florida has been ineffective, and has now caused a legal mess of its own The Florida Supreme Court got tough on attorneys for banks and lenders in February, responding to stories of homeowners losing their property based on shoddy or incomplete paperwork. The incomplete filings also wasted judicial resources and clogged up the courts.
6/1/10	Letter to President Obama : Please investigate America's housing fraud. Homeowners are reporting that no one in your government is responding to housing fraud complaints	AHRC News Services	With so many millions burdened with foreclosures, subject to illegal mortgage contracts and judgments especially in California, it is time for you, Mr. President to give some attention to the plight to the millions who have been scammed.
6/1/10**	Court orders Florida Bar to become involved in mortgage Unlicensed Practice of Law case. Can nonlawyers prepare mortgage documents? No!	Florida Bar	The banks used non-lawyer employees to prepare mortgage documents, and in turn the borrowers were charged between $50 and $150 for that work. The suit claimed that was UPL and the homeowners should be reimbursed.
6/1/10**	A Detailed Treatment of The Cast of Criminals in a Mortgage Foreclosure/Mortgage Backed Securities Case Article includes Pooling & Servicing Agreement, Prospectus and the Complaint.	Matt Weidner Blog	The lawsuit that appears immediately below is a fantastic read for any party involved in the foreclosure process. The bottom line is the complaint alleges that the Fat Cats and The Wall Street Wizards were all lying to one another when they concocted this deal and sold it off to one another. In this complaint, they allege that: 85% of all loans reviewed breached the warranties and representations 51% were charged off within two years of the transaction closing
5/29/10	How Many Mortgages Not Paid By Borrower Really Are Paid in Full? (It Could Be A Whole Lot)	Matt Weidner Blog	What if The Loans Really Are Paid? Beyond those issues, please consider some very thought provoking questions presented by a very astute reader of Matt's blog. It’s very complex stuff, but it all boils down to do we have any faith that the well-connected powers that put all this in play have not crafted themselves an “out” strategy that still has them winning? If you can’t answer that question do you wonder why the lenders won’t accept reasonable short sales? Do you wonder why there are virtually no mortgage modifications being completed? Read Matt's article and consider:
5/29/10	FEDERAL BANKRUPTCY JUDGE CRACKS DOWN ON OPEN SHADY HSBC /ATTORNEYPRACTICES	Matt Weidner Blog	I remain dumbfound as to why, in light of depositions, findings of fact and other real evidence, judges across this country use their courtrooms as ATM machines churning out hundreds of millions of dollars to Millionaire Foreclosure Millsand their amorphous, unidentified clients and entities when both the law firms and the clients are engaged in systematic unethical conduct
5/28/10	Your Affidavit To Support Foreclosure Says You Have Personal Knowledge…Do You Have ANY Personal Knowledge? NO!	Matt Weidner Blog	Every practitioner and consumer should read this deposition and see what we mean when defense attorneys (and increasingly judges) recognize that foreclosures are granted every single day across this state with not one piece of admissible evidence.
5/28/10	Non-Judicial Sale is NOT an Available Election for a Securitized Loan	livinglies	The problem is that a statute passed for judicial economy is now being used to force the burden of proof onto the borrower in the foreclosure of their own home.This is not being addressed yet, but it will be addressed soon.
5/28/10	Soldier in Iraq Loses Home Over $800 Debt	Nick Baumann MotherJones	Capt. Michael Clauer's homeowners' association foreclosed on his family's $300,000 house and sold it for $3,500.
5/27/10**	Title Searches are a Key to Every Foreclosure Case- Problems With Title Are A Consequence of This Attack on Our Judicial System Title search	Matt Weidner Blog	The foreclosure courtrooms that are choked now are going to be choked in years to come with title claims as we try to resolve and repair all the damages that were done by sloppy title work and abuses of the court processes. The point of these examples are to remind practitioners and judges that the foreclosure fraud fight is not just about defending homeowners, it’s about defending the fundamentals of the court process and defending the integrity of title to real property which is a bedrock American institution.
5/27/10	Lehman Sues JPMorgan for Billions of Dollars in ‘Lost Value’	Linda Sandler and David McLaughlin - Bloomberg	JPMorgan gained extra collateral from Lehman in part by threatening to stop providing clearing services that were the “lifeblood” of the Lehman brokerage and other affiliates, according to the lawsuit. Lehman said JPMorgan put a “financial gun” to its head and gave the already insolvent investment bank nothing in return for the collateral.
5/26/10	SEC Charging Main Street for accessing their database	BARBARA CALDWELL	Knowing where your mortgage is – who owns it now and sometimes what the chain of ownership was, is a critical piece for many people fighting to save their homes. Now the SEC wants to charge our Main Street angel for the privilege of using their database.
5/26/10**	Hazard For The Title Insurance Industry Part II- New Financial Collapse Coming	Matt Weidner Blog	As we know from the investigations that are now being made public, and which will continue to develop in the years to come, Wall StreetFat Cats teamed up with shifty players from the mortgage industry to monetize then liquidate the single largest collection of public wealth ever accumulated….the equity Americans held in real estate. The unchecked, unregulated and unrestrained business practices allowed two entire sectors of the economy- real estate/mortgage and Wall Street/finance to merge together in an orgy of greed, fraud and deceit. The “screw the rules”, “everyone for themselves” culture eventually led to collapse.
5/26/10	Every Time a Judge Cancels a Mortgage a Homeowner Gets His or Her Wings	Mandelman Matters	HSBC and Florida Default, according to the court records, chose to ignore Judge Bailey’s order, didn’t post the bond by April 2nd, as ordered, and quite defiantly went ahead with the foreclosure and an April 9th sale that conveniently ended up with HSBC having the title to Eslava’s condo
5/25/10	Judge Sentences Wall Street’sGreed and Hedge Fund Founder to Prison	Mandelman Matters	“The void left by the sudden end of my career will never end,” Kurland told AP News. I hope not, Kurland, because the pain you and others like you have caused won’t end in many of their lifetimes either. Only difference is… in two years and three months, you’ll be back at the country club or out on your yacht, and the rest of the people you harmed will likely be living on Social Security and standing in line to get food stamps.
5/25/10	BOMBSHELL- Miami Judge Sanctions Florida Default Law-Wipes Out Mortgage on Home Transcript	Matt Weidner Blog	“Judges are looking at these cases a little bit differently than they would have four, five years ago,” said Frankel, who represents King Cole. “They are more aware of what is going on in the foreclosure cases.”
5/25/10	Wall Street's self-diagnosis: We're all fine.	Duff McDonald - CNN Money	For about two decades, they stole trillions from global investors, homeowners, taxpayers and the government and were able to get the government to force taxpayers against their will to give them billions more and nobody does a thing about it except spend more taxpayer dollars holding useless hearings. [This generation will go down in history as the dumbest population that ever walked this planet. Is that how we want to be remembered? MSF]
5/24/10	Analysts expect barrage of lender lawsuits to recoup mortgage debt	PAUL OWERS Sun Sentinel	A forgiven mortgage balance through 2012 is not considered taxable income on a primary residence as long as the debt was used to buy or improve the house. But borrowers who walk away from investment properties risk having to pay federal income taxes on the forgiven amount.
5/21/10	Owners Stop Paying Mortgages, and Stop Fretting	DAVID STREITFELD - NY Times	They are fashioning a sort of homemade mortgage modification, one that brings their payments all the way down to zero.
5/20/10	A Brilliant Foreclosure Dismissal By Foreclosure Fraud Fighter Jon Coats	Matt Weidner Blog	The good attorneys in this area have been doing all this for many months now. As a result of this research, preparation and effort, we are not just helping our clients, we’re helping our judges understand and see what’s happening in front of them….that’s our job as dedicated and committed members of this bar.
no date**	Rescuing Bear Stearns Maybe Not Such a Benefit for Foreclosure Victims	unknown	But it is quite ironic that Bear Stearns has been hit so hard by a mortgage crisis that they have actively participated in for years. Bear Stearns owns EMC Mortgage Servicing, a notorious servicer alleged to have been involved in thousands of cases of mortgage servicing fraud. Through some very shady practices, they were instrumental in pushing people out of their homes.
5/19/10	Foreclosure fraud – Where is the Florida Bar? Includes Creed of Professionalism	Matt Weidner Blog	As the essay hints at, the judges here in the Sixth Circuit of Florida “get it”. If you walk into their courtrooms (whether you are defense counsel or plaintiff’s counsel) you’d better have your case in order, your facts straight and you had better not be playing games. Despite the crushing dockets faced by the judges, they read the cases, they know the facts….they’re not just rubber stamping cases, even those ones that are unrepresented. This is unfortunately not the case across the state, but this too will change at some point in time.
5/19/10	Mortgage Fraud, Foreclosure Fraud and The Florida Bar	Woodward's Bar Complaint and Judgment.	Anthony G Woodward A LONG TIME - PROVEN -COURT ROOM LIAR helped ruin the lives of tens of thousands of Florida Home Owners by filing false affidavits in support of illegal and unearned legal fees, for The Florida Default Law Group.
5/19/10	Ex-UBS banker pleads guilty in muni-bond conspiracy	Bloomberg News	A former Wall Street banker with UBS AG pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to rig bids and pay state and local governments below-market returns on investment deals, the Justice Department said. Mr. Zaino's plea marks the first time that an employee of a Wall Street bank has admitted to participating in the conspiracy to deliver added profits on investment deals at taxpayers' expense.
5/18/10**	Conspiracy of Banks Rigging States Came With Crash	Martin Z. Braun and William Selway Bloomberg	A telephone call between a financial adviser in Beverly Hills and a trader in New York was all it took to fleece taxpayers on a water-and-sewer financing deal in West Virginia. The secret conversation was part of a conspiracy stretching across the U.S. by Wall Street banks in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market.
5/18/10	The Other Foreclosure Menace	Fred Schulte, Ben Protess and Lagan Sebert Huffington Post	One raw day in early February, Vicki Valentine stood by helplessly as real estate investors snatched her West Baltimore home over what began with an unpaid city water bill of $362.
5/18/10	Houston Couple Avoids Foreclosure With Suicide Pact	KHOU-TV	Investigators did not publicly identify the couple but confirmed to 11 News that both were unemployed, had numerous bills they could not pay and were in the process of losing their home.
5/18/10**	Foreclosure proceeding and the mockery of justice	anonymous	My opinion is that in the foreclosure arena, our justice system is badly broken. Many Courtrooms have simply become nothing more than “defendant slaughterhouses”. The purpose of this article is to document what is occurring every day in courtrooms across our nation and to show how defendants, especially pro se defendants in mortgage foreclosure actions, are facing extreme bias and therefore a travesty of justice that is severely impairing their Constitutional rights to due process, and no one seems to care.
5/18/10	Protests of JPM Chase on Wall St, of Predatory Loans and Mining, Laissez Faire	Matthew Russell Lee Inner City Press	Of the Big Four American banks, JPMorgan Chase has perhaps benefited more than any other from the financial meltdown. While having securitized many and made some of the most predatory mortgage loans, it was given Bear Stearns, and then Washington Mutual on the cheap. It proceeded to close scores of WaMu branches.
5/17/10	Ordinary people and financial reform	Richard Zombeck The Hill	A lot of people in Washington claim to be on the side of families in the Wall Street reform debate, but a whole lot of ordinary people like me feel shut out and don’t have much of a voice.
5/17/10	Crucial Help for Homeowners Could Never See the Light of Day	Richard Zombeck $hametheBanks.org	Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota), who in my opinion should be wearing a cape to work every day, introduced an amendment to the Financial Reform Bill that would create an Office of Homeowner Advocate to assist homeowners who have been denied a loan modification through HAMP.
5/16/10	The Key to Shutting Down Foreclosure Mills- Attacking Their Questionable Assignments	Matt Weidner Blog	We must continue to attack all these documents and stop foreclosures based on these attacks. Soon we’ll have good decisions that will support shutting foreclosures down based on questionable documents.
5/16/10**	HOW MAIN STREET HAS DESTROYED WALL STREET	Capt. Jack	Since the misinformed public and media have been brainwashed by the real culprits; the banks and Wall Street, here is the fairy tale of how Main Street did it.
5/14/10	More Corruption: Bear Stearns Falsified Information as Raters Shrugged	Teri Buhl	Made up FICO scores? Twenty-minute speed ratings to AAA? If government prosecutors like New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo want answers to why the mortgage-backed securities market was so screwed up, they should talk to Matt Van Leeuwen from Bear Stearns' servicing arm EMC Mortgage.
5/14/10	HAMP Certification Process Poses Dilemma for Mortgage Servicers	Kate Berry/American Banker	Servicers are "taking this very seriously" because of "the risk of civil and criminal violations for the person signing the certification,"
5/14/10	Virtually All The Wall Street Banks Under Investigation- Defend Your Foreclosure!	Matt Weidner Blog	When the investigations are concluded, the feds will know what we’ve all learned recently….the loans they’re foreclosing on now were never intended to be paid back or paid on time.
5/13/10	Covering the Bank Investigations: A Cautionary Tale	Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica	The story of the banks that created investments and then bet against them has reached a particularly unedifying stage.
5/13/10	What Do Those Losses at Fannie and Freddie Mean?	Neil Garfield - livinglies	Neil asks these and other questions about the GSE's. If they own them, why are they not at least nominal plaintiffs or beneficiaries in foreclosure sales? If they guaranteed them, and they show a loss, doesn’t that mean they paid? If they paid, who owns the loan now? If they report an “inventory” of foreclosed property, who actually is named as the owner and who gets the proceeds of sale?
5/13/10	Bank Investigations Cheat Sheet Regularly updated.	Marian Wang, ProPublica	Here’s our attempt to lay out exactly what’s known about which banks are being investigated by whom and for what.
5/13/10**	Major Wall Street firms face criminal probe	James Vicini -Reuters	The person said the preliminary criminal probe is being conducted with U.S. securities regulators and involves JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. WE CAN PROVE THEIR CASE ON THE INVESTOR SIDE ALSO!!!
5/12/10	NH AG: State Agencies' Failures Worsened Fraud	KATHY McCORMACK AP	The state AG, state Banking Department and the Bureau of Securities Regulation missed opportunities to protect investors and expose fraud. He called the relationship between the two departments "toxic", but denied a cover-up.
5/12/10	Government Probe into Wall Street Sales Widening	Charlie Gasparino FOXBusiness	The SEC’s increased interest would also signal that the Justice Department’s probe of the sale of CDOs is actually wider than the two firms in the news as preliminary targets of federal prosecutors, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The SEC regularly refers to the Justice Department cases which it considers significant.
5/11/10	Law Firm Probed Over 'False' Documents Filed in Foreclosure Cases Fla. AG's office has received dozens of homeowner complaints about questionable court documents filed by firm's lawyers, according to a source.	Paola Iuspa-Abbott Daily Business Review	Tampa-based Florida Default Law Group "appears to be fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading documents in foreclosure cases," according to the attorney general's Economic Crimes Division in Fort Lauderdale, which is leading the investigation. The attorney general is also investigating the relationship between Florida Default and an AG staffer who also worked for the foreclosure firm.
5/11/10	Contact 13 investigates Bank of America	Las Vegas, NV (KTNV)	Nearly 100 angry homeowners took to the streets Monday, protesting what they call unfair treatment by Bank of America, the nation's biggest bank. They marched from a local law office to the federal courthouse, to show the judge that they mean business. Nevada leads the nation in foreclosures and Bank of America holds more of our mortgages than any other lender.
5/10/10	Florida 6th District Strikes at Heart of Pretender Lenders	Attorney Neil Garfield livinglies	The main message is that we have a legal obligation in search of a creditor, and the opposition is trying to use the court as a vehicle to steal the house and run with it, while the whole securitization mess is scrutinized. I think this Order is far more significant than it might seem both statewide in Florida and nationally. This Order, as I read it, requires (1) verification of the Lender’s status and (2) the ACTUAL authority of a designated person in writing, as a decision-maker; in plain language it asks whether the note is actually legally payable to the (pretender) Lender that wishes to foreclose and whether they have an actual live person who has the authority to mediate, execute a satisfaction of mortgage and otherwise make any final decisions on the settlement of the matter. That eliminates virtually 100% of all pretender lenders, which in turn eliminates virtually 100% of all foreclosures.
5/10/10	Fannie Lost $13.1 Billion In 1Q, Needs Another $8.4 Billion Infusion	FOXBusiness	Fannie didn’t shy away from saying it will continue to need cash, saying, “Due to current trends in the housing and financial markets, we continue to expect to have a net worth deficit in future periods, and therefore will be required to obtain additional funding from Treasury. (Are the GSE's charging all the industry-created toxic loans to the taxpayer? MSF)
5/9/10	Foreclosures- The End Game of Wall Street’s Fraud, Lies and Deceit In the short term, creating bad loans produced significant but "fictional" income that brought executives huge bonuses that were based on that "fictional" income.	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Many judges and attorneys still cling to a naive and antiquated professional worldview wherein attorneys, as officers of the court, remembered that they are officers of the court and do not make false statements or engage in misleading practices before the court. The problem is the entire foreclosure system is now functioning based on fabricated documents, forged documents, false and misleading statements and gross violations of the most basic ethical standards.
5/8/10	Report: Homes lost to mistaken foreclosures Consumer advocates say the lapses continue because they go unpunished. The Treasury Department has yet to penalize a servicer for breaking the program’s rules.	Paul Keil - ProPublica	Under the federal program, which requires servicers to follow a set of guidelines for modifications, servicers must give borrowers a written denial before foreclosing. When Gomez called Bank of America about the sale, she said she was told there was a mistake but nothing could be done. JPMorgan Chase approved Hill's modification. Except there was a problem. Chase had foreclosed on Hill’s home a month earlier, and his family was just days away from eviction.
5/6/10	Thousands of Foreclosure Judgments Are VOID (But Courts Will Receive Millions in Additional Funding For This Problem!)	attorney Matt Weidner Blog	Thousands of people who think the lost their homes have not lost their homes. (They are still the equitable/legal title owners of the property,) The Final Judgment of Foreclosure that granted the foreclosure sale is not Final, it’s Void. (That means is has no force or effect.) Second mortgage holders or lienholders who thought they were wiped out through the foreclosure are now attached to the subject property. (Some will take higher priority based on fraud and problems with the first.) Property owners who think they own a home they bought REO or at a foreclosure sale, are holding worthless title. (Get ready for big claims on the title insurers. Thousands of “active” cases that are sitting on the Pinellas County foreclosure docket are dead, they’re dismissed. The court can take no further action on them.
5/5/10	Ex-Bear Stearns chief blames volatility, not risk	Ben Rooney - CNN Money	He said Bear Stearns fell victim to "unfounded" concerns about its exposure to assets backed by risky subprime mortgages. These "rumors" resulted in a "dramatic loss of liquidity" at Bear Stearns as investors fled the bank in March 2008, he said. (MSF says concerns are well-founded and can prove it.)
5/5/10**	FCIC Should Ask Bear Stearns Execs About EMC Mortgage	Larry Doyle DailyMarkets.com	How did Bear benefit from owning EMC? In short, the mortgage collateral originated by EMC provided a wholesale source of product which they in turn packaged, securitized, and distributed. For the Bear execs to blame the crisis on market rumors and other weak excuses is a continuation of the shirking of responsibility by Wall Street management. Make no mistake, the core of the Bear Stearns culture was greed. That greed drove Bear’s management to allow EMC Mortgage to originate some highly questionable and likely fraudulently underwritten products. Bear’s senior management was also exceptionally arrogant.
5/4/10	How Big Banks Want to Game the Mortgage Mess	ERIC BRENNER and HAMISH HUME - WSJ	The problem is that servicers also get a free pass to game the system. Congress is showing a regrettable willingness to adopt constitutionally suspect legislation that runs roughshod over the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the taking of private property without just compensation.
5/4/10	The Hard Work on Financial Reform	New York Times	The procedural vote in the Senate last week on financial reform did more than end a Republican filibuster. It set up the real test of the Democrats’ resolve to enact the kind of change that the nation’s financial system so badly needs.
5/4/10**	Banks are Home Invasion Felons- Why No Criminal Charges?	Attorney Matt Weidner Blog	In this case they totally had the wrong home, but in thousands of other cases across the country, they get away with burglarizing homes, stealing property and violating the most basic and fundamental laws because they cannot be caught or when they are caught no one is willing to stand up to them.
5/3/10	Rescuing Bear Stearns Maybe Not Such a Benefit for Foreclosure Victims	GETUP	Bear Stearns owns EMC Mortgage Servicing, a notorious servicer alleged to have been involved in thousands of cases of mortgage servicing fraud. Through some very shady practices, they were instrumental in pushing people out of their homes. Whether through outright fraud or forced institutional incompetence, the servicing company is no stranger to foreclosures.
5/3/10**	Foreclosure Standoff Live feed	JAN LARSON SENTINEL COUNTY EDITOR	Facing eviction from his Stony Ridge home of 20 years, Keith Sadler has vowed to not go quietly.
5/3/10**	SO, HAMP ISN’T GREAT. WE KNOW. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Twenty million homeowners all focused on the House of Representatives is the sort of thing that gives politicians night tremors, restless leg syndrome, and ultimately panic attacks.	Mandelman Matters	Too many American homeowners are living bound by the shame of losing a home or being at risk of losing a home… and it’s wrong… damn wrong… they should not feel as they so obviously do, because where they find themselves today is not their fault.
5/3/10**	Bad Title to Real Estate Will Collapse Florida’s Economy.	Matt Weidner Blog	The real struggle now is communicating to our circuit court judges the magnitude of the questionable practices so that they will stop granting summary judgment in these cases, whether the case is defended or opposed at all. The bottom line is that when the full scope of the frauds are unearthed, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of titles to homes all across the country will be questionable and yes, these issues will be litigated for decades to come.
5/3/10	Greenspan Wanted Housing-Bubble Dissent Kept Secret	Ryan Grim - Huffington	Had the transcripts been released on time, they could have influenced the confirmation of Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman. Meanwhile, the Fed policy of releasing a full year at once deprives the public of transcripts from the first four months of 2005, which are now five years old.
4/30/10	Bank of America apologizes for error that nearly cost a Fort Worth man his home	sabaker@star-telegram.com	Snowden said Bank of America executives admitted that their records had a coding error and know they have no claim to the property. She said it was frustrating trying to get anyone at the bank to listen to her, let alone return phone calls and e-mails.
4/30/10	Bank of America attempts foreclosure on wrong home So why was Negele's neighbor so sure the bank had the wrong villa? Scott Mondro claimed, “This has happened twice before.”	Jackie Callaway abcActionNews	We asked Bank of America for an explanation, and days later they responded with this statement: "The owners have been contacted to apologize for this inconvenience and to let them know that we are rectifying the process internally.
4/30/10	Goldman Sachs 'facing a U.S. criminal probe into fraud on a historic scale'	Mail Foreign Service	The Justice Department move came a day after a group of 62 congressmen, including Democratic Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, asked Justice to conduct a criminal probe of Goldman. 'On the face of the SEC filing, criminal fraud on a historic scale seems to have occurred in this instance,' the group said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
4/30/10	Paperwork puts foreclosure firm in hot seat Group suspected of falsifying records to retake homes.	Todd Ruger Herald Tribune	Twelfth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Lee Haworth said news of the investigation could prompt judges in Sarasota and Manatee counties to look more closely at filings. But Haworth said the judges do not have the ability to check documents as thoroughly as they would like. "I would be very skeptical they're the only ones," Haworth said of the Florida Default Law Group investigation. "Our anecdotal experience are it's pretty widespread."
4/29/10	More Investigations over use of Fabricated Foreclosure Documents	Denise Richardson GiveMeBackMyCredit	The investigation is over allegations of: "...fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading documents in foreclosure cases. These documents have been presented in court before judges as actual assignments of mortgages and have later been shown to be legally inadequate and/or insufficient. Presenting faulty bank paperwork due to the mortgage crisis and thousands of foreclosures per month."
4/29/10**	Foreclosure Lawyers Face New Heat In Florida	Amir Efrati Wall Street Journal Blog	These are precarious times for lawyers in the business of filing foreclosure cases for banks. This is particularly true in one of the epicenters of the foreclosure crisis, Florida. As we’ve noted before, the feds in Jacksonville recently started a criminal investigation of a company that is a top provider of the documentation used by banks in the foreclosure process. And a state-court judge ruled that a bank submitted a “fraudulent” document in support of its foreclosure case
4/28/10**	What’s the penalty for not complying with the Florida Supreme Court Rule that requires Foreclosure Complaints to be Verified? CASE DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE! THE CASE LAW PROVIDES THAT ONE POTENTIAL SANCTION FOR A PARTY WILLFULLY FAILING TO COMPLY WITH THE RULES OF THE COURT IS A DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE.	Matt Weidner's Blog	We keep filing our Motions to Dismiss, but the Millionaire Foreclosure Mills just keep on ignoring The Supreme Court of Florida…..that’s obscene in my mind, but I’m just one lawyer fighting for his client. Having said that, out of frustration I researched thoroughly what could be done to fight against the flagrant disrespect for the court. The answer to the vexing question is in the attached motion….
4/28/10**	Predatory Loan Servicing--Part One Predatory Loan Servicing--Part Two Predatory Loan Servicing--Part Three	George Mantor - Keepin' it real	Financial intermediaries were able to reap huge profits, receive TARP funds to which they were not entitled and didn’t need because they had no real losses, and funneled it all into bonuses that catapulted number crunchers to oil Sheikdom wealth. This didn’t happen by circumstance, but is instead part of a large and well organized fraud wherein all of the evidence points directly back to “too big to fail institutions” that are, apparently, too big to prosecute as well.
4/27/10	Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. foreclosed, hired a company to "trash out"	stopforeclosurefraud.com	They believe that Deutsche, as trustee of Ameriquest Mortgage Securities Inc., didn’t realize the house, repossessed in 2006, was not subject to foreclosure. It is a nightmare that has happened across the nation as the economy tanked, the couple’s attorney, Carlin Phillips, said at a press conference.
4/27/10	Goldman Execs Deny Charges Will the government become another enabler by letting Goldman get away with it?	Anthony Mason CBS News	Goldman executives argued they did not place a massive bet against the housing market but conceded in 2007 they made a half a billion dollar profit on their mortgage investments, (video links may be broken).
4/27/10	Predatory Mortgage Servicing Fraud – Part 3 in a Series	George W. Mantor	The news of the past week has finally put an answer to the question of why banks would foreclose needlessly, unlawfully, and with sheer malice when that would appear to be bad business. And, the answer is what I have been saying all along…because it is insanely profitable.
4/27/10**	Foreclosure Fraud of the Week – Two “Original” Wet Ink Notes Submitted in the Same Case by the Florida Default Law Group andJPMorgan Chase	4closureFraud	Each week I will be taking ten random foreclosure cases out of the Palm Beach County court house and picking out the one that has the most fraudulent document in the file. Be it a Pleading, a BOGUS Assignment, a Fabricated Note, a Forgery, or an Assistant Attorney General that works for both the AG Office and a Foreclosure Mill at the same time…
4/27/10	Deutsche Bank Plays Down Threat of U.S. Litigation	Reuters	Germany's Deutsche Bank AG (DB) Tuesday sought to play down the impact of possible legal action it faces in the U.S. on how it packaged and traded various products tied to mortgage-backed securities. Deutsche Bank sought to ease concerns about possible legal action as politicians and regulators mount a fierce offensive against Goldman Sachs, which faces fraud charges brought by the SEC.
4/26/10**	WAMU INTENTIONALLY changed my debt to income ratio	Rob Harrington	A consumer who would have performed this same act would be GUILTY of LOAN FRAUD, and due to the evidence and motive, would have been prosecuted and convicted of Loan Fraud.
4/25/10	Internet Foreclosure “Myths”	Patrick Pulatie	There has been an explosion of websites featuring foreclosure information. This has been both good and bad for the homeowner facing foreclosure; good because homeowners have been able to learn much about their situation, and know that they were not alone, but bad because there is much “inaccurate” information about foreclosure defenses being presented. This article is intended to help the homeowner sort the good and the bad.
4/25/10	New Mortgage Services from Xerox Accelerate eMortgage Adoption; Help Lenders Prime for Growth	Business Wire	The MERS integration also allows loan stakeholders to verify the authenticity of the eNotes, resulting in secure and legally enforceable transactions. (No it doesn't. It s

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