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Comment
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11/30/14
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This came as a great shock as Mr. Treat had no mortgage on the home and no relationship with
Citi.
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Times Tribune
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The neighbors watched it happened, thinking Mr. Treat fell behind on his payments.
“As attorneys, sometimes we have to say our client is sorry and write a check,” he said. “That’s how it works but they won’t do that. What if this were a regular Joe? What chance would he have?”
However, both CitiMortgage and Safeguard
have hired a attorneys to fight the small claims suit.
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11/29/14
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A recent study by researchers at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University
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NY Times
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Homeownership long has been central to Americans’ ability to amass wealth; even with the substantial decline in wealth after the housing bust, the net worth of homeowners over time has significantly outpaced that of renters, who tend as a group to accumulate little if any wealth.
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Charging mail fraud and honest services wire fraud.
More here: 'Anything you need': How case against Judge Waters was built
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FBI
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"You run into a problem with any of your people, you get a hold of me. Anything you need. Anything I can do to help you or anybody that
you're interested in. All you do is pick up the phone and call me anytime." - Municipal Court Judge Joseph C. Waters Jr., speaking to a donor.
His downfall has jeopardized the careers of two other members of the Municipal Court bench. Late Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the suspension of Judges Dawn Segal and Joseph O'Neill, whom Waters admitted turning to in seeking preferential treatment for his friends.
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11/27/14
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The legal action could mean fresh legal problems for other big mortgage banks, as well. It is the latest threat to emerge from a barrage of cases that have forced big banks to pay tens of billions of dollars in recent months.
Not engaging with borrowers who have missed payments may not seem like the strongest grounds for litigation against a bank. Yet that is the basis for an innovative lawsuit against
U.S. Bank, a division of U.S. Bancorp, one of the largest banks in the country.
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DealBook
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The lawsuit is being brought by Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, a legal aid
group. In a twist, the group is suing U.S. Bank in
federal court in Ohio on behalf of the United States government, using the False
Claims Act. This legislation, which dates to the Civil War, allows
private citizens and groups to pursue legal action against companies and other
entities for receiving payments from the government on false grounds.
In this case, the legal aid group is focusing on mortgages that were guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, which is part of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. When a borrower defaults on such mortgages, the agency makes payments to the bank to make it whole. Specifically, the legal aid group asserts that
U.S. Bank made false claims to the government by collecting payments from the F.H.A. without also fulfilling the agency’s requirements that banks take certain steps to try to work with the borrower in default.
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ALERT FOR BANKRUPTCY LAWYERS — SECURED STATUS OF ALLEGED CREDITOR IS NOT TO BE ASSUMED
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Living Lies
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This decision is breath-taking. What the Panel has done here is fire a warning shot over the bow of the California Supreme Court with respect to the APPLICATION of the non-judicial process. AND it takes dead aim at those who make false claims on false debts in both nonjudicial and judicial process. Amongst the insiders it is well known that your chances on appeal to the BAP are less than 15% whereas an appeal to the District Judge, often ignored as an option, has at least a 50% prospect for success.
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11/27/14
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Homeowner Wins By Default
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Richard Roman, Esq.
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Five minutes into the hearing, the judge asked homeowner's counsel for an
Order.
1. A JUDGMENT in favor of the Plaintiffs rescinding and nullifying the loan;
2. Pre-judgment and Post-judgment interest at the rate of eight percent (8 %) per year
from the date of default until judgment;
3. Court costs;
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I am writing to you because of continued abuses by Ocwen Loan Servicing (“Ocwen”) producing mortgage documents to facilitate foreclosures nationwide.
We thus have thousands of transfers being made on mortgage assignments in 2014 when no such financial transactions actually occurred.
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Lynn Szymoniak
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In 2014, officers of Ocwen filed thousands of
Lost Assignment Affidavits throughout the country swearing that original mortgage assignments were lost or misplaced and that “good faith efforts have been made in accordance with our procedures” for locating the lost assignments.
How many thousands of mortgage documents can one servicer claim to have “lost or misplaced” without an inquiry regarding responsible document retention practices?
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11/26/14
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Bloomberg
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc
were sued in New York over claims they conspired for eight years to manipulate prices for the precious metals platinum and palladium in what plaintiffs’ lawyers say is the first such class-action lawsuit in the U.S.
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11/26/14
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The deposition of Lona Hunt took place on October 17, 2014, during which time Ms. Hunt was questioned about her knowledge of the truth and accuracy of the facts in the foreclosure complaint, which she allegedly verified. During the deposition, Ms. Hunt admitted twice that she did not read the complaint, even though she swore, in the complaint, under penalty of perjury, that she had. Further, with her limited knowledge, it was impossible for her to truthfully and accurately verify all the facts alleged in the complaint. Our blog post on this with more detail is here.
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Evan Rosen Law
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After the deposition, we quickly prepared, filed and set down for hearing a Motion to Strike Verification of the Complaint as a Sham. The hearing was set for next week and we were looking forward to seeing the look on the judge’s face when she heard about the blatant perjury in this case. However, late yesterday, the Plaintiff filed and served the below Notice of Voluntary Dismissal. This means, CASE DISMISSED!
While we would have preferred to see some more drastic impact from this deposition, causing ripples of concern among the servicing industry, leading them to change their perjerous practices, we know that is wishful, if not delusional, thinking. Some members of our team have devoted years of their lives to seeing change enacted and were instrumental in exposing robo-signing and other illegal activities since the very beginning of the crisis.
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Evan Rosen Law
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Mortgage foreclosure related settlements with Ocwen,
LPS, Chase and others continue to roll in. Yet, no matter the amount and severity of lawsuits, settlements, and bad publicity, it appears, at least in this case, that the act of signing without proper authority or knowledge as to that which one is signing, continues. Ms. Hunt freely admitted, twice, to not reading the foreclosure complaint before signing it. Further, with her limited knowledge, it was impossible for her to truthfully and accurately verify all the facts alleged in the complaint.
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11/26/14
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DealBook
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When it comes to scale, Wells Fargo sits in the exclusive $1 trillion-plus balance sheet club. The other three members, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup, all failed their unwinding-plan tests in August. In terms of market capitalization, Wells Fargo, at $280 billion, also surpasses its rivals. If systemic risk were correlated to size alone, then Wells Fargo ought to be among the riskiest of the bunch.
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11/26/14
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Two years ago, California passed landmark statutes that sought to protect borrowers from wrongful foreclosures. But since then, big banks have successfully neutralized the law.
These new laws banned the shady practices banks used to foreclose on people's homes, and provided borrowers with strong protections, including the ability to sue their mortgage servicer to prevent a wrongful foreclosure, and even to obtain damages.
At the center of the banks' legal strategy has been the doctrine of preemption. Banks have argued that California has no right to enforce laws or regulations pertaining to foreclosure because there are federal laws that preempt anything that the state might do.
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East Bay Express
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But since these laws went into effect on January 1, 2013, some of the largest banks in California have continued to break them, carrying on with the same wrongful foreclosure tactics that the Homeowner Bill of Rights was designed to stop. And when homeowners have taken their mortgage servicers to court to enforce the laws,
the banks have often argued that the California Homeowner Bill of Rights simply doesn't apply to
them.
For the past two years, banks have won dozens of important cases, mainly in federal courts, by convincing judges to toss out wrongful foreclosure lawsuits filed by California homeowners. These losses have effectively made the California Homeowner Bill of Rights an unenforceable law, and have called into question the ability of the State of California to enact foreclosure regulations, and to protect Californians from bank misconduct.
"Banks clearly recognize the purpose of the Homeowner Bill of Rights, but they're going to try every which way to dismantle it," said
attorney Stephen Foondos.
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11/25/14
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The Morrows said a bank representative told them to deliberately skip a loan payment to qualify for the federal Home Affordable Mortgage Program or
HAMP. The bank said it had no written record of that conversation.
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Independent Record
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Bank of America then tried to foreclose on their home, the Morrows said. They obtained an injunction to block the foreclosure attempt.
The Montana Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision in May, reversed a summary judgment for
Bank of America and it sent the case back to District Court for trial.
Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote the majority opinion in favor of the Morrows’ “claims of
negligence, negligent representations, actual fraud, constructive fraud and violations of the MCPA (Montana Consumer Protection Act)” and remanded it for further proceedings.
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DealBook
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Taking aim at the covert nature of the Swiss banking world, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused
HSBC’s Swiss unit of violating a cardinal rule of the financial industry. The unit failed to register with the S.E.C. before providing advice to American clients, an omission that allowed it to avoid scrutiny in Washington.
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11/25/14
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JDSupra
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The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota declined to dismiss claims by the Residential Capital LLC (ResCap) bankruptcy trust against six mortgage originators. ResCap alleges that the six
originators—Academy Mortgage Corp., First California Mortgage Corp., Provident Funding Associates, L.P., T.J. Financial, Inc., Universal American Mortgage Company, LLC, and Wells Fargo Financial Retail Credit, Inc.—breached representations and warranties in regard to almost $4 billion in RMBS.
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11/25/14
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The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released an alarming 396-page report that details how Wall Street’s too-big-to-fail banks have quietly, and often stealthily through shell companies, gained ownership of a stunning amount of the nation’s critical industrial commodities like oil, aluminum, copper, natural gas, and even uranium.
The full report, together with exhibits, can be read here.
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Pam Martens
Wall Street on Parade
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The report said the scale of these bank holdings “appears to be unprecedented in U.S. history.”
Adding to the hubris of the situation, the Wall Street banks’ own regulator, the Federal Reserve, gave its blessing to this unprecedented and dangerous encroachment by banking interests into industrial commodity ownership and has effectively looked the other way as the banks moved into industrial commerce activities like owning pipelines and power plants.
Additionally, the mega banks are holding trillions of dollars in FDIC insured deposits; if they experienced a catastrophic commercial accident through a ruptured pipeline, tanker oil spill, or power plant explosion, it could once again put the taxpayer on the hook for a bailout.
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11/24/14
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Hands Off 80-Year Old Widow's Rent Regulated Home Of 50 Years; Declares Those Leases To Be "Public Assistance Benefit" Exempt From Creditors' Claims Under State Law
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Home Equity Theft Reporter
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In a decision with implications for millions of tenants, New York State’s highest court ruled Thursday that a lease for a rent-regulated apartment is a public benefit and cannot be seized as an asset in a personal bankruptcy.
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11/24/14
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The courts have still not caught up with the basic fact that both the lenders and borrowers were
victims of an illegal and fraudulent scheme. At the very least, the court owes it to our society and to all parties involved in foreclosure litigation, to enforce the laws that already exist — especially the rules concerning the burden of proof in a foreclosure action.
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Living Lies
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It very troublesome that there remains an assumption and perhaps even a bias in favor of the foreclosing party. This is directly contrary to the rules of court, common law, and statutory law. The party bringing a claim for affirmative relief (like foreclosure) must bear the burden of proving every element required in their cause of action.
The most interesting quote from the Hunter decision is “absent such personal knowledge, the witness was unable to substantiate when the records were made, whether the information they contain derived from a person with knowledge, whether the original note holder regularly make such records, or indeed, whether the records belong to the original note holder in the first place. The testimony about standard mortgage industry practice only arguably established that such records are generated and kept in the ordinary course of mortgage loan servicing.”
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Jerry Blake
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A visiting Judge in her place never held a Status Conference and Defendant was never allowed to see inside of the courtroom in the entire three years of proceedings for hearings or a
trial.
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11/23/14
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IMPORTANT CASE AND ISSUE Will Logan unity of note and mortgage theory be applied?
This case presents the labyrinthine question of whether New Hampshire law requires a
foreclosing entity to hold both mortgage and note before it can exercise a power of sale.
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In turn, that issue splinters into two distinct inquiries:
whether either the common law or state statute mandates the unity of the two and, if so, whether parties can override that baseline
rule by agreement. Because controlling state precedent does not
provide definitive guidance on how to resolve these queries, and since consequential federalism interests are implicated, we will
certify the questions to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
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11/22/14
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What is appalling about the exchange is it revealed that the New York Fed’s general counsel Tom Baxter effectively pulled the supervisory team off the transaction by deeming it to be legal. But he never checked with the intended victim, the European Banking Authority, to see if it was kosher. Worse, Dudley acts as if this is all fine because the deal was public. In fact, the transaction was so complex that even Bloomberg’s house derivatives maven Matt Levine couldn’t puzzle it out.
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naked capitalism
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Goldman in its closing documents stated that Goldman was required to present the deal to the New York Fed and have the Fed say it had no objection to the deal. That had never happened. So Goldman also falsely implied that the Fed gave tacit approval when no such thing had taken place. Back in the stone ages of my youth, if Goldman or any bank had tried that stunt with a regulator, they would have gotten in some serious hot water. Here, all it appears the Fed did was shrug its shoulders.
“You’ve been in office for nearly a year now, and you haven’t helped a single family, not even one.”
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11/21/14
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Bloomberg
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In a private meeting earlier this week, SEC commissioners voted to waive most of a set of additional sanctions that could have seriously curtailed the bank’s asset management business and ability to raise money for private
companies. Some of the relief is conditioned on the bank’s good behavior and comes with an outside
monitor.
The bank also got hit with a penalty that takes away its ability to issue more shares or bonds without getting SEC approval for each deal.
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11/21/14
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Granddaughter Akelia Hurd and the rest of the family are also mad. “Honestly, it’s so evil … real evil,” said Hurd, 31. “Leave my grandmom alone, just leave her alone,” she said.
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CBS-DFW
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Their anger is directed at OneWest Bank, which holds the note on a reverse mortgage loan issued to Lewis in 2003.
Now OneWest, with a small office in Dallas, is attempting to foreclose on Lewis’ home after she accidentally allowed her insurance to lapse, a violation of the loan agreement.
Nothing changed even after Lewis realized the mistake and reinstated the insurance.
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11/21/14
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The Wall Street Journal describes how some private equity firms are attempting to clean up their act by admitting to dubious practices in revised regulatory filings with the SEC.
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naked capitalism
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There’s a wee problem with this approach. Securities law is not like the Catholic Church, where confession and a promise not to sin again buys you redemption.
And it isn’t as if these firm are even making a sincere confession.
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11/21/14
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CFPB
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal Thursday that would institute new foreclosure protections for consumers after the agency found its previous mortgage rules didn't go far enough.
The plan is meant to protect consumers from foreclosure throughout the life of the loan and
prevent a wrongful foreclosure sale as well as fix problems with loan transfers and clarify the meaning of a delinquency.
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11/20/14
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"The consumer bureau is committed to ensuring that homeowners and struggling borrowers are treated fairly by mortgage servicers and that no one is wrongly foreclosed upon," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray in a press release.
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Mortgage Servicing News
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal Thursday that would institute new foreclosure protections for consumers after the agency found its previous mortgage rules didn't go far enough.
The plan is meant to protect consumers from foreclosure throughout the life of the loan and prevent a wrongful foreclosure sale as well as fix problems with loan transfers and clarify the meaning of a delinquency.
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11/21/14
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A free house is just not the right term to describe any of this.
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Living Lies
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If that homeowner had fought the bank and the bank was found not to be the owner of the mortgage or note or debt and the mortgage was found to be unenforceable or even void, did that homeowner get the house for
free? $100k down, plus $50k in improvements, furnishings etc. The homeowner is out $150,000 no matter what happens and that is not free. There is no such thing as a free house and there never was. But mortgages and notes are sometimes ab initio (from the
start) unenforceable or void and in today’s market most of them fall somewhere in that category.
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11/21/14
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Call him Dudley Do-Wrong.
Bill Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York, is scheduled for grilling Friday before a skeptical Senate committee looking into the revolving door for bankers and their watchdogs.
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NY Post
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This testimony may have Dudley squirming in his seat, as he could be seen as the poster boy for revolving doors, since he worked at
Goldman Sachs before going on to lead the NY Fed.
The head of the Fed’s most powerful regional bank has been on the defensive since September, when a former employee, Carmen Segarra, leaked 46 hours of taped conversation to WBEZ’s
“This American
Life” and ProPublica.
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Bank President William Dudley said supervision is stronger than ever, but Democratic senators were unconvinced: “You need to fix it, Mr. Dudley, or we need to get someone who will.”
Link
to the hearing
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ProPublica
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For almost two hours Friday, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York defended heated assertions from Democratic senators that his institution is too cozy with big banks to be an effective guardian of the financial system.
At times stammering and flustered, New York Fed President Bill Dudley stood behind the work of his staff and insisted that the nation's too-big-to-fail banks were safer for it.
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Credo Action
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For years, federal prosecutors have told the public that they lacked the clear evidence to bring criminal charges against big banks for mortgage security fraud. But if Fleischmann’s account is true,
the Justice Department had the evidence but simply chose to ignore it, and instead helped
JPMorgan Chase avoid accountability for its crimes.
Her bosses in the diligence team insisted on a "no email" rule to avoid a paper
record, which one former federal prosecutor says shows "these people knew what they were doing and were trying not to get
caught."
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11/20/14
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The Ohio Supreme Court has held that the reasons for disfavoring collateral
attacks do not apply in two principle circumstances: (1) when the issuing court lacked
jurisdiction or (2) when the order was the product of fraud.
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Ohio Court of Appeals Eight
District
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Thus, a collateral attack on a judgment is really an attack on the integrity of the judgment rather
than its merits. Id. “Consequently, the collateral-attack doctrine contains elements of
the same considerations that come into play when considering whether a particular
judgment is void or voidable.” When a judgment was issued without jurisdiction or
was procured by fraud, it is void and is subject to collateral attack. Id.
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11/19/14
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The first major crack in the case for foreclosure came when we asked for documentation of the original loan or documentation of transfers, we would get it
[ if] the alleged loan was in litigation. When we asked for the same documentation on alleged loans where the unsuspecting borrower was paying the wrong party under terms that were unenforceable we received
nothing.
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Living Lies
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The conclusion was obvious and unanimous. We all determined that the documents did not exist until foreclosure litigation
commenced. The documents, we concluded, were being fabricated using advanced technology that made the documents appear facially valid. By appearing facially valid the banks and servicers claimed that certain legal presumptions applied and pushed through more than 6 million foreclosures displacing more than 15 million people from the home, their lives and their prospects.
Studies and testimony by the Clerk of Land Recording Offices have concluded that
property titles have been twisted beyond
repair.
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11/20/14
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CLICK
HERE To Watch Joan Murray’s Report
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CBS Local Miami
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While the foreclosure process was going on Wells Fargo said they transferred the loan in February 2014 to
Rushmore Loan Management Services out of California.
When Maisner sold the home he made a payment of $317,000 which he thought would satisfy the mortgage.
But then he said a week later he was told he owed $40,000 more dollars in interest. Money he doesn’t have.
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11/19/14
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The former head of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki
has been sentenced to a 12-month jail term.
Sigurjon Arnason was on trial for his role in the collapse of the financial sector in 2008.
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Euro News
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Two other of the banks executives received nine month sentences.
The Landsbanki three were accused of manipulating the bank’s share price by lending cash to investors on condition they purchase stocks.
The global financial crisis in 2008 froze credit markets and Iceland’s banks quickly collapsed, plunging the island’s economy into recession.
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Did you get any of it?
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Reuters
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The U.S. Department of Justice collected a record $24.7 billion in penalties from fraud and other cases in fiscal year 2014, the agency said on Wednesday, as fines against banks for financial misconduct soared.
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11/19/14
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Shawn D. Miller, 42, who traveled the world for Citigroup as one of its top environmental policy experts, sliced his neck and wrists with a knife inside his home.
His body was found by a doorman after his boyfriend called building operators and said he was worried for the banker’s safety.
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NY Post
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Miller was last seen on surveillance video getting off an elevator at about 6 p.m. Monday with a mysterious man who was not his beau. The unidentified male was later spotted on camera leaving alone.
Investigators, however, believe the death is a suicide because of the nature of the wounds and the fact a knife was found under his body, sources said.
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NJ court says 6 year statute of limitation bars enforcement of residential note.
Given that Defendants’ putative secured claim is unenforceable under 11 U.S.C. § 502(b)(1), by applicable New
Jersey statute, their mortgage lien is void under 11 U.S.C. § 506(d), and the Debtor retains the property,
free of any claim of the Defendants. Debtor is to submit a form of judgment.
The Court will proceed to
gargle in an effort to remove the lingering bad taste.
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United States Bankruptcy Court, D. New
Jersey
h/t Ken McLeod
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“No one gets a free house.” This Court and others have uttered that admonition since the early days of the mortgage crisis, where homeowners have sought relief under a myriad of state and federal consumer protection statutes and the Bankruptcy Code. Yet, with a proper measure of disquiet and chagrin, the Court now must retreat from this position, as Gordon A. Washington (“the Debtor”) has presented a convincing argument for entitlement to such relief. So, with figurative hand holding the nose, the Court, for the reasons set forth below, will grant Debtor’s motion for summary judgment.
Opinion also cites to The Fair Foreclosure Act
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11/18/14
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And Ocwen is still in business?
There were 700,000 foreclosures last year.
More than six years after the housing crash, lawyers for homeowners contend many mortgage companies are still making mistakes and foreclosing on homes when they shouldn't be. The biggest offender is
Ocwen Financial.
While we have been reporting on Ocwen all year long, National Public Radio is now reporting on the alleged practices of the mortgage company.
Lawyers say it is usually something that can be corrected, but Ocwen adds charges in such large amounts that the problems become almost unsolvable.
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WZZM
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Those practices include mortgage payments not recorded or
returned, the inability to communicate with customer service representatives, illegal fees, and escrow mistakes. Most of the time these mistakes lead to
foreclosure.
RELATED: Ocwen
accused of abuses in NY
RELATED: 13
On Your Side Watchdog: Ocwen
subpoenaed by feds
RELATED: Watchdog:
Deadline approaches for Ocwen
mortgage help
RELATED: Mich.
AG: We're looking at new Ocwen
info carefully
RELATED: Watchdog
report: More problems for Ocwen customers
RELATED: Watchdog:
Ocwen
Financial tied to mortgage nightmares
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11/18/14
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In early 2012, when five big banks settled with government officials over foreclosure abuses in the housing bust, the settlement sum, $26 billion, was actually a small price for the banks to pay. It was small compared to the economic damage from the banks’ reckless lending and abusive foreclosures. And it was small compared to what the banks got in return.
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NY Times
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Fannie’s rush to collect is appalling on several levels. It appears not to have given much thought to whether it is entitled to collect on debts that arose from robo-enabled foreclosures. The answer has to be no.
If the foreclosure was unlawful, how can it give rise to a lawful debt?
It is also well known that homeowners who lost their homes in the bust have been demonized from the start, as if they brought on themselves the unemployment that spiked and endured after the financial crisis, and that made so many mortgages unmanageable. The banks were rescued , no questions asked. But when it came to helping homeowners, the presumption by policymakers was that troubled borrowers were undeserving and had to prove otherwise.
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11/18/14
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The crooks are back and here's what they're secretly up to.
New evidence over the last month shows that servicers employ virtually the same improper techniques when foreclosing. Instead of
robo-signers, they use robo-witnesses, or
robo-verifiers; more on them in a moment. Regardless,
they are breaking laws and degrading the integrity of the courts to kick people out of their
homes, a sad and enduring legacy of the destruction of the nation’s property system during the housing bubble years.
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David Dayen
Salon
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If lenders have finally begun to finish their oldest foreclosure cases, you might assume that they have moved past their problems with processing foreclosures. After all, for years, mortgage servicing companies, who file foreclosures on behalf of the owners of the loans, presented millions of false documents to courts. They also engaged in “robo-signing,” where employees signed affidavits attesting to the validity of foreclosure actions, despite having no knowledge about the underlying cases. The five leading servicers agreed to a $25 billion settlement over these problems, vowing to reform their ways.
But you would be wrong to assume that anything has changed in our foreclosure courts.
Here’s the truth. False documents and mass perjury, both criminal violations, make a mockery of the judicial system.
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11/18/14
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Michael Corbat, CEO of Citigroup, was compensated $17.6 million last year, while his company received a $260 million tax refund from the IRS.
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Common Dreams
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Entitled Fleecing Uncle
Sam, the report notes that the number of CEOs who are paid more than the government is on the rise—up from 25 of the top 100 in both 2010 and 2011.
"Our tax system is so full of loopholes that the biggest companies can get away with paying nothing or receiving huge refunds," Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-author of the report, told Common Dreams. "With the windfall profits these companies reward the CEOs who managed to bring tax bills down with even larger paychecks."
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11/18/14
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Let’s start with the study that planted the seed of doubt as to the validity of the debt, note, mortgage and foreclosure and whether any of those “securitized debt” foreclosures should have been allowed to even get to first base.
They are essentially stealing the house, the proceeds, and the money that was used to fund the “loan” all to the detriment of the real parties in interest, to wit: the investors who were tricked into directly lending the money to borrowers and the
homeowners who were tricked into signing paperwork that created a second liability for the same
loan.
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Living Lies
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Katherine Ann Porter, when she was a professor in Iowa (2007) did a seminal study of “lost” documents and found that at least
40% of ALL notes were lost as a result of intentional destruction or
negligence.
So the first question is exactly when was the “original” note last seen and by whom? In whose possession was it when it was allegedly lost? How was it lost? Who has direct personal information on the location of the original and the timing and method of loss? And what happens when the note is “found?” We know that original documents are being fabricated by advanced technology such that even the borrower doesn’t realize he is not being shown the original (that is why I suggest denying that they are the holder of the note, denying they are PETE, denying they are holder in due course etc.)
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Reuters
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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear two cases brought by Bank of America Corp questioning whether a second mortgage on an "underwater" house - one with a mortgage balance exceeding its current value - can be voided during bankruptcy.
The homeowners in the two cases, David Caulkett and Edelmiro Toledo-Cardona, both won before the regional appeals court that oversees Florida.
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11/17/14
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DealBook
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The hearings are likely to touch some of the same areas that were covered in an article in The New York Times about a Goldman-owned aluminum warehouse in Detroit, as part of its Metro International Trade Services. An investigation by The Times looked at maneuvering by Goldman to unfairly take advantage of its role in both the commodities trading market and the physical commodities market.
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11/17/14
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Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief
kingpin executive of Countrywide Financial, may face a lawsuit filed under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, which allows prosecutors to sue for criminal violations.
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DealBook
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In a 2010 essay discussing
Firrea, Mr. Weidman urged his colleagues to use the civil statute and its lower burden of proof for “cases that have been declined by your criminal division because of insufficient evidence to prove a violation beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The decision by prosecutors in Los Angeles to close their criminal investigation of Mr. Mozilo — who for many became the public face of Wall Street’s excesses in the mortgage market — helped fuel some of the populist anger over the absence of criminal prosecutions of bankers related to the financial crisis.
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11/17/14
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Huff Post
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In meetings in early 2012, the manager, Johnathan Kim, described how bosses in the
JPMorgan team had stymied examiners by blocking access to bank information and constraining independent inquiries in ways that "grinds everything to a halt."
|
|
Examiners are reportedly blocked from doing their job as “London Whale” trades blow up.
|
ProPublica
|
In the summary of its two-year investigation, which was released last month, the IG stopped short of saying the New York Fed could have detected the trading risk before it blew up. Still, it chastised the bank, saying it had identified risky activities in JPMorgan's investment office years earlier but didn't follow up or tell the bank's primary regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), as procedures demanded.
|
11/17/14
|
|
Bloomberg
|
Deutsche Bank AG will stop trading most credit-default swaps tied to individual companies, exiting a business that new banking regulations have made costlier, according to a spokeswoman.
The lender will instead focus on transactions in corporate bonds, while maintaining trading in the more active market for credit swaps tied to benchmark indexes.
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11/17/14
|
|
Huff Post
|
The federal government has made progress in reducing homelessness among veterans and chronically homeless adults.
"The same level of attention and resources has not been targeted to help families and children," she said. "As a society, we're going to pay a high price, in human and economic terms."
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11/16/14
|
There exists in the judicial system an idea that foreclosure trials are easy. That only four documents are needed to foreclose on a uniform mortgage
(note, mortgage, payment history, and a paragraph 22 letter). That a trial can be done in five minutes. Finally, that a bank is presupposed a victory.
In this post, I want to address the notion that only four
documents are needed to foreclose.
There are already cases that dispel the four document myth. In the context of standing, we not only need the holder of the note, but the owner if the bank is proceeding under an agency theory.
|
Weidner Law
|
If the Plaintiff contends that there is a paragraph 22 letter, it also needs to prove that the letter was actually sent (and in compliance with the mortgage itself). Recently, a new case came out of Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal that requires additional documents to prove up damages in a foreclosure on a variable rate note and accompanying mortgage.
Specifically, on November 12, 2014, the Court in Salauddin v. Bank of
America, No. 4D13-2747, held that a bank must prove “whether there were any changes in the interest rate based on the adjustable rate clause in the note, and what those changes were.” This case is clear in that failure to prove interest rate changes
won't prevent a foreclosure, but it will result in a reduction of damages based on the amount of interest charged and proven.
|
6/21/13
|
BofA Solves Liquidity Problem By Circumventing National Mortgage Settlement
|
MFI-Miami
|
Since the beginning of the year, hundreds of thousands of homeowners with loans being serviced by
Bank of America have been receiving notices that the servicing of their loans is being transferred to
Nationstar Mortgage, Greentree Servicing
or M&T Bank.
On the surface, it looks like Bank of America is selling the servicing rights to these loans to raise quick revenue but when you dig below the surface there is another reason.
Bank of America is doing this to avoid their obligations under the National Mortgage Settlement they signed last year.
|
|
11/15/14
|
Borrowers, Beware: The
Robosigners Aren’t Finished Yet
In Florida cases now pursued by debt collectors, some of the underlying foreclosures were based on dubious documents.
“It’s bad enough that Fannie Mae and their collectors are pursuing consumers many years after they’ve lost their homes,” Mr. Parker said.
“But the fact that these lawsuits may be built on a foundation of foreclosure fraud is
galling.”
Amazing, isn’t it, how the effects of the foreclosure crisis go on and on?
|
Gretchen Morgenson
NY Times
|
Robo-signer redux, as it might be called, has come about because of an aggressive pursuit of former borrowers by debt collectors hired by
Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance giant. What Fannie is trying to recoup from these borrowers is the difference between what the borrowers owed on the mortgages when they were foreclosed and the amount
Fannie received when it resold the properties.
The problem, experts say, arises when robo-signed documents enabled banks to foreclose even when they didn’t have legal standing to do so.
“Sending these cases to debt collectors when the underlying foreclosures involved unlawful robo-signing is unfair and potentially even deceptive,” said Kathleen C. Engel, a research professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston
|
|
|
Foley sued Wells Fargo for failing to consider him for a
mortgage loan modification, which a class action settlement agreement required the bank to do before attempting to foreclose on
Foley's home.
|
COA First Circuit
|
We find that the district court improperly considered evidence outside of the pleadings to
resolve Wells Fargo's motion to dismiss, warranting a revival of
Foley's common law claims.
Accordingly, we vacate in part the judgment entered in Wells Fargo's
favor, and remand Foley's claims for breach of contract (Count One) and breach of the implied covenant of good
faith and fair dealing.
|
|
Nov. 2014
|
An important TILA regulation that requires consumers to receive periodic mortgage statements went into effect on January 10,
2014.
|
CHBR
|
If prepared in accordance with the regulation, these periodic statements will give consumers helpful information about their
mortgage accounts. The disclosures will also provide a treasure trove of information for advocates that
will help them figure out whether an
account is actually in default and whether a servicer has properly applied payments or improperly charged
unauthorized fees. Violations may lead to TILA claims for actual damages and
attorney fees.
|
11/13/14
|
A spokesman for Ocwen said at the time that the company deeply regrets improperly-dated correspondence that resulted from “errors” in its systems.
(Ocwen only regrets getting
caught.)
Ocwen's stock is down 60%
this year.
|
Bloomberg
|
In a February letter to Ocwen, Lawsky said he was examining potential conflicts of interest between the firm and vendors because of concern the links “could create incentives that harm borrowers and push homeowners unduly into foreclosure.” Last month, he accused
Ocwen of backdating thousands of loan-modification denial notices starting in 2012.
“The existence and pervasiveness of these issues raise critical questions about
Ocwen’s ability to perform its core function” of loan servicing, he wrote in the October letter.
|
|
11/13/14
|
|
DS News
|
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it has ordered California-based residential mortgage lender
Franklin Loan Corporation to pay $730,000 in restitution for rewarding its employees with bonuses for suggesting loans with higher interest rates to borrowers.
|
|
11/15/14
|
As a federal litigator in the late 1980s, Black played a central role in prosecuting the corruption responsible for the
savings and loan crisis of the late
1980s.
The FBI only has two (2) agents that do white-collar crime
per industry! TWO.
|
YouTube
|
Since then he’s become one of America's top experts on financial fraud, which he see as endemic to the modern financial system.
In this interview, Black expresses his lament that the U.S. has descended into a type of crony capitalism that
makes continued fraud a virtual certainty while increasingly neutering the safeguards intended to prevent and punish such
abuse.
"Lots of people lost their
careers entirely because they were willing to do the right thing."
- Bill Black
|
|
11/14/14
|
|
Living Lies
|
Used properly this might enable the homeowner to cite to this case in support of a motion to dismiss, motion for summary judgment or to attack the prima facie case of the party initiating foreclosure. There are also plenty of clues as to proving an affirmative defense in which
the final result will be that the mortgage is void or unenforceable and perhaps the note as well, leaving the debt, which arises by operation of law and is owed to the party who physically gave the borrower the
money.
|
|
11/14/14
|
Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. are selling multiple pools of soured mortgages to meet demand from investment firms that are pushing prices higher.
|
Bloomberg
|
Lenders have accelerated sales of defaulted mortgages to avoid the costs of holding the debt and as hedge funds and private-equity firms seek to profit from rising home values. The
Department of Housing and Urban Development has also been selling loans, including a current offering of about $1.1 billion, to reduce losses at the financially troubled Federal Housing Administration.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based lender also is marketing about $1 billion of soured home loans with
Wells Fargo & Co.
|
|
11/13/14
|
|
Weidner Law
|
Foreclosing in Freddie Mac’s name
Foreclosures must normally be processed or litigated in the Servicer’s name. However foreclosures must also be
processed in a manner that would avoid any obligation to pay a transfer tax. We have therefore updated
Section 66.17, Foreclosing in the Servicer’s Name, to allow the Servicer to instruct foreclosure counsel to conduct
the foreclosure in Freddie Mac’s name without obtaining prior written approval if:
|
11/13/14
|
|
Public Citizen
|
Our law firm recently filed a class-action lawsuit
aimed at one such debt collector, known as Bounceback,
Inc., under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Washington state law.
Yesterday, the American Bar Association stepped into the fray. It's about time.
|
|
11/13/14
|
Holt argues that the trial court judge erred in admitting the payment history over her objection
and in denying her motion to dismiss. We agree.
|
Weidner Law
|
Payment History Hearsay Objection
Holt argues that the asset manager was not able to provide the proper foundation to establish that the payment history was admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule.
Paragraph twenty-two of the mortgage required that notice of default and opportunity to cure had to be given before the bank was permitted to accelerate the amount due on the note. The trial court took judicial notice of an affidavit in the court file as evidence of compliance with paragraph twenty-two. We agree with Holt’s argument that the evidence was insufficient to show compliance with paragraph twenty-two.
|
|
|
What started off as a simple landlord/tenant forcible detainer case seeking back payment of rent is now in its fifth year before Dallas County Court at Law No. 1 Judge D'Metria Benson.
|
Texas Lawyer
|
The litigation has perplexed Wolf, of Dallas' Wolf & Henderson, a 33-year veteran of civil litigation.
"I have no idea. I can tell you what happened, but I couldn't tell you the motivations," said Wolf, who represents Victor Enterprises, the corporation that owns the rental home. "I've been to the court of appeal four times and have prevailed on three mandamuses and on an appeal of a judgment that was determined to be
void.''
|
|
11/12/14
|
|
RT
Matt Taibbi interviewed
|
“So everybody who bought into this pool of loans lost an enormous amount of money. And for the most part it was ordinary people. One group of litigants that I talked to was largely comprised of construction workers in the West; their retirement fund was invested in this stuff and they lost $50 million in the first year that they bought in.
Ordinary people lost enormous amounts of money because of this behavior.”
|
|
11/12/14
|
Altisource Portfolio Solutions is discontinuing a lender-placed insurance brokerage it purchased from
Ocwen Financial earlier this year, citing uncertainties with industrywide litigation and the regulatory environment.
|
Mortgage Servicing News
|
Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, questioned the move by Ocwen in August, citing concerns about potential conflicts of interest and whether transactions are priced fairly. Ocwen spun off Altisource in 2008.
Former Ocwen executives lead Altisource, and Ocwen's executive chairman William Erbey owns 26% of Altisource. Lawsky's office also has been
investigating Ocwen on other fronts, including allegations that it sent thousands of backdated foreclosure warnings to borrowers
without giving them adequate time to pay down their balances.
|
|
11/12/14
|
"If you commit mortgage fraud, you will face time in
prison.”
- US Attorney
|
wwaytv3
|
United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that Senior United States District Judge Malcolm J. Howard sentenced numerous participants in a Wilmington area mortgage fraud scheme to prison.
“Today’s sentencing of these defendants, delivers the message that we along with our law enforcement partners will not stand by idly while criminals enrich themselves, through victimizing others.”
|
|
11/12/14
|
|
Forbes
|
As every day goes by, with more and more wrist slaps of crooked banking and crooked bankers, I am more and more convinced that two of our nation’s top attorneys, Helen Davis Chaitman and Lance
Gotthoffer, have it right: The Obama administration, and Eric Holder in particular, have decided to give get-out-of-jail-free cards to all criminal bankers.
|
|
11/12/14
|
This case has shined a focused spotlite on the level of Corruption going on in the Courtrooms of
America.
|
New Earth Media
|
This Act explains why the Bankers and their cronies, the 1%, control all the resources,
while the 99% struggle to survive, lose their homes to fraudulent
foreclosures, and get railroaded before a War Crimes Tribunal on trumped-up charges.
|
|
11/12/14
|
It is interesting that at the same time that BONY Mellon has its name attached to foreclosures it is claiming exactly what the borrowers are claiming — misrepresentations about the loans themselves as well as misrepresentations about the mortgage backed securities allegedly issued by trusts in the name of BONY Mellon as Trustee.
|
Living Lies
|
Elizabeth Warren brought it to light when she questioned investigators who found fatal defects in many if not most foreclosures. Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone last week found that the settlements with the banks were really PR stunts to appease the public and confuse the judiciary.
Investors fail to realize that they can offset their losses by dealing directly with homeowners through servicers that actually represent their interests and that the investors are not bound by the pooling and servicing agreements because the loans never made it into the trust.
|
|
11/12/14
|
It only takes one affirmative defense to preclude summary
judgment.
While we disagree with him about thirteen of them, we do agree that one of the
affirmative defenses precluded the entry of summary judgment. We
therefore reverse and remand.
|
Florida COA First District
|
In his fourteenth affirmative defense, the borrower asserted that the mortgage attached to the complaint did not contain the legal description
of his property, prohibiting the bank from foreclosing on it. The bank pled a count for reformation of the mortgage, but the motion for
summary judgment did not request reformation of the mortgage. And, the record,
ncluding the bank’s affidavits, failed to either prove reformation of the
mortgage or refute the borrower’s affirmative defense.
|
|
11/12/14
|
REVERSED: Assigned mortgage ONLY
|
Weidner Law
|
"the final assignment from Freddie Mac to Ocwen
was only for the mortgage; Ocwen's own records custodian admitted as much below. Notwithstanding the lack of evidence to prove the
Countrywide assignment, even if Ocwen did have standing at the commencement of the suit,
it would have lost such standing when it no longer was legally entitled to own or enforce the
note. See Lindsey v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 139 So. 3d 903 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013) (reversing summary judgment for lack of standing because assignment was only for the mortgage and not the note)."
|
|
11/11/14
|
Atlanta-based mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial is facing trouble
again, this time from a lawsuit accusing the company of illegally marking up its default servicing fees, according to court records.
|
DS News
|
Ocwen devised a scheme to deceive homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments into paying, or believing they have to pay, hundreds or thousands of dollars in unlawfully marked-up fees."
The suit alleges that Ocwen used one of its affiliate companies, Altisource, and third-party vendors to illegally generate "fee income and larger profits for Ocwen and its affiliates."
According to the lawsuit, "Ocwen’s unlawful loan servicing practices exemplify how America’s lending industry has run off the rails."
Ocwen, the nation's largest non-bank mortgage servicer, has come under extreme scrutiny for its practices in the last year.
|
|
11/10/14
|
Our national wealth has grown by an astonishing $30 trillion since the recession, but most of it has gone to people who were already wealthy.
|
Truth Out
|
We are living through a massive redistribution of America's net worth to the beneficiaries of a financial industry that has used cunning and money and power to impose their version of economic "freedom" while deregulating any policies that might have stopped the incessant transfer of wealth.
|
|
11/10/14
|
At the outset, Buell is told that those interviewing him are Federal employees and the interview will be governed by
18 U.S. Code
1001. The statute is explained to him to mean that it will be a crime to make a false statement in his testimony.
If Alayne Fleischmann is JPMorgan’s $9 billion witness, Vicki Beal and other officials at
Clayton Holdings are the $100 billion witnesses against a broad swath of Wall Street.
|
Pam Martens
Wall Street on Parade
|
Not only did Clayton review mortgage loan files prior to securitization for almost every major Wall Street firm as an outside due diligence vendor, it ranked the loans as Event 1, 2 and 3. An Event 3 meant the loan should be rejected as high risk. On top of that, Clayton kept its own internal reports showing the rate at which the individual
Wall Street firms were asking it to change an Event 3 loan, that it believed should be rejected, to a 2W – meaning that the Wall Street firm wanted the loan “waived” in as an acceptable
loan.
One of the documents released by the FCIC, which may have been among those Buell and his lawyers were looking at during the four minutes of silence and nervous paper rattling on the tape, was a page that compared the number of Event 3 loans waived in by JPMorgan compared to Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers.
JPMorgan had waived in 51 percent of the Event 3 versus
Lehman’s 37 percent and Merrill’s 32
percent. (See Clayton Holdings’ Reject and Waiver
Rates.)
|
|
11/12/14
|
"I think the difficulty is the country has been told that this was all an accident or there's no evidence to go forward on this," Fleischmann told CNBC on Wednesday. "There is a mountain of evidence. There are emails. There are reports. There are external reports. There's testimony from other employees."
|
CNBC
|
Roughly half of the loans in a multimillion-loan pool had overstated incomes.
Fleischmann reported these issues up her management chain and wrote a letter, the DOJ eventually used as evidence.
The real sticking point, though, is that one year after the settlement, the Department of Justice has not brought forth any criminal charges linked to mortgage matters or otherwise, she said.
"How is it possible that you can have this much fraud and not a single person has done anything
criminal."
|
|
|
More investors in mortgage servicers lost faith in the firms yesterday as quarterly results highlighted their struggles.
A subpoena was issued amid an investigation by several states and the Office of the United States Trustee, which have expressed concerns over the firm's practices including its handling of bankruptcy-related matters.
|
Mortgage Servicing News
|
Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. plunged a record 22% yesterday, increasing its losses this year to 25%.
Walter Investment Management Corp. tumbled 21%, leaving it down 51% in 2014.
Ocwen Financial Corp., the largest nonbank servicer, has fallen 61% this year.
"The nonbank servicers have become the next villains in the post-financial-crisis fixation on finding someone to
blame," said Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities in Washington. "All these investigations are creating a much more expensive environment and making it harder for them to make money."
|
|
11/10/14
|
(highlighted in original version)
Sometimes I feel that the Committee operates in vacuum, drafting provisions that
might make sense in a world where loan owners, their servicers and their lawyers act honestly
and rationally, while in the real world of real foreclosure practice it is necessary to preserve
safeguards against the constant misconduct of the servicers and their lawyers.
|
Tom Cox, Esq.
|
This case offers such a timely example of why I fight so hard in Committee meetings
against changes in the law that presume any consistent degree of integrity in the mortgage
servicing industry and any consistent degree of competency or professional diligence or care
on the part of their lawyers. It is also why I fight so hard against any dilution of proof
requirements for the servicers. I just had a case of my own sustained by the Maine Supreme
Court on September 24, 2014 where the trial court entered judgment as a matter of law for my
homeowner client after I forced the bank’s witness on cross examination to admit that the
JPMorgan Chase loan payment history presented at trial was missing 44 monthly payments
actually made by the homeowners.
|
|
11/10/14
|
|
naked capitalism
|
As much as it would be preferable to see stronger efforts to hold individuals accountable, Stein and Aguilar have not just
Bank of America, but other banks worried about the SEC. That alone is a big step forward for a regulator that has too long been seen as a pushover.
|
|
11/9/14
|
|
People
|
It's unclear how long Garcia-Viso has been dead. No one had seen or heard from her in about four years. The taxes hadn't been paid for three years. The city mowed the lawn occasionally and treated the property like any other vacant home. The police had checked on the house twice in 2013, but had seen no indication of anything amiss. No one had gone inside.
|
|
11/8/14
|
|
RT
|
Wilson uncovered concrete evidence the SRA did not regulate this legal entity in 2011. As part of ongoing investigative research he is conducting into what he stresses is large-scale
HSBC fraud amounting to £1 billion, the whistleblower discovered what he alleges was
HSBC's deliberate deceit of Parliament.
|
|
|
ALAYNE FLEISCHMANN: Well, one issue I had is that although I warned not to securitize the loans, there was no way—I was blocked off, especially after I had raised complaints, from being able to see any of the data or the diligence process, which right there shows that something was wrong. So, after I left
JPMorgan, I actually had no idea, for a full four years, that the loans had been securitized. On one hand, I was worried they would, but I really thought no one would ever actually securitize those loans.
|
Democracy Now
|
MATT TAIBBI: —because Alayne had no idea that a crime had been committed until she had concrete knowledge that the loans had actually been resold to somebody else. They’re certainly allowed to buy as many bad loans and as many risky mortgages as they want. It’s not until they go to some investor and represent to them that these are, you know, AAA-rated securities or whatever, or highly rated securities, that they’re actually committing fraud. And so, she had no way of knowing that. Even after she was laid off from the company, she had no knowledge of what actually happened. So she couldn’t actually report the crime yet, because she only saw one half of the deal.
|
|
11/7/14
|
|
Money Control
|
Although many of the securities were initially highly rated by agencies including Standard and Poor`s and Moody`s, poor loan standards, outright fraud and a souring economy led to a slew of defaults, causing many RMBS to be viewed as essentially worthless. The domino effect took down storied investment banks such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and caused the worst recession since The Great Depression of the 1930s.
|
|
11/7/14
|
|
Living Lies
|
To say that there was no money at closing sounds ridiculous to anyone who has not analyzed this from the perspective of an investment banker. There you will easily see that there was no money in the original transaction and there was no money in any “succession” created by false paperwork. And the reason that is important is that in the end the intent of all law is to make a debtor pay his creditor. But who is the creditor?
|
|
|
Parent company responsible for subsidiary when fraud is
committed.
|
|
Last year Cal Western Reconveyance Corporation (corporate offices located in San Diego) filed for bankruptcy.
it was to avoid having to defend hundreds of fraud claims filed against it by homeowners.
Then, the same managers and employees running CWRC just opened shop again under a similar name,in the same building, same address, doing the same fraudulent foreclosures based on forged and fabricated
assignments.
It would appear the parent corporation PROMISS SOLUTIONS would be responsible for these fraud claims under this new USSC decision.
For those of your defrauded by CWRC you should consider a lawsuit against PROMISS SOLUTIONS for the fraud of CWRC
|
|
|
Police arrest suspect in alleged fraudulent title transfer
|
NBCDFW
|
The documents show Delta Oldfield owned the house until May 23 when she signed over the title to a company called J and J #1. Oldfield said the document is a fake and the signature was not hers.
“Not even close,” she said.
Meanwhile, the status of the house in Balch Springs could get even more complicated. The Arces said a lawyer told them they could sell the house, and they are trying.
|
|
11/7/14
|
"The trial court committed plain error by granting judgment in appellee's favor in an amount exceeding the face value of
the Note."
"The trial court erred by awarding judgment in excess of the face value of the Note and that the error is prejudicial
to appellant and clearly apparent from the record. Reichert at 223. Given the stakes in a
foreclosure action, this type of error seriously affects the basic fairness and public
reputation of the judicial process.
|
Andy Engle
____
COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO
TENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
|
Andy: Two interesting things about this case. This is not generally a very friendly court for homeowners. But look at the next to last sentence in
paragraph 21. It is very heartening to see a court actually (1) acknowledge how
high the stakes are for homeowners, and (2) show concern about the integrity of
the judicial process in the context of foreclosures.
Also, I convinced the court to employ the plain error doctrine to overrule
summary judgment. Courts hate using that doctrine. It almost never happens.
|
11/7/14
|
WITHOUT CONFUSION AND OBFUSCATION, COMBINED WITH STONEWALLING, THERE WOULD BE NO FORECLOSURE OF ANY DEBT SUBJECT TO CLAIMS OF SECURITIZATION —- NEIL GARFIELD,
WWW.LIVINGLIES.ME
AFFIDAVIT:
IN THE MATTER OF RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE PLEA\DING
AND DOCUMENT IRREGULARITIES
|
Living Lies
|
Reynaldo Reyes, AVP of Deutsch Bank said to a borrower, in a taped interview, that the whole scheme was “counter-intuitive.” In plain language that means that nothing is what it appears to be. And THAT in turn means that disclosures” were deceptive or “counter-intuitive.” And THAT means that the disclosures at closing were also “counter-intuitive” or deceptive. Reyes in a sworn affidavit drafted many times and edited by various top level attorneys for the banks has submitted an affidavit on behalf of
Deutsch Bank but which will be used by Banks to try to legitimize their deceptive tactics. Again, to put it simply, they were lying to everyone — investors, borrowers, regulators, law enforcement, Congress, and the President.
|
|
A 49-count federal indictment unsealed Thursday documents a complex conspiracy dating to 2007.
|
NY Times
|
Christopher B. Epps, a former state corrections commissioner in Mississippi, was arraigned in federal court on Thursday on charges of participating in a
corruption scheme in which he received nearly a million dollars from a contractor who paid off Mr. Epps’s home mortgage and helped him buy a beach
condominium.
|
11/6/14
|
The Georgia Fair Lending Act went into effect October 1, 2002, and according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, it was believed to be “the most restrictive in the country,”
imposing harsh penalties on brokers, as well as people who purchased mortgages on secondary
markets.
If that law had stayed in effect in Georgia, and if similar laws had been enacted in other states around the country, we might have not had the financial collapse that we had.
|
Al Jazerra
|
Homeowners were coming into our legal aid offices all over the city of Atlanta with these loan problems.
They were upset with the kind of terms they were finally realizing they had on their loans, and many of them were beginning to face foreclosures on many of these loans.
What year are we talking about?
I guess it was 1991. My understanding is that subprime actually started in the late ‘80s, but we started seeing them around ‘90/‘91.
What was stunning was that the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency exempted all U.S. banks from coverage by the Georgia law.
|
|
11/6/14
|
Nationstar, Walter,
Stonegate all down more than 20%
|
Housing Wire
|
Walter revealed that the company is now the focus of several investigations into the business and servicing practices of
Walter’s subsidiary, Green Tree
Servicing.
On page 44 of the company’s earnings filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed that during the second quarter, it met with a working group representing the attorneys general and regulators of several states as well as representatives of the Office of the United States Trustee to “discuss the business practices of
Green Tree Servicing.”
|
11/6/14
|
"If we don't start speaking up, then this really is all we're going to get: the biggest financial cover-up in
history."
The $9 Billion
Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare
Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.
Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as
"massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations.
It's theft on a scale that blows the mind.
|
Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
|
This was the very bottom of the mortgage barrel. They were like used cars that had been towed back to the lot after throwing a rod. The industry had its own term for this sort of loan product: scratch and dent. As
Chase later admitted, it not only ended up reselling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of those crappy loans to investors, it also sold them in a mortgage pool marketed as being above subprime, a type of loan called "Alt-A." Putting
scratch-and-dent loans in an Alt-A security is a little like putting a fresh coat of paint on a bunch of junkyard wrecks and selling them as new cars. "Everything that I thought was bad at the time," Fleischmann says,
"turned out to be a million times worse."
Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it's not exactly news that the country's biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That's why the more important part of Fleischmann's story is in the pains
Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.
She was blocked at every turn: by asleep-on-the-job regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a court system that allowed
Chase to use its billions to bury her evidence, and, finally, by officials like outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, the chief architect of the crazily elaborate government policy of surrender, secrecy and cover-up. "Every time I had a chance to talk, something always got in the way," Fleischmann says.
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DealBook
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Bank of America is nearing a deal with federal regulators to settle an investigation into the bank’s suspected manipulation of the currency market, the latest sign that Wall Street is bracing for another crackdown on its misbehavior.
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For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at
USAGAN.Presse-mails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the home page for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division is http://www.justice.gov/usao/gan/.
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FBI
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Today’s announcement is part of efforts underway by President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF) which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and state and local partners, it’s the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud.
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11/6/14
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Private mortgage insurance is the bane of home buyers who can’t put down at least 20 percent. The insurance protects the lender in the event that a borrower defaults on a property with little equity, but it also guarantees a considerably higher monthly mortgage payment.
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NY Times
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An increasingly popular alternative allows borrowers to buy out of that monthly burden, however. With single-premium mortgage insurance, the borrower makes one lump-sum payment upfront.
The single premium can be paid as part of the closing costs or financed into the loan.
Many lenders are also using lender credits or premium pricing to pay for the single premium.
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11/6/14
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The Michigan attorney general's office said today that nearly $750,000 is being distributed to 36 Southeast Michigan victims of mortgage modification fraud.
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Crains Detroit
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The payouts announced by Attorney General Bill Schuette are from a state fund for foreclosure scam restitution.
Schuette's office said individual reimbursements will range from $250 to
$208,000. Schuette's office will send a letter to each victim notifying them of reimbursement. Those getting payments all sought mortgage modifications from
Nationwide Consulting LLC.
For more information, visit michigan.gov/mortgagesettlement
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Fox8 Cleveland
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A southwest Florida man found a body inside a foreclosed house he purchased at an auction.
Two sisters had lived in the home but no one had seen them for a while.
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Reuters
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Wells Fargo said on Wednesday it is in discussions with the U.S. government to resolve a lawsuit accusing the nation's largest mortgage lender of cheating taxpayers by submitting ineligible home loans to a federal insurance program.
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11/5/14
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American Banker
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If Congress was not going to eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, it should consider merging the two into a single entity. The Senate was still debating Johnson-Crapo reform legislation at the time and the merger suggestion got no traction.
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11/5/14
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Coloradoan
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And the answer is: It depends.
“There is no yes or no answer. It depends on the individual situation,” says Dean. “The reason we see more people carrying mortgages into retirement is not by choice. It’s their inability to pay if off, and undersaving for retirement.”
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11/4/14
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This will remove the
last safeguard property owners have and will open the floodgates
to unbridled fraud against them and their property.
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National Mortgage News
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The CFPB is revamping its disclosure requirements by replacing the Good Faith Estimate and HUD-1 disclosures. The latter, called the Closing Disclosure, must be delivered to borrowers three days prior to closing. Putting this into practice "will require significant changes to business operations and technology platforms," Cordray noted.
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11/4/14
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Reuters
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The matters include investigations related to its due diligence on loans it purchased for securitization, its communications with ratings agencies, disclosures to investors and its handling of servicing and foreclosure-related issues.
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11/4/14
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United States Supreme Court
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SCOTUS
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The narrow question in this case is whether the Truth in Lending Act rescission provision in 1635(a)
requires borrowers to file a lawsuit to exercise their
right to rescind. The answer is no, and the court of appeals should be
reversed for three reasons:
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11/3/14
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National Mortgage News
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Industry veteran David Applegate will serve as the first chief executive officer of Common Securitization Solutions LLC, the new firm co-owned by
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop a common securitization platform for the mortgage secondary market.
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11/3/14
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On Charges Of Illegally Snatching $440K In Surplus Sale Proceeds Held In Trust Account While Acting As Court-Appointed
Foreclosure Sale Referee; Loot Left Unclaimed By Unwitting Foreclosed Homeowners; Prosecuting Fed:
'Appeal Likely'
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Home Equity Theft Reporter
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The two dropped charges had to do with Mr. Sampson’s role as a court-appointed overseer for two foreclosed properties in Brooklyn.
He was supposed to give the surplus money from the sale of the properties back to the State Supreme Court after those properties sold, which was in
1998 and 2002. Instead, the government said, he held on to the money, then withdrew it for his own use in 2008.
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11/3/14
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SacBee
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Besides the CalPERS sum, the settlement called for $50 million for CalSTRS, the teachers’ pension fund, and $500 million for homeowners with troubled mortgages by way of principal forgiveness and other forms of relief.
Bank of America borrowers are urged to call the bank’s settlement hotline at (877) 488-7814.
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11/3/14
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Apologists for the banks are trumpeting this “triumph of justice” to stall any other lawyers who are looking for a big payday for themselves and their clients. This will most certainly go on to appeal and from what I know,
the appellate court should vacate the judge’s order and allow the jury’s verdict to
stand.
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Living Lies
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We keep hearing about Zombie foreclosures, fabricated documents, backdating, forging and various other activities that would put the average person in jail. A quick perusal of the newspapers reporting on finance shows that the banks are back doing the same things they were doing before — because they were not caught for what they did and/or they were not prosecuted for their behavior. The absence of prosecution means that the last opportunity for justice is in the courts.
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11/3/14
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While foreclosure activity continues to wane there is a "tetrad" of housing landmines that could threaten the housing recovery and trigger a surge in defaults, repossessions, and short sales.
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Mortgage News Daily
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The tetrad consists of defaults in loan modifications done under the Home Affordable Modification Program
(HAMP), Home Equity Line (HELOC) resets, and 8.1 remaining underwater borrowers and non-performing loans. The article Housing Landmines: Are Mortgage Flares Up (sic) Coming Soon? States,
"The foreclosure crisis hasn't receded, it was intentionally delayed by
government manipulation. The can was kicked down the road. And next year,
foreclosure activity could spike again."
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11/3/14
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Misconduct by traders and bankers is uncovered, multiple regulators mount investigations, and then millions, or even billions, of dollars in penalties are paid, all to little apparent effect.
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DealBook
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No doubt the Justice Department is frustrated by repeated instances of corporate misconduct, with banks like
JPMorgan, Barclays and
UBS subject to multiple settlement agreements for violations. But prosecutors appear to have few tools available to coerce banks to change corporate cultures that put profits ahead of compliance with the law — at least short of putting one out of business.
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11/3/14
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There has also been a stream of other charges and settlements by JPMorgan for
rigging electric rates, abusing credit card customers, and rigging
Libor. According to press reports, another charge and settlement is ahead involving the
rigging of foreign currency exchange trading – potentially as soon as this month.
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Pam Martens
Wall Street on Parade
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The problem for the New York Fed is that it effectively has no bank in America, or anywhere else for that matter, big enough to hold $1.7 trillion in bonds which doesn’t have a serious rap sheet.
And the growing feeling is that the New York Fed is an incompetent and/or compromised regulator
that has contributed to creating recidivist banks.
Senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren are pushing for Senate hearings on the New York Fed’s role as a regulator. Carmen Segarra, a bank examiner fired by the New York Fed after refusing to change her examination that was critical of Goldman Sachs, recently had her internal tape recordings released through
ProPublica and public radio’s “This American
Life” exposing the New York Fed as a watchdog with no bark or bite when it comes to powerful Wall Street banks.
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FREE Webinar
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NTC
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Join us for a FREE webinar on November 13, and learn how collateral file reviews can drive ROI in mortgage secondary markets.
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11/3/14
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National Mortgage News
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Banks that spent years defending themselves against claims and paid billions of dollars in fines for bundling faulty mortgages and selling them as securities may soon play a new role:
plaintiffs in their own lawsuits against the banks that originated the mortgages.
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11/2/14
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This brief period of stability that we have been enjoying is just an illusion.
The fundamental problems that caused the financial crisis of 2008 have not been fixed. In fact, most of our long-term economic problems have gotten even worse.
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EFT Daily News
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What would you say about a bookie that took $200,000 in bets but that only had $10,000 to cover those bets?
You would certainly call that bookie a fool.
But that is what our big banks are doing.
Right now, JPMorgan Chase has more than 67 trillion dollars in exposure to derivatives but it only has 2.5 trillion dollars in
assets.
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11/1/14
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Almost overnight the US government became unaccountable, released from constitutional and legal constraints. Elections serve only to validate the unaccountability of government.
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Global Research
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The crimes of the Clinton regime were not acknowledged and covered up. The crimes of the Bush and Obama regimes are openly acknowledged by the presidents themselves and by their attorneys general who assert that the “war on terror” is a war during whose course presidents are freed from the Constitution and from domestic and international statutory law. Thus, we have indefinite detention, torture and loss of protection against self-incrimination, destruction of privacy, and execution of US citizens without due process of law.
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