By Alan White
Public Citizen Consumer Law and Policy Blog
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News related to Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud |
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| 2014 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1990's | |||||||||||
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occurs post loan origination when mortgage servicers use false statements and book-keeping entries, fabricated assignments, forged signatures and utter counterfeit intangible Notes to take a homeowner's property and equity.
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Date |
Article (Recent Additions) | Author |
Comment |
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December 2007 |
Researching Subprime Residential Loan Securitizations |
Kevin Byers CPA | Kevin sheds light on the process in a new outline that provides easy to understand definitions and provides resources for further study into the financial practice. | |||
| 12/31/07 |
Lender
Lobbying Blitz
|
WSJ |
Ameriquest handed out more than $20 million in political donations and played a big role in persuading legislators in New Jersey and Georgia to relax tough new laws. Those victories, in turn, helped blunt efforts by other states to crack down on reckless lending, critics of the industry contend. | |||
| 12/28/07 | How One Family Fought Foreclosure |
AMIR EFRATI - WSJ |
"The funny thing is, some of the things he argued 10 years ago -- all of a sudden you see a federal court saying the same thing." | |||
| 12/28/07 | Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne sells US$15.4M of investment bank's stock |
The Canadian Press |
Bear Stearns has been at the heart of
this year's liquidity crisis, which has pushed scores of mortgage
lenders out of business, bled more than $100 billion from Wall
Street's books, and coaxed the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut
interest rates by a full percentage point.
Some people point to the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds established to bet on risky mortgage debt as the trigger for the subprime crisis. |
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| 12/28/07 | Georgia NAACP Files Mortgage Lawsuit |
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"Predatory
mortgage lending may be the worst form of consumer fraud because
people often lose their homes," he said. |
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| 12/28/07 | Open Thread- the Pros and Perils of Pro Se |
Posted by Peter Lattman on WSJ |
More and more people are going pro se | |||
| 12/27/07 |
Strapped homeowners get advice
|
Moyer said last week that lawyers have an obligation to help homeowners facing foreclosure, and they should do so without charge. | ||||
| 12/26/07 | Man Suspected of Lying on Application Could Get 20 Years in Prison |
Originator Times |
[t]he complaint alleges that the defendant made false statements in a loan application for the purpose of obtaining a loan to refinance the house. | |||
| 12/26/07 |
Long
Beach Mortgage Rep Faces Five Years in Prison Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - |
Originator Times |
Hulbert, who was the manager of the Jacksonville branch of Nations Title Agency of Florida, acted as the closing agent for several transactions in which mortgage loans were fraudulently obtained. | |||
| 12/25/07 | Officials Falling Behind on Mortgage Fraud Cases |
The New York Times |
The Mortgage Bankers Association called the losses "the tip of the iceberg" because they do not include mortgage brokers, who arrange better than half of new mortgages. | |||
| 12/25/07 | Ohio Leads The Fight To Stop Foreclosures |
by Ron Scherer |
�We have a responsibility to deal with this unfolding crisis and we are looking for ways to do that,� says Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) in an interview. | |||
| 12/25/07 | Federal court ruling stems foreclosure cases |
Thomas Ott Plain Dealer Reporter |
The federal court averaged 100 new cases a month before judges recently started insisting that banks provide up front a document giving them authority to collect loans made by other lenders and held by investors. As of Friday, the number of new filings in December was two. | |||
| 12/23/07 |
Part 1 - Traders saw a cash cow in Part 2 - Fees were another cash cow |
By MARK PITTMAN |
A five-part series about the subprime mortgage crisis. |
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| 12/23/07 | Wall Street bosses asked to 'give back,' and other developments |
Lew Sichelman HeraldTribune.com |
The five banks handed out a record $36 billion in bonuses during the 2006 holiday season, and the community groups expect another big round of rewards again this year. But the activists want some of that money to be directed to a fund that will provide immediate relief to owners in default and in danger of foreclosure. | |||
| 12/22/07 | Stuffing the Court's Christmas Stocking with Foreclosure Cases |
The Topeka Capital Journal |
A list of filings in a Kansas county district court. | |||
| 12/22/07 |
Two former Bear Stearns
Cos. investment bankers pleaded guilty to mail and wire
fraud as part of a federal public-corruption
investigation in |
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| 12/22/07 | Bankers plead guilty to fraud, bribery in FBI probe | Two investment bankers who were financial advisers to almost every government entity in El Paso pleaded guilty Friday to fraud and bribery charges, increasing to six the number of people who have been convicted in the ongoing public corruption investigation. | ||||
| 12/22/07 |
Mortgage
Meltdown; the Lying, Crying and Fire Sale Buying Begins |
monica davis - infoZine | Unbelievably, in thousands of cases, consumers have been foreclosed on without the bank or mortgage company haven proven that the debt is owed, without presentation of paperwork proving the existence of the debt, which is a violation of several federal laws. | |||
| 12/21/07 | Body Blows Will Keep Coming For Bear |
Jacob Zamansky FIN alternatives |
The body blows will keep coming for Bear Stearns. Cioffi has quietly left the firm and Bear Stearns� board may even be discussing the departure of CEO Jimmy Cayne. | |||
| 12/21/07 | Wall Street Bonuses Spike 14 Percent |
JOE BEL BRUNO, AP
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This might have been one of Wall Street�s most dismal years in a decade, but that hasn�t stopped bonus checks from rising an average of 14 percent. Four of the biggest U.S. investment banks - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley , Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. - will pay out about $49.6 billion in compensation this year. Of that, bonuses are traditionally estimated to represent 60 percent, or almost $30 billion. |
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| 12/20/07 | Bear Stearns fund manager quits amid probe |
The Business |
The manager of two Bear Stearns' hedge funds that collapsed after investing in sub-prime mortgages has left the bank as US prosecutors begin an investigation into his actions. | |||
| 12/20/07 |
Morgan Stanley bailed out by Beijing after $9bn write-off |
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Morgan Stanley became the latest bank to announce a bailout from a foreign government. The writedowns, which took Morgan Stanley to a $3.56 billion fourth-quarter loss, were so severe that the bank was forced to agree a $5 billion cash injection from the Chinese Government to prop up its capital base. | |||
| 12/20/07 | Wall Street: crimes or misdemeanors? |
By Anthony T. Accetta Denver Post.com |
There has been criminal conduct
at every stage of the mortgage business, and there is ample proof
that virtually every major investment bank in the mortgage
securitization business initiated fraud, or through conscious
avoidance or reckless disregard of facts known to them, enabled,
aided and abetted fraud.
The so-called sub-prime mortgage crisis was predictable and predicted, preventable, but not prevented. Greed, arrogance, criminal conduct, negligence, and fraud threaten to go unpunished. |
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| 12/20/07 |
Rule would slow foreclosure rate
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"Why would we let somebody file a lawsuit to take someone's house unless they're the real party in interest?" Martin told his fellow Common Pleas Court judges Wednesday. [We have been asking the same question - but nobody will answer.] | ||||
| 12/20/07 | Barclays sues Bear Stearns over hedge fund collapses |
Tim McLaughlin - Reuters |
"Bear Stearns ... used the enhanced fund as a place to unload excessively risky or troubled assets that could not be sold to other investors at the prices paid by the enhanced fund," | |||
| 12/19/07 |
The Bear Flu: How It SpreadA novel financing scheme used by Bear Stearns' hedge funds became a template for subprime disaster |
by David Henry and Matthew Goldstein |
New evidence sheds light on how Bear
Stearns' hedge
funds�and their managers�became star players in the subprime
bust, the biggest financial disaster in decades.
Other players adopted the Bear funds' tactics, collectively building a financing structure with many of the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme. |
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| 12/19/07 |
Mortgage-industry lawsuits In America and elsewhere trial lawyers, state prosecutors and regulators look for the crime in subprime |
From The Economist |
As busy as the lawyers are, they are only warming up. Scrutiny of the way banks account for tainted securities is just beginning, as is the task of poring through e-mails provided under subpoena. The ultimate cost of the mortgage crisis in terms of settlements, awards and legal fees can only be guessed at. But the consensus view is that payouts will climb well above the billions stemming from the internet bubble. | |||
| 12/19/07 | Economic 9/11 |
Gerald Celente, The Trends Journal |
This talk about the sub-prime market. Yes, that�s a problem, but nothing compared to when the big firms start failing, when banks go bust, brokerages go out of business. | |||
| 12/18/07 |
Mortgage Servicing Company Fraud |
Nic |
Even more unfortunate is the fact that homeowners have little alternative when they become a victim of this scam. | |||
| 12/18/07 | Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread |
The New York Times |
Until the boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer, the few people who tried to warn federal banking officials might as well have been talking to themselves. | |||
| 12/18/07 | Request for comment on changes to Regulation Z to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive home mortgage lending and advertising practices |
The Federal Reserve Board Press Release |
Nothing will change until the eliminate corrupt judges and lawyers. They are mortgage servicing fraud enablers. | |||
| 12/17/07 | Thousands of Washington's Ameriquest Victims to Receive Checks Next week |
Washington Attorney General |
December will be a bit more rewarding for 8,750 Washington residents. They�ll receive checks this month totaling nearly $9.9 million as part of a national settlement with former subprime lending giant Ameriquest. | |||
| 12/16/07 | Democrats may commit the real mortgage fraud |
Steve Chapman Chicago Tribune |
It's true that if lenders have committed fraud with phony information about their loans, they deserve to be separated from their ill-gotten gains. | |||
| 12/16/07 | The Hidden and Emerging Battle between Investors and Servicers |
Mortgage Press, by Andrew L. Liput |
Another article that misses the point: "Servicers have NO interest in loss mitigation. They only want to steal equity and homes". | |||
| 12/15/07 | The $4bn killing |
By Stephen Foley The Independent |
The mortgage derivatives created by Goldman Sachs and others have been dubbed "toxic waste" by investors, who no longer want to buy them. Wall Street banks have suffered more than $50bn in losses as a result and have dramatically scaled back their activities, causing financial markets to freeze up. | |||
| 12/13/07 | The Subprime 'Crisis' -- Time for Government Intervention? |
Opinion - Larry Elder |
[a]ctions, however well-intended, that shield people from the consequences of their behavior lead to even more irresponsible behavior. Secretary Paulson recently said, "I have no interest in bailing out lenders or property speculators." | |||
| 12/13/06 |
Mortgage-servicing Squaliforme takes yet another swing |
The Honorable Judge Roy Bean |
As with most cases that actually involve a lawsuit, EMC/Bear Stearns decided to try and spend Wright into oblivion, and when they ran up against attorneys willing to put up a fight, they had to keep spending and spending. Which means there is plenty to hide. Stealing people�s homes can be expensive business and is best done out of the light of day. Something tells me it ain�t over. | |||
| 12/12/07 |
Loan-Relief
Legislation Advances
Deal in House Would Let Judges Revise Mortgages; Help Urged in Ohio Cases |
By DAMIAN PALETTA and AMIR EFRATI - Dow Jones | The proposed dismissals are meant to encourage mortgage companies to renegotiate terms of the loans, to keep borrowers in their homes. | |||
| 12/11/07 |
(Another Litton
story)
Homeowners pay their mortgages, but face foreclosure (also see 12/3/07 story below) |
Barbara Smith says it's very scary to
think of losing your home when all you want to do is make your
payments.
Last week, Nadine Knowles lost her home to Litton Loan after proving she made all her payments. "I'm a homeowner that got screwed and that's OK in America, and that's OK with our courts," Knowles says. |
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| 12/11/07 | Investment Landfill, Part 2 |
by
Paul Tustain |
UNLESS YOU ARE well informed, you are going to pay for getting investment bankers and fund managers out of the very deep hole they have recently dumped us all in. | |||
| 12/10/07 | Did Authorities Miss a Chance To Ease Crunch? |
By MICHAEL SICONOLFI Wall Street Journal |
High-profile enforcement cases could have sent a message to Bear Stearns and other Wall Street firms to attempt to more accurately price mortgage securities. Such a message could have helped blunt the impact of the current crisis, which has led to investor uncertainty over how firms price these mortgage-related instruments. | |||
| 12/10/07 | Bear Stearns' (EMC) Mortgage Unit Accused of Predatory Loan Servicing | EMC routinely and systematically mismanaged Hispanic and African Americans' mortgage loans by charging them unauthorized fees,'' four minority borrowers said in a complaint filed today in federal court in Connecticut. ``Many borrowers were trapped into a downward spiral ending in foreclosure." | ||||
| 12/9/07** |
MORTGAGE
MELTDOWN Interest rate 'freeze' - the real story is fraud Bankers pay lip service to families while scurrying to avert suits, prison |
Sean Olender San Francisco Chronicle |
But unfortunately, the
"freeze" is just another fraud - and like the other
bailout proposals, it has nothing to do with U.S. house prices,
with "working families," keeping people in their homes
or any of that nonsense. The sole goal of the freeze is to prevent owners of mortgage-backed securities, many of them foreigners, from suing U.S. banks and forcing them to buy back worthless mortgage securities at face value - right now almost 10 times their market worth. |
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| 12/9/07 | Loan bailout is not likely to help many homeowners |
San
Francisco Chronicle, USA |
The subprime rate freeze plan announced by the Bush administration last week was clearly designed to win votes. I just wonder whose. | |||
| 12/8/07 |
Says banks must prove they hold mortgages
|
GKORTE@ENQUIRER.COM | The ruling could have profound implications on how foreclosures are handled in Ohio. The local ruling comes as three federal court judges - in Cleveland, Dayton and Columbus - have issued similar opinions in foreclosure cases in the last month. | |||
| 12/7/07 |
Lawyer Max Gardner Says Some Mortgage Servicers May Be Taking Homeowners for a Ride |
VICKI MABREY and ELY BROWN - ABC News |
It's been a six-year battle for Mike Dillon, who is trying
to save his home from a foreclosure the courts say should never
have happened.
It began in 2001, when the company servicing Dillon's loan was sold. According to Dillon, he made a payment in 2001 to his servicer, but it had been sold to Fairbanks Capital, Dillon said. Fairbanks told him his payment was not received. "The payment disappeared," said Dillon of Manchester, N.H. "The check never came back to me, and the first notification that I ever got from Fairbanks was a default notice saying that you owe us $2,000 plus. From there it was all downhill." |
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| 12/7/07 |
Banksters Gone WildWall Street's Bad Boys and Their Washington Enablers |
By PAM MARTENS Counterpunch.org |
Mainstream media has also been implanting the idea that it's all about homeowners and mortgage loans instead of banksters hiding bad debt. | |||
| 12/7/07 | Corruption, fraud bringing down US bank system: |
by Monica Davis davis4000_2000 [at] yahoo.com ) |
Thousands of people across the country
say they are being dunned for loans they paid off long ago. From
student loans to home mortgages, and farm loans, scores of
consumers say creditors came after them for loans that were paid
off long ago. A nasty case in point is the case of a black farm family whose farm was just auctioned, for alleged non-payment of a mortgage. The family says they paid off the loan 8 years ago and have paperwork to prove it, but, like the case of Harry Young of Owensboro, they were not allowed to rebut the bank�s claim. |
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| 12/7/07 |
|
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch |
"The message here is to get your FICO score down,"
Mark Adelson, a structured finance expert, said. "Don't pay
some bills, but keep up with mortgage payments."
|
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| 12/6/07 | Subprime Mortgage Crisis in California and the Nation: Broader Changes Needed from Industry and Policymakers |
Testimony of Paul Leonard |
Bold action is needed to avoid the potential economic and human consequences from the volume of foreclosures that has not been seen in this country since the Great Depression. | |||
| 12/5/07 |
Wall
Street firms subpoenaed:
Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns & Deutsche Bank |
By John Spence, MarketWatch | "People will lose their homes, and that could create a lifetime of debt problems," Cuomo said last month. "We do need new laws" to keep the subprime market liquid while protecting borrowers, he said | |||
| 12/5/07 | Bear Stearns Hedge Fund Losses Lead to Arbitration Claims, According to Law Firms Representing Investors -- BSC |
PRIME NEWSWIRE |
A four-law firm legal team, with nationally recognized securities law experience, has filed investor claims against two subsidiaries of Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. (NYSE:BSC) -- Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. and Bear Stearns Securities Corp. -- over the recent collapse of a Bear Stearns hedge fund. | |||
| 12/4/07 | The Mortgage Mafia is Feeding on the Homes and Hopes of Americans |
By themelinda The Daily Scare |
The conspirators, in this case, are those in charge of our government and their friends in banking. Proof of this lies in the fact they are now suspending foreclosure on homes. This fraud runs from your neighborhood to the White House in a trail of broken hearts and dreams of ordinary Americans. If that were not bad enough, we have also been victimized by political doublespeak where phrases like 'home ownership' are better understood as slavery. | |||
| 12/3/07 | Woman makes payments, but faces foreclosure | But it did no good when Knowles came to Pasco Court and showed the judge she had proof that she had made her payments and Litton Loan deducted them from her account. The judge issued an order that her home be sold on the courthouse steps. | ||||
| 12/3/07 | Examining the subprime-lending crisis | But before the subprime boom ended, an estimated $182 billion or more in profit was shared by brokers, lenders and investment banks | ||||
| 12/3/07 | Mortgage Mess, Foreclosure Fraud and Impediments to Justice |
by Barbara Ann Jackson News Blaze |
It is HIGHLY COMMON for a DEBT COLLECTOR attorney to file a foreclosure: (i) in the name of a DEFUNCT mortgage company; (ii) in the name of a mortgage company which is NO LONGER holder of the security interest (the promissory note); or (iii) file a foreclosure and AFFIX a 'ransom' amount (the collector's fee) far exceeding what the promissory note "Acceleration Clause" authorizes. | |||
| 12/3/07 | WHAT�S MISSING IN THE COVERAGE? |
newsdissector.com |
Meanwhile we have yet to see a major investigation or any prosecution of the people who profited off the misery of homeowners who may be out in the streets. | |||
| 12/3/07 |
Subprime
Debacle Traps Even Very Credit-Worthy |
By RICK BROOKS and RUTH SIMON - WSJ |
It turns out that plenty of people with seemingly good credit are also caught in the subprime trap. | |||
| 12/3/07 | The Loans are Subprime, Not the Borrowers |
By Alan White Public Citizen Consumer Law and Policy Blog |
The rapid expansion to the point where $600 billion in subprime loans were made in 2006 has done many consumers (and lately, investors) more harm than good. | |||
| 12/3/07 | Subprime debacle traps even very credit-worthy |
By Rick Brooks
and Ruth Simon |
One common assumption about the subprime mortgage crisis is that it revolves around borrowers with sketchy credit who couldn't have bought a home without paying punitively high interest rates. But it turns out that plenty of people with seemingly good credit are also caught in the subprime trap | |||
| 12/3/07 |
|
AMIR EFRATI - Dow Jones |
, "we
have a specific and grave concern that Countrywide"
is trying to obtain money and property from debtors "under
false pretenses." In one case he cited, Countrywide
allegedly inflated the amount owed by the borrower by more than
$7,000. He spoke of "the harm that's done to debtors who
are in a financially disadvantaged position that cannot litigate
and fight one of the world's largest financial corporations." |
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| 12/3/07 |
By Robert Schroeder & Greg Robb, MarketWatch |
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Monday he's confident that a plan to help borrowers of subprime mortgages will be agreed upon soon. | ||||
| 12/3/07 |
Deutsche
Bank Fails to Foreclose on Mortgages Purchased in Structured
Investment Vehicle
Mother Nature is a hanging judge. How about the U.S. Federal
courts? |
The Daily Reckoning |
What
he wanted to know was: Where are the mortgage documents? It may be
true that these people owe you money, he suggested, but we don�t
take a man�s house away from him without a valid mortgage
contract. Not in the sovereign state of |
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| 12/3/07 | Deutsche Bank Timeline |
InnerCityPress.org |
A chronology of events pertaining to Deutsche Bank. | |||
| 12/3/07 | Homeowners in debt, seniors prime targets of riskiest loans (Follow up to below.) |
Seattle Times staff reporters
|
More than one in three borrowers in King County who got loans from the same lender that foreclosed on Taylor were 50 or older, and one in seven was 60 or older, according to a Seattle Times analysis of more than 4,000 loans by Ameriquest Mortgage. Not only that, nearly all of those borrowers already owned their houses. | |||
| 12/2/07 | The Credit Crisis is no longer just a subprime mortgage problem |
Vikas Bajaj -Mynews.in |
As home prices fall and banks tighten lending standards, people with good, or prime, credit histories are falling behind on their payments for home loans, auto loans and credit cards at a quickening pace. | |||
| 12/2/07 | Investigation reveals exploitation of vulnerable |
The Seattle Times |
The Fleecing of Frances Taylor," should move you to wonder about the exploitation of people when they are most vulnerable. How can a 96-year-old woman lose not just her home, but everything � $2 million and nearly all of her possessions? | |||
| 12/1/07 | Impending Destruction of the US Economy |
|
American median family incomes have experienced no real increase during the 21st century. Moreover, if the huge bonuses paid to CEOs for offshoring their corporations� production and to Wall Street for marketing subprime derivatives are removed from the income figures, | |||
| 11/30/07** | Law Blog Lexpionage: �Foreclosure Mills� | Peter Lattman - WSJ LawBlog | Judges are also fining firms for filing shoddy motions in bankruptcy court on behalf of creditors. In Houston, three judges have sanctioned or considered sanctions against Barrett Burke, a Texas size foreclosure firm. In June, Judge Wesley Steen imposed a $75,000 fine on Barrett Burke for filing computer-generated pleadings that were �grossly erroneous� and �gibberish.� The judge wrote that the firm has �become over reliant� on the software and its attorneys are �allowing their signatures to become affixed to pleadings that they have not adequately reviewed.� | |||
| 11/30/07 |
Mortgage Modifications not Happening |
By Alan White Public Citizen Consumer Law and Policy Blog |
Some of the other top servicers� reports showed no modifications, but that may be because the reporting of modifications is a relatively new feature and they are not tabulating them yet. Based on this limited sample, the ratio of loan modifications to foreclosures and sales is dismal. Investors are taking big losses on completed foreclosures, while apparently being unwilling to forego a little bit of interest to keep families in their homes. | |||
| 11/30/07 |
Judges
Tackle 'Foreclosure Mills' |
AMIR EFRATI - Dow Jones |
This
month, a state judge in Cincinnati
dismissed a foreclosure lawsuit brought by Wells
Fargo Bank because the bank filed the suit before it had
acquired the mortgage. In dismissing the case, the judge sent a
warning letter to the bank's law firm, John D. Clunk Co. LPA, in |
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| 11/29/07 |
Foreclosures: Not So FastCourt rulings may make it tougher for holders of mortgage-backed securities to take back the keys |
by Michael Orey BusinessWeek |
David D. Dowd Jr., a federal judge in Akron who joined colleagues in trying to streamline the process for handling foreclosures when the housing bust hit: "I think they liked the procedure we set up--until we started asking nasty questions about whether they actually own the note." | |||
| 11/29/07 | Don't Bail Out Fannie and Freddie |
By PETER J. WALLISON Dow Jones |
Under
these circumstances their managements will, as the S&Ls did in
their day, "gamble for resurrection," with the |
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| 11/28/07 | Foreclosure Charges by Lender Investigated (Countrywide) |
NYTimes |
Questionable or nonitemized charges levied on imperiled borrowers by lenders and loan servicers are an industrywide problem, consumer advocates contend. | |||
| 11/28/07 |
Another Judge Gets Tough With Bank on Foreclosures |
Yves Smith Naked Capitalism |
In another case, Ms. Porter found that
a lender had claimed that the borrower owed more than $1 million
but that an examination of the loan history showed the true
balance to be $60,000. Read Tracy's comment also. |
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| 11/27/07 | Judge Rules Against Deutsche Bank on Foreclosures, May Lead to Amnesty |
Posted by Dan
Denning
The Daily Reckoning |
We�ve been assuming the schemers and designers of CDOs were clever and crafty. But maybe they were idiots. Or maybe the unforeseen consequences of securitization and �risk disaggregation� are coming home to roost. Bankers can�t foreclose on bad mortgage loans because they can�t prove they actually own the loans. | |||
| 11/27/07 | Homeowners' big question: How low will prices go? |
By Peter Y. Hong |
Now, foreclosures are rising as homeowners find they can't keep up with excessive monthly payments, and as speculators stop making payments on properties that have lost value. Experts believe the problem is likely to worsen as more adjustable mortgages set to higher rates next year. "We will get back to a normal market when people buy a home to live in it, not invest in it," Leamer said. | |||
| 11/26/07 |
The Mess that Boyko Made: Pot, Meet Kettle |
by
Paul Jackson |
Boyko may be dead-on in his ruling, but it�s more than a little late in arriving. All of which makes it interesting for people like me to read references in his Order to �the jurisdictional integrity of United States District Court,� especially when we�re talking about Cuyahoga County in Ohio, long a foreclosure hot spot. After all, Boyko has been on the federal bench in Ohio since 2005 � so this isn�t his first rodeo, not by a long shot, and you have to wonder what other �sloppy� foreclosures he allowed previously. | |||
| 11/26/07 |
By
JAMES R. HAGERTY |
Countrywide's stock has dropped more than 75% so far this year, and its bonds trade at junk levels. | ||||
| 11/24/07 |
Rising Rates to Worsen Subprime Mess |
By RUTH SIMON -WSJ |
Already, many subprime lenders, who focused on people with poor credit, have gone bust. Big banks and investors who made subprime loans or bought securities backed by them are reporting billions of dollars in losses. | |||
| 11/23/07 |
Banks
Gone Wild
"What were they smoking?" |
By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times |
The answer, of course, is that they were high on the usual drug � greed. And they were encouraged to make socially destructive decisions by a system of executive compensation that should have been reformed after the Enron and WorldCom scandals, but wasn�t. | |||
| 11/23/07 | Freddie Mac's execs, others, to answer mortgage problems in Court |
Aussie Money Tips |
Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. home funding company, and Freddie Mac have been hit by mounting losses as home foreclosures continue to rise and the credit crisis drains the value of mortgages they own. | |||
| 11/23/07 |
The
Financial Tsunami: Sub-Prime Mortgage Debt is but the Tip of the
Iceberg
Part 1: Deutsche Bank�s painful lesson |
by F. William Engdahl Global Research.ca |
Judge Boyko ordered DB to prove they were the owners of the mortgages or notes and they could not. DB could only argue that the banks had foreclosed on such cases for years without challenge. The Judge then declared that the banks �seem to adopt the attitude that since they have been doing this for so long, unchallenged, this practice equates with legal compliance". Finally put to the test,� the Judge concluded, �their weak legal arguments compel the court to stop them at the gate.� Deutsche Bank has refused comment. | |||
| 11/22/07 | Freddie Mac Sued Over Mortgage Problems |
Reuters |
Freddie Mac, Chief Executive Richard Syron and some other executives did not adequately implement risk control measures to protect the company from acquiring billions of dollars worth of mortgages with poor underwriting standards. | |||
| 11/21/07 | US Mortgage Losses Could Be $300 Billion: OECD |
Reuters |
The Paris-based forum said the worst of the U.S. housing market downturn had not yet been seen and would continue to depress mortgage-related debt products and derivatives held by banks, hedge funds and insurance companies. | |||
| 11/21/07 |
Garfield
judge's aide admits subprime mortgage fraud
Judge identified as co-conspirator |
BY TED SHERMAN Star-Ledger Staff |
In court yesterday before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares in Newark, Gebbia admitted preparing fake HUD-1 settlement forms. The phony papers, including fraudulent W-2 income statements, were used to qualify buyers for subprime loans that they could not afford to repay. | |||
|
Whitepaper
Fall 2007 |
DANIEL M. ATTAWAY | |||||
| 11/21/07 | Paulson Sees More Home Loan Defaults in 2008 |
Reuters |
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the number of potential U.S. home-loan defaults "will be significantly bigger" in 2008 than in 2007. | |||
| 11/21/07 | The Largest Lender and its Greatest Enemy, Sitting Side by Side |
Posted by Moe LoanWorkout.org |
Countrywide and its greatest enemy, NACA, sitting side by side, as the lender basically admits that the loans it sold are in deeper trouble than we thought, not to mention the act of modifying them in such a way, is a tacit admission that the loans were bad to begin with. | |||
| 11/20/07 | A Swarm of Swindlers |
By BOB HERBERT The New York Times |
�I kept telling them no, because I didn�t think we could afford it. But they kept saying how it was to our advantage. So I finally said: �All right, let�s see what we can do.� � | |||
| 11/20/07 |
Retired Postal Worker Could Lose the Home That 'Means Everything' |
By VICKI MABREY and EILEEN MURPHY - ABC News | "It means everything; it's a lifetime invested here," Jordan said. "And of course, if I go down, it's a nightmare. Where do you go from here? I'm a 79-year-old man." | |||
| 11/20/07 | What�s this Boyko / Deutsche Bank thing all about, anyway? |
Callahan's Cleveland Diary |
Deutsche Bank never held a mortgage on 4111 Archwood. And Deutsche Bank doesn�t really own 4111 Archwood now. | |||
| 11/20/07 | Listen to Panel on the Home Foreclosure Crisis |
Public Citizen Consumer Law & Policy Blog |
The speakers include Jane Azia, Director of Consumer Protection, New York State Banking Department, Margaret Becker of the Predatory Lending and Foreclosure Prevention Project, Staten Island, New York Legal Services, Professor Ronald Mann of Columbia, and Tam Ormiston, Chief Deputy Attorney General of Iowa. The moderator is James Tierney, Director of the State Attorney General Program & former Attorney General of Maine. | |||
| 11/20/07 | Bear Stearns sued over mortgage losses |
Jonathan Stempel -Reuters |
The lawsuit, filed late on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accuses Bear Stearns' Chairman and Chief Executive James Cayne and other officials of being "well aware of the impending crisis" in mortgages before credit markets deteriorated in July. | |||
| 11/20/07 | Freddie Mac Stuns Investors With Bigger Loss with "Drop Dead Freddie" video. |
Reuters |
Freddie Mac's dwindling capital will crimp its ability to play its role fostering home ownership in a market already hit by lender pullbacks. | |||
| 11/20/07 | WaMu's Disclosure: Not Enough For This Investor |
Seeking Alpha |
So what we have is a company making many disclosures, and yet holding something important back. One has to assume that what they've held back would reflect badly on the company. | |||
| 11/19/07 | Citigroup faces $15 billion write-off, cut to "sell": GS |
Jonathan Stempel -Reuters |
"(The) risk taking culture may be irreparably damaged. | |||
| 11/17/07 | Subprime mess is a crime story |
Diane Francis, Financial Post |
Wall Streeters get tossed from jobs, write down fortunes and collect obscene severance. It's all business and usual. I hope intermediaries will be sued out of existence by the deep pockets they damaged and defrauded. | |||
| 11/17/07 |
by Bob Chapman Your Financial Future |
A new scam called foreclosure fraud, where loan holders and security trusts don't really own the loans they are foreclosing on, Straw Buyer scams, losses mount at investment houses, epidemic suicide rates among young veterans. | ||||
| 11/17/07 |
Mortgage fraud cases yield tough sentences
|
Houston Chronicle |
He said the sentences get so steep because the dollar amounts are so high. Even if it's $100,000 or $200,000 a house, if there are dozens or hundreds of houses, the stakes are enormous. Three people have been sentenced to 25 years in prison for mortgage fraud, and a fourth received a 40-year sentence. | |||
| 11/17/07 |
Federal
judge accuses mortgage lenders of hijacking foreclosure system for
profits
Criticism
joins wave of dismissed cases |
Cleveland Plain Dealer |
A
federal judge in Cleveland
has accused the mortgage industry and its lawyers of
hijacking the foreclosure system in the interest of profits and at
the expense of homeowners and municipalities. |
|||
| 11/17/07 | Judges are right to make lenders follow the rules before foreclosing on peoples' homes - an editorial |
Cleveland Plain Dealer |
These
developments might call into question default judgments rendered
against borrowers in earlier cases. How many of those cases
should be reopened because the bankers lacked standing?
|
|||
| 11/16/07 |
PBS
Video on Credit Crisis That Wall
Street Does Not Want You to See
$2 trillion in housing wealth going away
forever
|
PBS NOW |
NOW connects the dots to see the extent to which recklessness, corruption and greed created this subprime mess that now threatens to undermine our entire economy. | |||
| 11/16/07 |
The Judicial Integrity of the United States Court is �Priceless� � 27 More Foreclosures Dismissed |
By Aaron Krowne & Moe Bedard |
As to the real ramification of the Ohio decision, aside from slowing the foreclosure trains, is that the fact that there were no �original� assignments rendering the sales of the mortgages to the trusts, in violation of the true sale obligations imposed by securities law. � | |||
| 11/16/07 | True Sale, False Securitizations |
by Aaron Krowne and Moe Bedard |
It would be very interesting to see where these nonperforming loans have been booked until now. This is an epidemic across the country. | |||
| 11/16/07 |
Sprawl, Mortgage Fraud and Political Corruption |
By ALAN FARAGO Counterpunch.org |
There is going to be no recovery for housing markets, or the scarred Florida landscape, until the issues raised by the Ohio court are resolved. In the meantime, foreign buyers of financial derivatives--a market totaling in the trillions of dollars--will be either reluctant participants or sit on the sidelines as this Ponzi scheme works itself out. | |||
|
11/15/07
|
Federal Judge to Deutsche Bank: You Can't Foreclose Properties You Don't Own | |||||
| 11/15/07 | Who's to blame for the mortgage mess? |
MSN Money |
||||
| 11/15/07 |
Foreclosures Hit a Snag for Lenders |
NYTimes |
Lawyers for
troubled homeowners are expected to seize upon the district
judge�s opinion as a way to impede foreclosures across the
country or force investors to settle with homeowners. And it may
encourage judges in other courts to demand more documentation of
ownership from lenders trying to foreclose. |
|||
|
11/14/07
|
Cleveland Federal Judge: Dismisses 32 Foreclosures For Lack Of Proof |
The Daily Bellwether |
Her ruling means the courts are
going to give foreclosures increased scrutiny. [UPDATE: 7:22 AM. 11/15/07 -- Here are the plaintiffs, along with the number of foreclosures that were tossed out of court. Deutsche Bank National Trust, 24; Wells Fargo Bank NA, 3; KMO Liquidation Properties Inc. , 2; LaSalle Bank Nat'l Assn, 1; HSBC Mortgage Services, 1, Speciality Mortages LLC, 1. ] |
|||
| 11/13/07 | Many Lenders Pay Lip Service When it Comes to Loan Modifications, Even When They Caused the Borrowers Problems |
By: Nathan Fransen, Esq.
LoanWorkout.org |
I am an attorney practicing in California, representing consumers against lenders. I want to share a (Litton) story that is unfortunately all too common. | |||
|
Deutsche Bank Foreclosures Tossed Out of Ohio Federal Court - "They Own Nothing!" |
by Moe Bedard and
Aaron Krowne |
April Charney stated: "This opinion, once circulated and adopted by state and Federal courts across the country, will stop the progress of foreclosures, at first in judicial foreclosure states, across America, dead in their tracks". | |||
| 11/13/07 | Mortgage-fraud task force opens command center in Cleveland |
Thomas Ott Plain Dealer Reporter |
Task force members will be from the Ohio attorney general's office, the state Commerce Department, U.S. attorney's office, FBI, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development and local police departments. | |||
| 11/12/07 | Wall Street playing with more funny money |
By Peter Eavis, Fortune senior writer |
Investors have long been skeptical about the values that the banks themselves place on their level three assets, and that mistrust deepened after both Merrill and Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500) recently revealed huge mortgage-related losses that were much bigger than outsiders had expected. | |||
| 11/9/07 | Banks blamed by borrowers in mortgage company mess | Customers of a bankrupt Pennsylvania mortgage business on Friday accused some of the nation's largest banks of funding a Ponzi scheme and failing to perform adequate oversight. | ||||
| 11/8/07 | The Bursting Real Estate Bubble Is A Fact Of Life |
The Housing Bubble Blog Posted By: Ben Jones |
��In metro Atlanta, every month thousands of families are losing their homes to foreclosure. On the courthouse steps today, more than 6,000 homeowners were facing foreclosure,� says Brennan.� | |||
| 11/8/07 |
The
Long Fall
A Market Without Parachutes |
By MIKE WHITNEY |
|
|||
| 11/7/07 |
IT'S NOT MORTGAGE BROKERS THAT CAUSED THE MELTDOWN, IT IS THE "FINANCIAL WIZARDS OF WALL STREET" WHO ARE TO BLAME! |
Steve onecitizenspeaking.com |
Simply put, the financial engineers in Wall Street firms packaged both mortgage and corporate debt into separate pools, added a hedging strategy which was supposed to mitigate any undue risk, submitted the derivatives package to the ratings agencies who rated the entire package as being "investment grade," which in turn allowed the Wall Street boys and girls to sell their packages to investors such as hedge funds, pension funds, mutual funds and other financial institutions and allowing them to pocket their multi-million bonuses in real dollars. Not promised dollars based on the performance of their products, but real commission dollars based on what others paid for these toxic packages. | |||
| 11/7/07 | Predatory Servicing: The Problems and Remedies |
Jack M. Guttentag The Mortgage Professor |
The loan origination market is a minefield for borrowers, to be sure, but they do have choices. When the loan is closed and shifted to a servicing agent, however, the borrower's choices disappear. | |||
| 11/7/07 |
|
By
JAMES R. HAGERTY and |
"Our expanding investigation into the mortgage industry has uncovered that Washington Mutual improperly pressured appraisers to provide inflated values that best served the lender's interest," Mr.Cuomo said. | |||
| 11/12/07 | Citi May Have a New Mess on Its ands |
BusinessWeek |
In all, there are roughly $100 billion worth of CDOs in which banks are on the line for much of the financing, according to JPMorgan Securities (JPM )�with Citi being the biggest player. "All of [this commercial paper] is probably back on someone's balance sheet," says Kedran Garrison Panageas, a JPMorgan CDO analyst. "My guess is there's going to be some train wreck here," | |||
| 11/6/07 | Borrowers often hit by dubious fees |
Interview with
Katherine Porter |
University of Iowa associate professor Katherine Porter has found that many homeowners in foreclosure who file for bankruptcy protection still face fees from mortgage companies that often have no documented merit. | |||
| 11/6/07 | Borrowers Face Dubious Charges in Foreclosures |
NYTimes |
Because there is little oversight of foreclosure practices and the fees that are charged, bankruptcy specialists fear that some consumers may be losing their homes unnecessarily or that mortgage servicers, who collect loan payments, are profiting from foreclosures. | |||
| 11/6/07 | Mortgage servicers raking in millions from homeowners in trouble |
Lita
Epstein
BloggingStocks |
You need to look at their profit margins to understand why they
really have no incentive to help borrowers.
A bankruptcy judge in Louisiana ruled that Wells Fargo overcharged a homeowner by $24,450.65 or 12% more than what the court said he actually owed. |
|||
| 11/6/07 | THE GAME | The subprime realm has thus become a vital portal onto Wall Street, helping us understand just how upside-down the place has become. | ||||
| 11/5/07 |
The
week that was
November
5th, 2007 |
Various Sources |
A collection of articles on the Foreclosure crisis. | |||
| 11/5/07 |
CFO
Accused of $13 Million Fraud on the Run
Edward Batayeh, Executive Vice President and CFO of CHL Mortgage Group, was indicted by a federal grand jury. |
OriginatorTimes |
Executive Vice President and CFO was
indicted on mortgage fraud and tax evasion charges and is now on
the run from the FBI. Last
known whereabouts include applying for a job with one of the
financial institutions he�s accused of defrauding. |
|||
| 11/3/07 |
Top US analyst hits back after death threats over Citigroup downgrade |
TtimesOnline |
Meredith Whitney, the analyst who prompted a $369 billion (�177 billion) plunge in the value of US shares on Thursday by issuing a negative note on Citigroup, hit out at Wall Street�s culture of intimidation yesterday after receiving several death threats from investors in the bank. | |||
| 11/3/07 | Loan Servicers, the Lesser-Known Predators |
By Jack Guttentag The Mortgage Professor |
Aside from a few well-publicized lawsuits, predatory servicing has attracted little attention. In many respects, though, it is more vicious and the adverse consequences more far-ranging. | |||
| 11/3/07 | Mortgage meltdown |
|
Incidents of fraud that occurred more than a year or two ago are just now starting to crop up, said Sacramento FBI spokesman John Cauthen, who has dealt with mortgage fraud for more than a decade. He said there are more cases than ever, now that people "are wising up to what happened." | |||
| 11/3/07 |
THE
BEAR'S LAIR Level 3 storm about to hit Wall Street |
By Martin Hutchinson Asia Times Online |
Subprime mortgages, estimated to cause losses of $400-500 billion
to the market as a whole.
If the value of conventional mortgages decline many securities related to them, currently classed as Level 1 or 2 assets, will become un-marketable and descend into Level 3. |
|||
| 11/2/07 | WaMu Could Face Flood of Repurchases if First American Suit Succeeds |
by Paul Jackson Housing Wire |
The lawsuit filed by Cuomo �raises an issue of considerable risk to Washington Mutual: that poorly performing securitized loans will be put back to WaMu from bondholders on the basis of fraudulent appraisals and WaMu would be forced to put bad loans back on its balance sheet,� | |||
| 11/2/07 | By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch | If Cuomo succeeds in proving eAppraiseIT's appraisals on WaMu home loans were fraudulent, that could create big problems for the Seattle-based lender. | ||||
| 11/2/07 |
Deals With Hedge Funds May Be Helping Merrill Lynch Delay Mortgage Losses |
By SUSAN PULLIAM - WSJ |
The SEC is looking into how the Wall Street firm has been valuing, or "marking," its mortgage securities and how it has disclosed its positions to investors, a person familiar with the probe said. Regulators are scrutinizing whether Merrill Lynch knew its mortgage-related problem was bigger than what it indicated to investors throughout the summer. | |||
| 11/1/07 |
by
Robert Berner and Brian Grow |
Debts forgiven by bankruptcy courts
are springing back to life to haunt consumers. Fueling these
miniature horror stories is an unlikely market in which seemingly
extinguished debts are avidly bought and sold by JPMorgan
Chase, Bear Stearns and others. |
||||
| 11/1/07 |
Citigroup fears send Wall Street reelingStocks plunge in London and New York on speculation that Citigroup could cut dividends or sell assets to raise $30bn |
|
"We believe Citigroup
will need to raise over $30 billion in capital as a result of its
tangible capital ratios falling to the lowest levels in decades.
The bank was also downgraded at Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. The CIBC analyst said Citigroup will be forced to sell assets, raise capital or cut its dividend to shore up its capital ratios, over the near term. |
|||
| 11/1/07 | Bear Stearns CEO's handling of crisis raises issues |
Kate Kelly - Financial News Online US |
During 10 critical days of this crisis -- one of the worst in the securities firm's 84-year history -- Bear Stearns' chief executive wasn't near his Wall Street office. James Cayne was playing in a bridge tournament in Nashville, Tenn., without a cellphone or an email device | |||
| 11/1/07 | Compensation drops at Credit Suisse amid 99% profits plunge |
Vivek Ahuja and Harry Wilson
Financial News Online US |
Credit Suisse has followed rivals in reporting lower staff compensation at its investment bank after the unit�s pre-tax profits plunged 99% to just Sfr6m (�3.6m) in the third quarter as the Swiss group became the latest bank to announce hefty debt writedowns. | |||
| 11/1/07 | Cuomo Charges Crush WaMu |
By
Laurie
Kulikowski |
First American "caved to pressure" from Seattle-based WaMu to use a list of appraisers who inflated the values of thousands of homes. Cuomo also alleges that executives at eAppraiseIT "knew their behavior was illegal, but intentionally broke the law to secure future business with WaMu," | |||
| 11/1/07 |
Foreclosures: Moving on upFilings rise with more on the horizon as interest rates jump on a record number of adjustable mortgages. |
By Keisha Lamothe, CNNMoney.com staff writer |
"Given the number of loans due to reset through the middle of 2008, and the continuing weakness in home sales, we would expect foreclosure activity to remain high and even increase over the next year in many markets". | |||
| 11/1/07 | IRS Probes Hedge Funds, Buyout Firms for Possible Tax Abuses |
By Alison Fitzgerald and Ryan J. Donmoyer Bloomberg |
The Internal Revenue Service has begun an inquiry into suspected tax abuses at hedge funds and private- equity firms after determining many firm partners don't file returns and may have improperly characterized transactions. | |||
| 11/07 | The Role of Securitizations on Mortgage Lending |
by Richard J. Rosen, senior economist and economic advisor |
White Paper from the Federal Reserve - (Chicago) | |||
| 10/31/07 | No Ombudsman in American Home Bankruptcy |
CNN Money |
Rush, who said she was promised one
loan but given another that was completely different, is hoping to
hold the existing loan owner liable in her lawsuit.
"Who is the owner of the note? Who got the fruits of the fraud?" she asked Sontchi. "The debtor's estate is basically protecting another party." |
|||
| 10/30/07 | Merrill Lynch hit with shareholder lawsuit over subprime |
NEW YORK (Reuters) |
Merrill Lynch statements "were materially false due to their failure to inform the market of the ticking time bomb in the company's CDO portfolio due to the deteriorating subprime mortgage market," the complaint said. | |||
| 2007 |
Wholesale Lender Email Reveals The Yield Spread Premium Lie! |
Rob K. Blake The Mortgage Insider |
��borrowers are simply told that their loans will have a certain interest rate, and they never understand that the interest rate is higher than it needs to be.� | |||
| 10/28/07 | Countrywide Investigation Underscores New Reality in Mortgage Servicing |
HousingWire |
That will undoubtedly change the business model for many servicers, and it will be interesting to see how that affects the industry going forward. | |||
| 10/28/07 | There Are HUGE Losses That Have Not Been Disclosed | The Housing Bubble |
[w]hile his firm works with and values brokers, loans touched by
brokers historically go into default more often than retail loans.
The reason may be fraud, he said.�
��The more hands that touch the file, the greater opportunity for fraud,� |
|||
| 10/28/07 | Is Merrill the Tip of the Iceberg? |
Economist.com |
Until recently it was assumed that such well-protected paper could not lose its value. No longer. Worryingly, hundreds of banks, insurers and hedge funds around the world hold such securities. Fooled by false alchemy, they face a terrible reckoning. | |||
| 10/28/07 | Homeowners Facing Mortgage Foreclosures Denied Constitutional Right to Proper Notification | Her case is a stunning example of how predatory subprime lenders, a fast-track foreclosure process and a hands-off legal system can combine to wreak havoc on people's lives. | ||||
| 10/26/07 | Lengthy standoff ends in Spring with man's suicide (Lender Assisted Suicide?) |
LINDSAY WISE |
James Hahn, a chemist, had told police he would not be taken from the home alive, said Capt. Bruce Williams, an HPD spokesman. | |||
| 10/26/07 | A (Subprime) Catastrophe Foretold |
PAUL KRUGMAN Spiegel Online International |
But the greater tragedy is the one facing borrowers who were offered what they were told were good deals, only to find themselves in a debt trap. | |||
| 10/26/07 | Three Largest Debt-Rating Agencies Subpoenaed |
Associated Press |
The investigation is reviewing allegations that some companies rated an issuer�s debt against its wishes, then ordered the issuer to pay for the service or face a possible poor rating. (Fraud is everywhere.) | |||
| 10/26/07 | Cisneros quits Countrywide board |
David
Hendricks |
Cisneros has been feeling the heat as a Countrywide director. | |||
| 10/26/07 | For sale: 2 million empty homes |
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer |
Countrywide Financial (Charts, Fortune 500), the nation's leading mortgage lender, to report a $1.2 billion net loss Friday that was far larger than forecasts. | |||
| 10/26/07 | U.S. Home Vacancies Rise to Record on Foreclosures |
By Kathleen M. Howley Bloomberg.com |
A record 17.9 million U.S. homes stood empty in the third quarter as lenders took possession of a growing number of properties in foreclosure. | |||
| 10/25/07 | Reports Suggest Broader Losses From Mortgages |
By VIKAS BAJAJ and EDMUND L. ANDREWS New York Times Eric Dash contributed |
That is far more than the roughly $240 billion cost, adjusted for inflation, of the Savings and Loan crisis of the early 1990s, according to estimates of the combined financial toll of that crisis on both the federal government and private sector. The loss in total real estate wealth is expected to range from $2 trillion to $4 trillion | |||
| 10/25/07 | Head of troubled Bank of America unit leaves |
By
IEVA M. AUGSTUMS |
Hentemann had been in charge of mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities and related trading. Such investments plummeted in value this summer during a global credit crunch that led to a spike in mortgage defaults and foreclosures, especially in subprime loans. | |||
| 10/25/07 |
CDS IndexCo and Markit Announce Roll of the CMBX Indices |
PR-inside.com |
New AJ Tranche Added to Enhance Trading Opportunities |
|||
| 10/24/07 |
Housing horror could hang around for years |
By Scott
Burns
MSN Money |
What happened to houses in Texas back then may be the template for
what happens across the country as the housing bubble pops today.
Many of the circumstances are similar. |
|||
| 10/23/07 | CLEVELAND'S KUCINICH A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN DEADLY DULL CONTEST |
By John Hanchette Niagara Falls Reporter |
"Aren't these the same people who brought us Enron, NAFTA,
offshoring, exorbitant credit card fees, oil dependency, pension
collapses, and other 'smart decisions'? Indeed, isn't Bear
Stearns itself butt-deep in the ongoing subprime
mortgage disaster? Why should anyone listen to them?"
Bear Stearns, for instance, has already "summoned seven major candidates" from both parties, Bear Stearns itself butt-deep in the ongoing subprime mortgage disaster? Why should anyone listen to them?" |
|||
| 10/23/07 | Texas Real Estate Investor Sentenced to 11 years for Mortgage Fraud |
Mortgage Fraud Blog |
Cooks is also presently under indictment in the Northern District of Texas in United States v. Donald W. Hill et al., Case Number 3:07CR-289, and is presently in federal custody on those charges. | |||
| 10/23/07 | What Do Phone Sex & Mortgage Servicing Have in Common? | Katie Porter - CreditSlips.org | The hitch--that other number required them to pay $9.99 A MINUTE. Frustrated, the debtor's attorney went the formal route and filed a claims objection, which I've put below the jump. | |||
| 10/23/07 | Criticism rains down on mortgage industry |
By Noelle Knox and Sue Kirchhoff, USA TODAY |
A public outcry against the mortgage industry is growing louder. Lawmakers, regulators and consumer advocates say they are increasingly worried about the fallout from a record number of homes going into foreclosure. | |||
| 10/23/07 |
US probe into Bear Stearns' China deal |
By James Quinn,
Wall Street Correspondent |
The US Treasury is poised to examine Bear
Stearns' $1bn cross-investment with Chinese investment
bank Citic in the interests of national security.
The Treasury, through its Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS), will work with several state departments � including Justice, Commerce, State and Defense � to investigate whether the deal raises cause for concern. |
|||
| 10/21/07 | Who's to blame for foreclosure crisis? |
Palm Beach Post Commentary |
?That's because so many had something to gain from the mortgage bubble, says Bill Davis, president of Private Funding Specialists and past president of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers' Palm Beach County region � and many of those people went about their business winking and nodding. "It's everybody," he says. "The Federal Reserve participated, the big lenders played a part, the credit ratings agencies had a part, so did hedge funds and borrowers, appraisers." | |||
| 10/21/07 | Mortgage fraud victims deserve our help |
Hank Shea / Pamela J. Abbate Minn./St. Paul Star Tribune |
The stories of mortgage fraud victims can bring tears to your eyes. | |||
| 10/20/07 | Prosecutor honored for mortgage fraud cases | The U.S. Justice Department has honored a Kansas City federal prosecutor for her work on large-scale mortgage fraud cases. | ||||
| 10/20/07 | Vultures Are Circling Over Distressed Properties |
The Nation's Housing |
Grave dancers, vulture funds, turnaround specialists or the more euphemistic "opportunity investors." When hyperactive real estate markets lose their sizzle, or property owners no longer can afford to hang on to their houses, well-capitalized investors smell blood and move in. | |||
| 10/20/07 | Kanjorski introduces mortgage lending reform | The bill also strengthens mortgage servicing requirements. It prohibits servicers from establishing forced-placement insurance on loans when servicers are already protected from catastrophic loss of a home. It requires servicers to promptly credit payments from borrowers and increases penalties for mortgage servicing violations. | ||||
| 10/19/07 |
Expensive homes are not immune from the foreclosure crisis
|
Investors could be stuck with mortgages on houses they planned to
fix up and sell.
"If you can't rent them or sell them, then you're in big trouble." |
||||
| 10/19/07 | Bear Stearns in probe over funds: report |
Reuters |
Bear Stearns Cos (BSC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is being investigated by Massachusetts securities regulators over whether the bank improperly traded with two in-house hedge funds that collapsed last summer. | |||
| 10/19/07 | Azem Limani (Countrywide) sentenced in federal court for mortgage fraud scheme |
Alaska Report |
A manager of Countrywide Home Loans at the time and arranged for fraudulent loans to be issued to the nominees by falsifying their income, assets and other matters on the loan applications. | |||
| 10/19/07 | US audit watchdog finds faults with PwC audits |
Rachelle Younglai Reuters |
The U.S. board that polices corporate auditors said on Friday it found a number of faults with Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP's [PWC.UL] audits, including a failure to adequately test mortgage servicing rights -- an area that is being closely watched during the subprime fallout. | |||
| 10/19/07 | Ameriquest throws borrower info in public trash cans |
Michael King 11 Alive.com |
Hundreds of confidential mortgage files found in a dumpster behind a DeKalb County apartment complex. | |||
| Make builders, lenders fix the housing mess | By Jim Jubak Jubak's Journal | [t]he odds of that borrower going into default go up with every passing month. With more than $350 billion of adjustable-rate mortgages due to reset at higher interest rates in the next 18 months, the problem is only getting bigger. | ||||
| 10/18/07 | Sen. Schumer urges SEC expand Countrywide probe |
Reuters |
Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on Thursday an investigation of Countrywide Financial Corp's (NYSE:CFC - News) chief executive should be expanded to include the company. | |||
| 10/17/07 |
Foreclosure May Have Led To Homicide - Suicide |
A Dubois Circuit Court judgment and decree of foreclosure on the couple's house was filed earlier this year and was recently placed on their front door. | ||||
| 10/17/07 | MGIC Posts First Loss, Predicts No Profit Next Year |
By Josh P. Hamilton Bloomberg |
MGIC Investment Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage insurer, posted its first quarterly loss in 16 years and said it won't be profitable in 2008 as foreclosures increase from record levels. | |||
| 10/17/07 | The Fed Held Secret Meetings with Major Banks to Avert Disaster | FROM BLOG: Everyday Finance |
More Fed Scam Meetings - Save the Banks & Screw the Public |
|||
| 10/16/07 |
It�s Time For The Banks To Face The Hangman |
By Mike Whitney |
That�s right; the Treasury Dept is directly involved in a scam that saves the banks while trying to �persuade� investors to �pour more money� into toxic mortgage-backed sludge. | |||
| 10/16/07 | Goldman's Litton deal seen closing in 60 days |
Reuters |
MGIC and Radian on Sept. 5 warned that their C-BASS stakes worth $1 billion in June, probably had no value. | |||
| 10/16/07 | Southern Calif. home sales plunge 30 pct in Sept |
By Jim Christie
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) |
Sales of houses and condominiums in the most populous Southern California counties fell 29.9 percent from the previous month and 48.5 percent from a year earlier, | |||
| 10/15/07 | AMERIQUEST UNDER FIRE VIDEO |
ABC News VIDEO |
Roland Arnall, one of the kingpins responsible for the Mortgage Meltdown, gains in wealth as his company is accused of deceiving homeowners | |||
| 10/15/07 | FRAUDULENT FORECLOSURES and |
Posted by: Jim Grandone |
In my
absence, a debt collector attorney conducted a simulated auction
of my residence on May 19, 2005 by use of non-existent mortgagor GE Capital
Mortgage Services� identity. Although GE Capital
Mortgage Services ceased to exist on October
25, 2002, documents were created to portray the successful auction
bidder as defunct GE Capital, and the property deed was
transferred out of my name and registered in the name of GE Capital. Months, later, 3 days before
Katrina hit New Orleans, my family and I were evicted by a
different attorney on behalf of mortgage giant FREDDIE MAC. According to falsified
documents, Freddie is recorded as having
purchased my residence from GE Capital in July 2005. To the
contrary, as shown on the Louisiana Secretary of State website, GE Capital
Mortgage Services became DEFUNCT on October
25, 2002, when it merged into GE Mortgage
Services, LLC. Therefore, it is
impossible for Freddie Mac to have lawfully bought my
house. |
|||
| 10/15/07 | Bernanke has warning for Wall Street |
CNN Money |
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank's rate cut in September has shown signs of success, but cautioned that lenders and investors must bear responsibility for financial decisions that caused the subprime mortgage meltdown. | |||
| 10/15/07 |
Wall
Street Requiem
Bear Stearns Troubles |
Portfolio.com |
Wall Street is worried about another entity on the edge�one that has an astounding $29.90 of assets for every $1 of equity. It�s called Bear Stearns. | |||
| 10/15/07 | Banks Assured Investors |
By DOW JONES NEWSWIRES |
Investors are now questioning why Merrill
would dissemble if the truth was going to come out weeks later.
Similar questions could be asked about |
|||
| 10/15/07 | Fundraiser's Legal Woes Dog Clinton Camp | By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer | Hsu pleaded no contest in 1992 to a felony charge stemming from what prosecutors said was a $1 million Ponzi scheme. | |||
| 10/15/07 | Stressed Out on Wall Street | Steve Rosenbush BusinessWeek | The losses at Citigroup (C) hit $5 billion, and at Bear Stearns (BSC) two highly leveraged funds imploded amid the financial carnage. But those losses, however large, can be written off. In most cases, the investor or fund simply moves on. | |||
| 10/14/07 | Lenders can't shovel all the blame on borrowers | �(The mortgage lenders) knew the bad credit quality of the loans being originated, they took their profits, and now the ship sinks,� said Bob Simpson, president of Investors Mortgage Asset Recovery Co. in Irvine. �They will all walk away rich. And we are left with neighborhoods full of foreclosures.� | ||||
| 10/11/07 | Bear Stearns' Bad Bet |
by Matthew Goldstein and David Henry BusinessWeek |
"We're going to make money on
this," he promised his wealthy patrons in February. "We
don't believe what the markets are saying."
He should have known otherwise. The hedge funds were built so they were virtually guaranteed to implode if market conditions turned south. |
|||
| 10/11/07 |
America for Sale: Foreigners Flock to U.S. |
By
SCOTT MAYEROWITZ |
Americans often take our legal system including property rights "for granted," he said. But overseas investors find those safeguards appealing. | |||
| 10/11/07 |
Texas Attorney General urges three Texas mortgage companies to lay off foreclosures |
Attorney General Abbott News Release |
During today�s meeting, Attorney
General Abbott urged Countrywide Mortgage,
Houston-based Litton Loan Servicing
and Dallas-based EMC Mortgage
to implement several measures designed to preserve homeownership
in Texas, improve consumer communication, and resolve complaints. (Years late and billions of dollars short) |
|||
| 10/11/07 | Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Suffer Losses as Ratings Agencies Are Grilled over Sub-prime's |
|
In the wake of the mortgage backed securities meltdown, Congress is investigating credit rating agencies over how and why ratings on such securities failed to reflect the danger. The SEC Chairman testified that the SEC is examining whether agencies including Moodys Investors Service and Standard & Poors were �unduly influenced� by issuers and underwriters that paid for the credit ratings. | |||
| 10/11/07 | The Early Stages Of The Cleanup |
Posted by Ben Jones The Housing Bubble |
�Countrywide Financial Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage company, said late payments at its servicing unit rose, foreclosures doubled and new loans fell 44 percent as housing sales slowed. | |||
| 10/11/07 |
The
United States of Subprime
Data Show Bad Loans Permeate the Nation;
Pain Could Last Years |
RICK BROOKS and CONSTANCE MITCHELL
FORD -WSJ |
At the time, she says, she expected to refinance before her interest rate resets to 14% next year, which will raise her monthly payments to $8,000 from $3,700. But in the past year, she says, prices of comparable homes in her subdivision have fallen to $310,000, which means she would not qualify for a new $460,000 mortgage, unless home values go back up to that level, an unlikely scenario. She says she has stopped paying her mortgage and is trying to negotiate with her lender. "I'm going to lose my home anyway," she says, "so why pay?" | |||
| 10/10/07 | Help May Be on the Way to Victims of Mortgage Servicer Failure | Stephen Otto, Attorney at Law | Arkygirl writes: This whole issue is becoming more sickening by the minute....it is one scam on top of another scam on top of yet another scam. They are even scamming each other. The list of highly imaginative scams grows by the minute. | |||
| 10/10/07 |
Morgenson Sheds Light on Subprime Mortgage Crisis |
Gretchen Morgenson NY Times |
Pulitzer Prize-winning business columnist Gretchen Morgenson talks about the subprime mortgage crisis and its effects on the markets and on the economy. | |||
| 10/10/07 |
Mortgage Default - The Questionable Worth of Federal Regulation |
By
Marion Edwyn Harrison |
[w]hether one limits the definition of �fraud� to legal fraud or mere massive misrepresentation. The point is that fraud reports involving mortgages have been on the rise since at least 1997 through 2005. | |||
| Savings and Loan Crisis of the 80's |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Make no MISTAKE, it is related to mortgage servicing fraud and will be proven. | ||||
| 10/10/07 |
The
Cayne Mutiny
Are Jimmy Cayne's days at Bear Stearns numbered? |
by StockJockey 1440 Wall Street |
Gasparino intimated that a revolt was building at Bear,
with disillusioned employees looking to get rid of him once and
for all.
[i]f the stock cracks $100 for any sustained period the knives might just come out.. |
|||
| 10/9/07 | Subprime crisis far from over: S&P |
Saikat Chatterjee and Anurag Joshi Reuters |
"We underestimated the extent to which fraud was occurring in the industry," he said. [subprime losses could reach $150 billion] |
|||
| 10/8/07 | Bank of America, JPMorgan face $3B hit |
CNN Money |
Combined loss would bring total writedowns from subprime-related securities to $20 billion, says the Financial Times. | |||
| 10/7/07 | What Is Happening Out There? |
Posted by Dean mortgages-now.blogspot |
[I]ndividual attempts to resolve them are being buried by the sheer number of problems that are clogging the system. | |||
| 10/5/07 | Bear Stearns Loses $8 billion in Alternative Assets |
by StockJockey 1440 Wall Street |
Although Bear is trying to spin this positively, the loss of an $8 billion hedge fund strategy has got to hurt. | |||
| 10/5/07 | Wilbur Ross Is Winning Bidder for American Home Unit |
Steven Church Bloomberg |
``It's a big business. It's not going to go away,'' Ross said in an interview Sept. 21 when he announced his bid. ``We just think it was implemented badly.'' | |||
| 10/4/07 |
Mortgage fraud on a massive scale |
Diane Francis, Financial Post | A combination of fraudsters, the Mafia and a lot of financial intermediaries on Wall Street have pulled off something bigger than Enron, the savings-and-loan mess and Lenny Rosenberg's 1983 apartment flip all combined. | |||
| 10/4/07 |
Federal
Prosecutors Launch
|
PAUL DAVIES and KATE KELLY Wall Street Journal |
The |
|||
| 10/4/07 | Worrying About Mortgage Servicers' Fate |
Felix Salmon
Seeking Alpha |
A simple mortgage renegotiation is not very lucrative, for a servicer; a fully-blown foreclosure, on the other hand, provides much more in the way of opportunities to profit. | |||
| 10/4/07 | Experts air foreclosure crisis solutions | Jim Buchta, Star Tribune | Experts said that the key to saving homeowners and communities is homeownership counseling. (WRONG!) | |||
| 10/4/07 | Part Two: Excuse Me Mr. Bush, But You Owe Me $1200 (Huge Potential Irony) |
Rick Pendergraft HoweStreet.com |
My former neighbor made a lot of money over the last five years by putting people into mortgages that they really couldn�t afford. And he lived high on the hog for a while. But now he is without a job and looking at huge debt payments each month. I don�t know if they have money saved or not, but under President Bush�s mortgage bailout plan, this guy could be someone that actually gets help on his mortgage. | |||
| 10/3/07 |
Criminal probe is said to focus on collapsed lender(American Home Mortgage Investment Corp) |
From Newsday |
The investigation is looking into whether violations of federal criminal statutes may have occurred that resulted in the company's bankruptcy filing, the sources said. The statutes, they said, cover conspiracy, securities, mail and wire fraud, money laundering and other crimes. | |||
| 9/30/07 | Can these Mortgages be Saved |
nytimes.com |
�Countrywide is trying to say they are doing workouts, but they are doing them with as little financial sacrifice for the company and as little effort as they can,� said Senator Charles E. Schumer. �They are trying to get away with doing a good job here when you can prove by digging even a half an inch deeper that they�re not.� |
|||
| 9/29/07 | Alan Blinder: Who Caused the Mortgage Mess? |
Alan S. Blinder
Economist's View |
Something went badly wrong in the subprime mortgage market. In fact, several things did. And now quite a few homeowners, investors and financial institutions are feeling the pain. ... | |||
| 9/28/07 |
Freddie Mac settles accounting-fraud charges Home-loan giant to pay $50 million fine |
AP | An accounting scandal erupted at Freddie Mac in June 2003 when it disclosed that it had misstated earnings by some $5 billion _ mostly underreporting them _ for 2000-2002 to smooth quarterly volatility in earnings and meet Wall Street expectations. | |||
| 9/28/07 |
Lender accused of fraudEx-convict used fake documents in mortgage scheme, U.S. says |
Chicago Tribune staff reporter |
Federal prosecutors have already indicted two attorneys featured
in the 2005 Tribune series, and state lawmakers passed the
so-called Mortgage Fraud Rescue Act.
The wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine |
|||
| 9/27/07 | Prediction: |
Ed
Mason , Staff writer |
Patrick administration officials urged Beacon Hill
lawmakers yesterday to crack down on mortgage fraud, as they
forecast that the home loan foreclosure crisis in Massachusetts
would worsen in the next year. The governor's proposal includes criminalizing mortgage fraud, tightening qualifications for becoming a mortgage broker. |
|||
| 9/27/07 |
|
Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch |
The SEC's complaint says Freddie Mac
misreported its net income in 2000, 2001 and 2002. In a press
release, the SEC said the company improperly managed earnings
beginning as early as 1998.
(1996-1998 is when most of the Mortgage Servicing Fraud began.) |
|||
| 9/27/07 |
Amazing
Case of Loan and Mortgage Fraud |
Jonathan Humbert klas-tv.com |
This scheme shows the terrible power of shifty loan sharks and identity thieves. They will stop at nothing to fabricate documents and take advantage of Clark County's legal loopholes | |||
| 9/27/07 |
Iowans
affected by lender linked to John Edwards
While he worked for an equity company that dealt in mortgages, those lenders foreclosed on 107 homes in the state. |
THOMAS
BEAUMONT |
Last month, it was reported that Norman Hsu, one of Sen. Hillary Clinton's top donors and money-raisers, was wanted on federal fraud charges. Last spring, Sen. Barack Obama faced questions about longtime backer Tony Rezko, a Chicago businessman indicted on extortion and fraud charges. | |||
| 9/26/07 |
Register of Deeds office recognized for record-keeping, fraud fighting |
By K. Michelle Moran |
[The novel program addresses what Youngblood said is a growing � and extremely lucrative � crime. Using modern technology and old-fashioned criminal cunning, scammers steal people�s property by altering paperwork] | |||
| 9/26/07 |
Contributors,
hopes for �08, pull at Dodd
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is facing a fight with corporate executives who have donated millions of dollars to his presidential campaign. |
|
Dodd is under growing pressure from Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, as well as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to write strict legislation regulating mortgage lenders at a time when nearly 2 million Americans face foreclosure on their homes. | |||
| 9/21/07 | The Credit Crisis Could Be Just Beginning |
By
Jon
D. Markman |
"Defaulting middle-class U.S. homeowners are blamed, but they are merely a pawn in the game," he says. "Those loans were invented so that hedge funds would have high-yield debt to buy." | |||
| 9/21/07 |
Mortgage
Fraud Worsening 2nd wave includes double
loan selling |
In particular, "fraud in the form
of 'double-sold mortgages', with authentic-looking closing
documents, is allowing some individual loans to be sold multiple
times," according to Gray, who noted that such duplicity
"is made easier by the fact that investors don't talk to each
other -- Fannie, Freddie, Countrywide, whoever. So long as
payments are made, nobody's the wiser." |
||||
| 8/29/07 | Home Buyers' Bias Suits Against Subprime Lenders Survive | CATHERINE TOMASKO, ESQ., Andrews Publications Staff Writer |
The defendants moved for dismissal,
saying the plaintiffs failed to state a claim.
Judge Dearie denied the motion. He said the complaints allege specific conduct that, if proven, may support an inference of intentional discrimination against black home buyers. |
|||
| 9/21/07 | Mortgage Lenders Apparently Operating Through Loophole | KCRA 3 News | Despite a cease-and-desist order issued by the state, it appears two of the targets of our investigation are now operating through a loophole in the law that's allowing them to continue processing loans. | |||
| 9/20/07 | Bear Stearns Net Drops Most in Decade on Credit Rout |
By Yalman Onaran
Bloomberg |
Bear Stearns, led by Chief Executive Officer James ``Jimmy'' Cayne, said revenue from fixed-income sales and trading slumped 88 percent amid ``extremely challenging'' market conditions. The failure of two Bear Stearns hedge funds, which bet on mortgage securities, saddled the firm with $200 million of losses. Investors spooked by the July meltdown fled high-risk, high-yield debt, freezing global credit markets. | |||
| 9/20/07 | Are we headed for an epic bear market? | By Jon Markman MSN Money | Rather than joining the crowd that blames the mess on American slobs who took on more mortgage debt than they could afford and have endangered the world by stiffing lenders, he points a finger at three parties: regulators who stood by as U.S. banks developed ingenious but dangerous ways of shifting trillions of dollars of credit risk off their balance sheets and into the hands of unsophisticated foreign investors; hedge and pension fund managers who gorged on high-yield debt instruments they didn't understand; and financial engineers who built towers of "securitized" debt with math models that were fundamentally flawed. | |||
| 9/20/07 | Why appraisal values exceed sale prices |
By Kenneth Harney
mercurynews.com |
If (the appraisal) comes in above the contract, that tells you something unusual is happening out there" - perhaps too much property has been sitting unsold for too long, and some sellers are suddenly feeling time pressures. | |||
| 9/19/07 | U.S. Banks Brace for Storm Surge as Dollar and Credit System Reel |
|
The investment sharks who conjured up �structured finance� knew exactly what they were doing. They were in bed with the ratings agencies----off-loading trillions of dollars of garbage-bonds to pension funds, hedge funds, insurance companies and foreign financial giants. It�s a swindle of epic proportions and it never would have taken place in a sufficiently regulated market. | |||
| 9/18/07 | Mortgage Hot Potato: How Many Mouths Can One Home Loan Feed? | The Guerilla Blog | So the end of the line for a mortgage is not the balance sheet of some large bank � it is in a pool of other mortgages that have all been used, abused, bundled, and chopped up and then sold to Wall St. investors. | |||
| 9/18/07 |
Caught in a Toxic Mortgage |
By LES CHRISTIE,
CNNMONEY.COM STAFF WRITER |
It
seems surprising that Kurt and Vicki Oliver could lose their home
to a bank foreclosure. They had great credit, long-term employment
and excellent assets and income. They
never knew what hit them until it was too late - the process was
that confusing |
|||
| 9/17/07 |
Obama
rolls out economic agenda
(includes Mortgage Fraud) |
Posted by Scott Helman, Political Reporter | Obama called for more disclosure and accountability in the housing market, including a federal definition of mortgage fraud, stiff penalties against lenders who "knowingly act in bad faith," | |||
| 9/17/07 |
Suits Under Mortgage Note Rather Than Foreclosure Of Mortgage |
AttorneyJonathan Alper |
More than half of my bankruptcy calls are from people facing foreclosure on their investment property and who fear a deficiency judgment. One person asked me today if it makes a difference whether a bank sues for foreclosure or whether the bank sues on the promissory note underlying the mortgage security. For general information, most lenders sue to foreclose mortgages in default because foreclosure gets the lender the title to the property. | |||
| 9/17/07 | Cuyahoga County, Ohio Is Still A Troubled Spot For Servicers | By Phillip Barragate MortgageOrb | This news is not good for Ohio, which has experienced a steady increase in foreclosure filings since 1994. This is particularly true with the subprime market. | |||
| 9/17/07 | �Do you think China�s gonna forget?� | Blown Mortgage |
His firm would turn around and sell
millions and billions of dollars worth of AAA-rated CDOs that
turned in to 10 cents on the dollar, almost overnight.
China, a huge buyer of our mortgage debt is holding paper that is
worth no more than 10 cents on the dollar; and they hold a ton of
it.
If you think lead-tainted toys are a big deal, how about being conned in to a bunch of bad subprime mortgage debt reformulated to look innocuous by the wizards (nay, snake oil salesmen) of Wall Street? The housing market will never return because China will never forget how screwed they got in this whole deal. |
|||
| 9/16/07 | Financial shell games |
Satyajit Das / New Delhi
Business Standard |
Like the shell game, risk transfer in financial markets is a �short con,� quick and easy to pull off. In the current credit crunch, the shortcomings of the new money game are being exposed. | |||
| 9/14/07 |
Texas Attorney General Abbott Charges Foreclosure Rescue Firm with Operating Unlawful Scam |
All American Patriots | the 408th District Court issued a temporary restraining order and froze assets belonging to three businessmen who organized the scheme. | |||
| 9/12/07 |
Countrywide workers sue over retirement plan The mortgage lender's employees say the value of retirement accounts plummeted by millions as the company's stock fell. |
CNN Money | The lawsuit claims Countrywide employees lost millions of dollars in retirement savings. It seeks unspecified compensatory damages. | |||
| 5/11/07 | What Are Those Mortgage Servicers Doing? | D�na Wilkinson, | I don�t know if the allegations of this complaint are true, but if they are, it may answer a question asked by virtually all of my clients who have pending foreclosures: Why won�t the mortgage company work with me? | |||
| 4/2/07 | Why Foreclosure Numbers Matter | Dowling Law Office | The real question will then be what is the extent of the needed change, how great will the repercussions be and who will wind up holding the bag. | |||
| 9/16/07 | Let's point fingers at subprime's real villains | dean.calbreath@uniontrib.com | �The subprime mess was a bad investment decision from the very beginning and was brought about by having very low interest rates for a very long period of time,� Aleman said. �And the only way to go forward is to flush it out, take the loss and move forward, not bring it back.� | |||
| 9/15/07 | Tough words on mortgage fraud | By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News | "You're ratting each other out," Toll said. "I love it." | |||
| 9/12/07 |
Mortgage
Lender's Bankruptcy
|
By PEG BRICKLEY - WSJ |
Thousands of homeowners face an "imminent risk" of losing their homes because of clashes between American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. and its former financial backers. | |||
| 9/12/07 | THE MORTGAGE CRISIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT ABUSE BUT CRIME |
Danny Schechter Editor Mediachannel.org Director IN DEBT WE TRUST InDebtWeTrust.com 212 246-0202x3006 |
They are about sleaze merchants in suits, big time investors who routinely violate laws and expect their master of the universe status to guarantee they will never get caught. A recent survey on Wall Street found a majority of those quizzed believe something is only wrong once you get caught. | |||
| 9/12/07 | Stolen Property? |
By Jeremy
Singer-Vine
East Bay Express News |
What he found frightened him. Roughly a dozen Web sites warned of the company's practices. Among the many grievances of fellow Fairbanks clients: The company charged them unwarranted late fees, demanded payments already made, and falsely stated customers' account balances. "I knew it was trouble," | |||
| 9/12/07 | Too Little, Too Late |
DAN MCGRAW
FWWeekly.com |
He died penniless and angry at how just owning a home, which he had paid on every month for about 10 years, was causing him all these problems. In the end, he saw no way out.� | |||
| 9/12/07 |
What
if we could stop some foreclosure nightmares?
We could, but it would take an Act of Congress! |
Denise Richardson | A practical and common sense measure such as a monthly statement can assist borrowers and lenders in detecting errors or fraud before it becomes a catastrophic problem. The longer problems go undetected, the longer it takes to untangle the mess when they�re discovered. Many borrowers have indicated that had they known there was a problem brewing, they could have rectified it and wouldn�t have lost their home. | |||
| 9/11/07 | Recession Time! |
By Dean Baker t r u t h o u t | Perspective |
The housing bubble created more
than $7 trillion in housing wealth. Homeowners have used
this bubble wealth to support a surge in consumption over the last
five years, pushing the saving rate to near zero.
It was incredibly negligent for the Federal Reserve Board and the Bush administration to allow the housing bubble to grow unchecked, and especially to allow the sort of mass fraud perpetrated against moderate-income homebuyers in the subprime market. At this point, there is probably no way to avoid a recession. If those making economic policy show no better judgment going forward than they have in the recent past, it is likely to be a long and painful recession. |
|||
| 9/11/07 |
American Home Delays Servicing Sale as Creditors Look to Pull Mortgage Servicing Rights |
by Paul Jackson - HousingWire | ||||
| 9/11/07 | Mortgage Mess Unleashes Chain Of Lawsuits |
By Tomoeh Murakami Tse
and Carrie Johnson Washington Post Staff Writers |
"We will look at those responsible for any potential fraud, by company management, auditors, lawyers, credit-rating agencies or others," said Walter Ricciardi, a deputy enforcement director at the SEC. | |||
| 9/10/07 | Local fraud busters lead mortgage fraud fight |
bdillard@bizpress.net
Fort Worth Business Press |
�House Bill 716 is designed to more easily catch white collar criminals and put them behind bars where they belong,� Solomons said. �We must take the necessary steps, including strengthening criminal penalties, to protect consumers and legitimate lenders in the mortgage loan process from fraud.� | |||
| 9/10/07 |
End
of Boom For Housing
|
Laim Pleven - WSJ |
Problems confronting title insurers may offer fresh clues about economic stress points in the nation's housing market. Title insurers issue policies that essentially guarantee a homebuyer is the rightful owner of a property. |
|||
| 9/7/07 | Economists fear wave of evictions on way in US |
By Eoin Callan in Washington
Financial Times - FT.com |
The response to this crisis outlined by the president places considerable faith in the ability of mortgage servicers to mitigate this blow by helping distressed borrowers to stay in their homes. (You are kidding right?) | |||
| 9/6/07 |
Banks first in line for compensation
|
THE COLUMBUS
DISPATCH
|
"That is one of the unfortunate facts of mortgage fraud," said Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office. "It leaves a scar that you cannot get rid of." | |||
| 9/6/07 | More Servicing Woes To Come |
Anthony
Garritano
Mortgage Technology |
|
|||
| 9/6/07 |
Bear Stearns challenged by investors in collapsed schemes |
The Times | Mr. Gotthoffer � who accused Bear Stearns of �Watergate-era stone-walling tactics� in its handling of the investors� request � said: �Something seems to have gone very, very wrong here. These investors want to know what, why, how and who was responsible. They want to ensure there is no cover-up and that all the facts are brought to the table.� | |||
| 9/5/07 | Legal Action Sought by State for Predatory Lending Practices | FraudBlogger.com | �Our legal action seeks money back to consumers and severe penalties for practices that undermine an entire industry, endangering not only consumers directly involved, but the economic welfare of the region. | |||
| 9/4/07 | Wall Street hides impact of subprime mortgage meltdown |
By Cesar Uco wsws.org |
Merrill is by no means the only firm resorting to accounting ploys to hide losses. ABAlert reports that �Citigroup has been making moves resembling Merrill�s. The same goes for Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley,� who are also hunting �for internal accounting maneuvers that can lessen the impact of the market dislocation.� | |||
| 9/4/07 | White House: New Steps To Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure | http://www.realtown.com | HUD, the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and others, are aggressively pursuing wrongdoers and predatory lenders to ensure they are punished. This will send the message that these practices will not be tolerated. | |||
| 9/2/07 |
Can the Mortgage Crisis Swallow a Town? |
NELSON
D. SCHWARTZ
NYTimes.com |
�I
don�t think we�ve hit bottom,� says Michael G. Ciaravino,
the mayor of Maple Heights
. �My fear is that foreclosure rates could go to double where
they are today.� |
|||
|
***
SUMMER whitepaper |
DEFECTIVE
REAL ESTATE DOCUMENTS:
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES? |
John C. Murray | This Article discusses recent case law regarding whether a recorded but defectively executed or acknowledged mortgage may be deemed valid, whether it imparts constructive notice to, and is entitled to priority over, subsequent judgment creditors and lienholders with validly executed and recorded documents, and particularly, whether a trustee in bankruptcy may avoid the defectively executed mortgage. | |||
| 8/27/07 | Mortgage Crisis Widens at Lenders, Banks |
Rueters |
"This is the only way to weather the storm: cut the work force, stop making loans they can't sell, and hope things get better." | |||
| 8/26/07 | Inside the Countrywide Lending Spree | By GRETCHEN MORGENSON NYTimes | One document, for instance, shows that until last September the computer system in the company�s subprime unit excluded borrowers� cash reserves, which had the effect of steering them away from lower-cost loans to those that were more expensive to homeowners and more profitable to Countrywide. | |||
| 8/25/07 | Mortgage Mess Hurts Main Street- Beyond | The Associated Press | "I want people to know they can fight," she said. "Don't be ashamed to cry out for help." | |||
| 8/22/07* |
Storming the Castle
Hallandale Beach and a Broward judge are trying to drive a man from his home |
Bob Norman New Times |
The state's homestead exemption is so absolute that a Florida
homestead is known in legal circles simply as "the sacred
cow." Others call it "the castle." Added to the
Florida Constitution in 1868, the exemption forbids the forced
sale of our homes and exempts them from seizure in civil
judgments. Here's what Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice
Jefferson Browne had to say about the homestead exemption in the
early 1900s:
"[Its] obvious purpose is to secure each family a home and means of livelihood, irrespective of financial misfortune, and beyond the reach of creditors; security of the State from the burden of pauperism, and the individual citizen from destitution." Countless families have indeed been spared the "burden of pauperism" because of it. |
|||
| 8/22/07 | Subprime Loans = Primetime for Vampire Lenders | By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown | How "reputable" financial firms are using an arsenal of tricks to extract high payments from homeowners, drain their equity and steal their homes. | |||
| 8/21/07 | Top Swiss banker attacks US lending standards as 'unbelievable' |
Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard and Yvette Essen - Telegraph.co.uk |
Switzerland's top banker has warned of massive losses from the unfolding credit crisis, describing the collapse in US lending standards as "unbelievable". | |||
| 8/20/07 | Bear Stearns on the operating table | Heidi Moore financialnews-us.com | If Bear Stearns is known outside its US home base, it is because the 83-year-old bank is now virtually synonymous with sub-prime troubles and associated with two disastrous hedge funds that left investors with nothing. | |||
| 8/20/07 | North Carolina Governor Easley Signs Bills To Protect Borrowers | North Carolina Governor | If a homeowner is unable to meet the mortgage payments, loan servicers are now required to give a detailed accounting of the sums claimed to be owed, and to protect the borrower�s interest during the foreclosure proceedings. | |||
| 8/20/07 |
Did
Big Lenders Cross The Line? Lawsuits assert some firms doctored loan documents |
Mara
Der Hovanesian and Brian Grow
BusinessWeek |
[s]ome suits allege that lenders perpetrated the fraud on their own, even deploying teams of employees that resembled boiler-room operations. | |||
| 8/19/07 |
Ninja
Loans, Neutron Loans, Roach Motel Loans
|
posted by Steve | The fourth reason is that some of these loans are so outrageous that the lender is subjected to counterclaims that are nontrivial. Each time one of these loans is foreclosed, there's another embarrassing tale of overreaching that potentially does great harm to the lender's reputation. Many of these loans are simply illegal, even under the junky laws that applied when the loans were written. | |||
| 8/19/07 | How Missed Signs Contributed to a Mortgage Meltdown |
The New York Times.com
|
All of the old-timers knew that
subprime mortgages were what we called neutron loans � they
killed the people and left the houses,� said Louis S.
Barnes, 58, a partner at Boulder West, a mortgage banking firm in
Lafayette, Colo.
(Even though they knew, they still claim it is the borrower's fault) |
|||
| 8/18/07 | Tangle of loan owners fuels foreclosure crisis |
Robert Gavin The Boston Globe Salt Lake Tribune |
"It's perfect deniability,'' said Patricia McCoy, a University of Connecticut law professor who specializes in financial services. "When there's a problem, each person in line says, 'Don't talk to me, talk to the other person.' " | |||
| 8/17/07 | A rush to pull out cash |
By E. Scott Reckard and Annette Haddad, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers |
Unsure about the future of home-loan giant Countrywide, bank customers line up to withdraw their money. | |||
| 8/17/07 | Panic on Wall Street |
Andrew Leonard Salon.com |
From New York to Hong Kong and everywhere in between, alarm bells are ringing. Central bankers are on 24/7 alert, ready to perform life support on catatonic markets. Stock traders are panicking -- the Dow's wild ride on Wednesday, down 350 points and then almost all the way back, is just the latest declaration of confusion and fear. | |||
| 8/16/07 | Fraud at Moody's, S&P and Fitch "Good for America" Says Ben Bernanke | Written by Felix Minderbinder | "Without the services of those three crooked outfits, we would never have been able to unload our mountain of trashy and worthless debt on idiot investors here and throughout the world," Bernanke stated candidly. | |||
| 8/15/07 | We're the home of Texas' highest foreclosure rate |
The Fort Worth-Arlington area had the highest rate of home foreclosures in the state and among the highest in the nation during the first half of 2007. (That is because TEXAS "houses" some of the biggest Fraudsters in the nation.} |
||||
| 8/14/07 | Greenspan's Shameless Cash-Out to Deutsche Bank Is a Sub-Crime, Consumers Complain |
Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press: |
Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chairman presided over merger approvals for Deutsche Bank in which detailed comments in opposition were filed, demonstrating Deutsche Bank's enabling of lenders like Delta Funding, which settled charges of predatory lending. | |||
| 8/13/07 | Mortgage Crisis Becomes a Criminal Affair | Richard Martin |
the task force has shifted from pursuing embezzlers and the like to prosecuting mortgage fraud and predatory lending tactics. �Arrests are coming,� promised Weld DA Ken Buck last week. |
|||
| 8/13/07 | Lenders in Damage-Control Mode |
RICHARD NEWMAN NewJersey.com |
Customer satisfaction ratings. Scores based on 1,000-point scale. Total of 38 companies ranked. OCWEN is dead last. | |||
| 8/12/07 | Sub-prime loans 'bait' buyers | CINDY WOJDYLA CAIN Staff Writer | Veronica Spicer, an assistant attorney general in the consumer fraud division, said complaints against mortgage companies have increased significantly, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are many others who haven't called to report fraud. | |||
| 8/6/07 | Mortgage Maze May Increase Foreclosures |
GRETCHEN
MORGENSON
NYTimes.com |
But the servicer has not agreed. Deutsche
Bank, the trustee of the security holding the loan,
says it is unable to help because it is neither the servicer nor
the lender.
AMC Mortgage Services says Ms. Brimmage must pay the full amount. |
|||
|
8/5/07
|
Subprime Mortgages Linked to Rise in Foreclosures |
NY Times |
Her mortgage broker assured her that she would be able to refinance the mortgages � the smaller of which has an interest rate of 12.75 percent � within six months, cutting her monthly payments in half. But her request to refinance was declined, she said, and she learned that the mortgages had been sold to another lender. |
|||
| 8/3/07 |
Mortgage fraud crisisNew law shows state is taking this problem facing homeowners seriously, says state Rep. KEN PAXTON |
Dallas Morning News | HB 716 is a strong start to help guarantee that Texans' pursuit of the American dream doesn't turn them into victims of crime. The legislation also increases the statute of limitations to seven years, which will allow for more cases to be successfully prosecuted. | |||
| 8/2/07 | Paulson Hedge Fund Profits; Goldman Fund Falls 16% | Jenny Strasburg and Katherine Burton |
The
Paulson Credit Opportunities Fund gained 303 percent this year as
of July 31, according to investors. Dallas-based Hayman Capital
Partners Subprime Credit Strategies Fund has done even better,
climbing 305 percent. |
|||
| 8/1/07 | Is Countrywide the New Titanic? | Posted by: in mortgage industry | Is Angelo Mozilo this decade�s Kenneth Lay? Will the rapid unwinding of the secondary market mechanism leave them no option but to go belly-up? | |||
| 7/31/07 | Another Bear Stearns Hedge Fund Is in Trouble | By Kate Kelly, Liam Pleven and James R. Hagerty | Bear Stearns Cos., its reputation already dented after two of its hedge of its funds that had bet heavily on securities connected to risky home loans blew up in June, has prevented investors from taking their money from another fund that put roughly $900 million into mortgage investments. | |||
| 7/31/07 | Sorting Through the Subprime Slaughter | Cramer's TheStreet.com | [m]arket players can't trust any of the subprime-mortgage lending companies, Jim Cramer said on TheStreet.com TV's Wall Street Confidential. | |||
| 7/30/07 | There's no place like home |
By Reni Gertner Staff writer
Lawyers USA |
A homeowner can raise claims ranging from fraud at the origination of the loan to failure of the loan servicer to help a struggling borrower modify a loan. In some of the latest cases, the claim is that the entity attempting to foreclose doesn't even own the loan. | |||
| 7/29/07 | Modify Loan with EMC |
LoanWorkout.org |
True experiences with EMC's MOD ("Manufacturers Of Default") Squad publicity stunt... Never trust a crook. | |||
| 7/26/07 |
Congress hears about predatory loans in Cleveland
Greater Clevelanders testify about what happened to them
|
Sabrina Eaton
|
Barbara Anderson, one of Slavic Village's first black residents, told the committee her predatory-lending odyssey began in 1996, after her home was damaged by multiple arsons that she believes were racially motivated. When her insurance company dropped coverage after the first fires, she had to tap home equity for repairs. | |||
| 7/26/07 | Dow Suffers Year's Second-Worst Loss | Wall Street suffered one of its worst losses of 2007 Thursday, leading a global stock market plunge as investors succumbed to months of worry about the mortgage and corporate lending markets. | ||||
| 7/26/07 |
Tucsonans awarded $1M in bungled loan |
arizona daily
star
|
But the loan wasn't approved, and
the couple didn't learn that until their previous lender, Bank
of America, foreclosed on the house, and it was
purchased at auction by an investor, according to the complaint.
|
|||
| 7/25/07 | FTC Testifies Before U.S. House Subcommittee on Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data and FTC Lending Enforcement Program | Federal Trade Commission | ||||
| 7/24/07 | Casey targets predatory lending |
DEBORAH YAO AP Business Writer |
Foreclosures have been on the rise in
Philadelphia and elsewhere, community leaders said, as the
subprime mortgage debacle continues to unfold nationally. Predatory lending is the path to foreclosure. |
|||
| 7/24/07 | Defaults Crack Countrywide |
By Laurie
Kulikowski TheStreet.com Staff Reporter |
Countrywide's comments suggest credit quality is deteriorating everywhere amid a U.S. housing slowdown, not just in the hard-hit subprime area. | |||
| 7/21/07 | Barclays in a Row With Bear Over Failed Hedge Fund | Wall Street Journal | Bear's funds got burned for betting too heavily on the market for subprime mortgages. | |||
| 7/20/07 | Crooks With Deep Pockets |
Douglas
MacMillan BusinessWeek.com |
White-collar criminals have the resources to go into hiding rather than face jail time. | |||
| 7/20/07 | Bear Stearns to be sued over subprime funds | Reuters | Investors in Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that were virtually wiped out from large bets on risky mortgages are planning to sue the company as early as Monday. | |||
| 7/19/07 | Bear Stearns hedge funds wiped out |
By Ben Bland, Online City Reporter |
In what it described as "a difficult development for investors", the bank said "there is effectively no value left" for investors in its Enhanced Leverage Fund and "very little value left" for investors in its High-Grade Fund. | |||
| 7/19/07 |
MGIC profit falls nearly 50% in second quarterMortgage insurer blames loan defaults, housing |
By MICHELE DERUS mderus@journalsentinel.com |
Damage from a host of unwise and
unsustainable loans near the end of the nation's 2001-'05 housing
boom is proving worse than expected, Culver said.
MGIC is exploring ways to avert losses tied to property foreclosures by encouraging lenders to arrange new repayment plans or a quick, out-of-court home sale, he said. |
|||
| 7/18/07 |
Bear Stearns letter sent to investors last night |
Telegraph.co.uk |
Let us take this opportunity to reconfirm that the Bear Steams
franchise is financially strong and committed to meeting your
investment needs.
(We are breaking laws and stealing as many homes as we can
to make up for |
|||
| 7/17/07 |
Bear
Stearns Says Hedge Fund Worthless |
JOE BEL BRUNO-Forbes |
Bear Stearns Cos. told clients Tuesday that a meltdown in the subprime mortgage market has made the assets from two of its flagship hedge funds almost worthless. | |||
| 7/15/07 |
Taking
on an industry
"After a mortgage lender (FAIRBANKS CAPITAL) tried to foreclose on his home, Michael Dillon made it his mission to set the record straight on his own" |
By LISA ARSENAULT Monitor staff |
But Dillon and his lawyer, former state Consumer Protection Bureau chief Walter Maroney, believe there is a bigger problem at play with the way subprime mortgages like Dillon's are handled by the national companies that package, sell and service them. | |||
| 7/14/07 |
HOUSEWIFE
SUES WELLS
FARGO
ON RICO, SHAMES ATTORNEY IN COURT
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations |
By Jeff
Sedgwick Copyright 2007 voidjudgements.net |
There have been numerous occasions where 2, 3, and even 4 debt collectors have had photo copies of the same debt and were all trying to collect on the same debt, at the same time. How many times does one owe on the same debt? If at all? | |||
| 7/13/07 | Subprime loans stoking litigation | Associated Press | Billions of dollars are at stake, depending on how many of the mortgages made to borrowers with shaky credit default. Credit Suisse Group estimates losses to investors between $26 billion and $52 billion, while Deutsche Bank AG says losses could total $70 billion to $90 billion. | |||
| 7/12/07 | Family fights foreclosure |
GateHouse News Service
|
The confusion begins here, explained their lawyer, Jack O'Keefe, because in order to close on a home in the first place, as the seller did, there must be proof of insurance on the home. It is unknown whether GMAC actually gave them notice that a new policy was being purchased. As far as they knew, they had a policy and were paying for it. They claim that the notice of money owed to GMAC was the first they'd heard of a new policy. | |||
| 7/11/07 |
Sue The Bastards!
What To Do About Mortgage Brokers And Lenders Who Don't Play
Fair?
|
By Charu Gupta, Free
Times.com
Third In A Series |
For every foreclosure plight Kramer
and his firm, Housing Advocates Inc., took on, he learned that 20
others, with claims just as good, had lost their homes because of
a predatory loan. There was no way to represent everyone in need.
Kramer's law practice had only a handful of attorneys; resources
were stretched thin.
The problem wasn't going away. Something needed to change. |
|||
| 7/10/07 | "Foreclosures Turn Up Heat on Mers" | Kate Berry - Source Media |
With
mortgage foreclosures on the rise,
Merscorp Inc., which operates an electronic loan
registry used by thousands of companies, has found itself the
target of an increasing number of lawsuits - several of which
challenge its basic business model. |
|||
| 7/9/07 |
Mutually
Assured Mayhem Wall Street is on edge, scrambling to buck up Bear Stearns and avert a domino-effect debacle |
BusinessWeek |
It's white-knuckle time on Wall Street as firms try to prevent the subprime mess from spreading. | |||
| 7/9/07 |
CDOs
� Chernobyl Decay Obligations
The problems at Bear Stearns are a reminder that meltdowns can take less than a year. |
|
The Bear is letting the highly leveraged Bear Stearns High Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund go pop. With shareholders� funds of $13bn, Bear Stearns was not going to put the family silver on the line to bail out a fund that bore its name. | |||
| 7/9/07 | Q1 Subprime Market Sees Big Drop, Shifts | Another article listing the corporate criminals responsible for destroying innocent lives. | ||||
| 7/8/07 | Foreclosures: Deutsche Bank uber alles, including Wells Fargo |
Callahan�s Cleveland Diary |
Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank now own over eight hundred of Cleveland�s one-family and two-family houses � about half of 1% of the city�s total � and they�re foreclosing on hundreds more each month. | |||
| 7/6/07 |
Bear
Stearns Funds' Failure Opened the Door to Credit Crash |
Executive Intelligence Review | Major sectors of the world financial system were paralyzed by the failure, two weeks ago, of two Bear Stearns hedge funds, linked to the subprime mortgage and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) market. The failure has caused the near-freezing up of the highly risky $2.6 trillion Collateralized Debt Obligations (CODs) market. By June 28, at least five planned bond or IPO issuances had been cancelled, and another billion-dollar hedge fund, Caliber Global Investments, had failed because of MBS losses | |||
| 7/3/07 |
Investment
Landfill: How Professionals Dump Their Toxic Waste on You |
by
Paul Tustain |
Not sure what happened at Bear Stearns? The root cause might surprise you. You might also find your own investment funds at risk, after being used as a landfill for the same kind of toxic waste. | |||
| 7/2/07 | Just Say AAA |
Paul Krugman
New York Times |
Yet the banks making the loans weren�t stupid: they passed the buck to other people. Subprime mortgages and other risky loans were securitized � that is, banks issued bonds backed by home loans, in effect handing off the risk to the bond buyers. | |||
| 7/2/07 | Mortgage swindler gets prison |
By JOHN GITTELSOHN THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |
"These types of frauds are serious and worthy of allocating resources to investigate because it hurts everyone involved and takes advantage of those seeking the American 'dream' of homeownership." | |||
| July/07 | The Subprime Sinkhole - Toxic Debt |
S e t h L u b ove a n d D a ni e l Ta u b Bloomberg |
Novastar employees would apply an "X-Acto knife and some tape" to borrowers� W-2 forms and paychecks to qualify them for loans. The same employee said that on other occasions, the company would temporarily deposit $5,000 in the bank account of a potential borrower to inflate his or her assets. Nova-Star would either take the money back or increase the loan fees, according | |||
| 7/1/07 |
Lost
Bearings
It's going to get a lot hotter for Bear Stearns' CEO Jimmy Cayne this week. |
By RODDY BOYD NEW YORK POST |
The longtime Wall Street executive will have to explain to Securities and Exchange Commission investigators how two of Bear Stearns' highly-leveraged mortgage-bond backed hedge funds appeared to ignore signs of the sub-prime mortgage sector's meltdown after promising investors it would keep a keen eye on what was going on | |||
| 6/27/07 | Subprime Lenders Keep Churning Out Bad Loans | Center for Responsible Lending |
Truth
is, subprime brokers and lenders continue to advertise and approve
loans with abusive terms that are known to significantly increase
the chances of foreclosure. |
|||
| 6/26/07 |
Billionaire
In Palm Beach Sex Scandal
Former Bear Stearns exec's Unlawful Sexual Activity with a minor (4) counts, Lewd and Lascivious Molestation |
thesmokinggun.com |
Beginning in mid-March 2005, Epstein became the target of a sexual battery probe conducted by the Palm Beach Police Department, according to the affidavit, which alleges that Epstein, 53, paid a series of underage girls to engage in sexual activity with him. Frankly, there are too many dirty details in the affidavit to properly synopsize, but, if investigators are to be believed, Epstein has a thing for teenagers, vibrators, and assorted massage lotions. | |||
| 6/26/07 | General Assembly creates new residential mortgage fraud felony | Associated Press | The House unanimously agreed to minor changes made by the Senate in legislation sponsored by Rep. Dan Blue, D-Wake, that would make it t for someone to knowingly misrepresent or omit information about the mortgage lending process. | |||
| 6/25/07 | Charges expected in US stock lending probe-source | Martha Graybow -Reuters | Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York are preparing to file criminal charges against about a dozen people in the case | |||
| 6/25/07 | Bear's Big Loss Arouses SEC Interest | Matthew Goldstein BusinessWeek.com |
Bear Stearns
quickly moved to suspend investor redemptions, fearing the hedge
fund would not able to liquidate enough bonds to satisfy the
demands of investors or the other Wall Street banks that had lent
the fund billions of dollars. |
|||
| 6/22/07 | NovaStar to pay $5.1 million to settle class-action suit |
By
PHUONG CAT
LE P-I REPORTER |
"This case signals to the industry that they cannot treat import borrower disclosures as a nuisance to be avoided or minimized," | |||
| 6/22/07 | Bank of America Report Sees Worse Mortgage Defaults |
Sebastian Boyd and Will Edwards
Bloomberg.com |
Surging defaults on subprime loans have pushed at least 60 mortgage companies to close or sell operations and forced Bear Stearns Cos. to offer a $3.2 billion bailout for one of two money-losing hedge funds. New foreclosures set a record in the first quarter, with subprime borrowers leading the way. | |||
| 6/21/07 | Merrill Lynch Seizes $400 Million of Assets from a Bear Stearns Managed 'Subprime' Hedge Fund for Failing to Meet Margin Calls | If the hedge fund is dissolved it would become the second blowup of hedge funds dealing in the high risk home loans, known as "subprime" mortgages. UBS AG shut down Dillon Read Capital Management after bad trades in subprime-mortgage loans led to a $124 million loss. | ||||
| 6/21/08 |
Due
Process Violations by the State and Federal Judiciary Members
Americans, have continually contacted Congressman Conyers Officer regarding the status and investigations involving official corruption and violations of law |
Taffy Rice - AHRC |
Taffy's letter to: U S
Congress Judiciary Committee Re: Due Process Violations by U S State & Federal Courts |
|||
| 6/20/07 |
La
Quinta homeowners allege fraud Investors say CENTEX committed securities violations |
Michael
Perrault The Desert Sun |
The homeowners are asking for a cancellation of their purchase agreements to recoup $20 million to $25 million. | |||
| 6/20/07 | Cuomo Expands Probe as Appraisers Attest to Pressure |
By Sharon L. Crenson Bloomberg |
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is asking home appraisers to declare in writing that they were improperly pressured by mortgage brokers and lenders to inflate estimates and that such practices damaged the market's integrity. | |||
| 6/19/07 | Two Big Funds At Bear Stearns Face Shutdown | Kate Kelly, Serena Ng and David Reilly - WSJ | Two big hedge funds at Bear Stearns Cos. were close to being shut down last night as a rescue plan developed over several days fell apart in a drama that could have wide-ranging consequences for Wall Street and investors. | |||
| 6/19/07 | BEAR STEARNS / EMC MORTGAGE CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE BEGINS TO UNFOLD | variety of authors | Links to more than 200 current articles related to Bear Stearns. | |||
| 6/19/07 | Lawsuit targeting Ameriquest adds Arnall to its sights | By E. Scott Reckard, Times Staff Writer |
Monday, Arnall's accountability was
again front and center as attorneys for Ameriquest
customers asked a judge to add him as a defendant in a private
lawsuit. In a request filed in federal court in Chicago, lawyers for the borrowers, who are seeking to combine 20 suits into one class action, contend that Arnall made decisions that resulted in abuses, blocked attempts to reform Ameriquest and drained it of its profit before virtually shutting it down as the sub-prime industry imploded. Ameriquest and its affiliates "were the alter ego" of Arnall, the suit says. "Assets of the Ameriquest entities were transferred to Arnall with the actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud the plaintiffs in this action." |
|||
| 6/18/07 | Are Foreclosures Only A Subprime Problem? | By Peter G. Miller Reality Trac | Credit Suisse adds that when compared with loans originated in 2003 and 2004, delinquencies and foreclosure rates for recent Alt-A adjustable loans are "3 to 4 times" higher. | |||
| 6/18/07 | Bad Loans Pit Vranos Against Cayne as Hedge Funds Outbid Street | Bradley Keoun (Bloomberg) | Bear Stearns bought about $3.4 billion of scratch-and-dent mortgages last year, about 5 percent of the $69.2 billion of loans that the firm's EMC Mortgage Corp. acquired or made to borrowers. EMC is the firm's loan-servicing company, based in Lewisville, Texas, with about 2,000 employees. | |||
| 6/18/07 |
Ills
Deepen in Subprime-Bond Arena
More Downgrades Seen As Foreclosures Ripple |
SERENA NG and KATE KELLY | At Bear Stearns Cos., a group of hedge-fund managers at the Wall Street firm spent the weekend scrambling to line up new investors or lenders to keep afloat their fund. | |||
| 6/18/07 | Paper Chase | You're in luck. Your mortgage lender has flipped, sliced and diced your loan--and now no one knows who holds it. | ||||
| 6/14/07 | Message to the Fed: Act Quickly to Stop Abusive Lending | Center for Responsible Lending |
The Fed has the authority and
responsibility to act. For the past 13 years, the Board has largely ignored Congress's mandate making it responsible for issuing rules against abusive, unfair or deceptive mortgage lending practices. |
|||
| 6/14/07 | Bear's Fund Is Facing Mortgage Losses |
KATE KELLY and SERENA NG
The Wall Street Journal |
Faced with losses on its investments, the fund, called High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, together with a sister fund, is trying to sell about $4 billion in mortgage-backed bonds to raise cash. | |||
| 6/13/07 | FTC Chairman Testifies Before U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Law Enforcement Against Consumer Fraud and Deception in the Financial Services Industry | Federal Trade Commission | ||||
| 6/12/07 | Bear Stearns' Subprime Bath | Matthew Goldstein BusinessWeek.com | The situation is so bleak that Bear Stearns' asset management group is suspending redemptions at the onetime $642 million fund�meaning investors have no choice but to sit on their losses. And that's got some hopping mad. | |||
| 6/12/07 | Bear Stearns Fund Hurt by Subprime Loans | KATE KELLY and SERENA NG | Hard hit by turmoil in the market for risky mortgages, a big Bear Stearns Cos. hedge fund has fallen 23% from the start of the year through late April. | |||
| 6/7/07 | Who'd Ever Invest in Everquest? | Martin de Sa'Pinto, Senior Financial Correspondent |
All
the evidence points to a clumsy attempt to muddy the waters with
respect to the true value of the assets in the portfolios of two hedge
funds
in Bear's
$29 billion asset management arm, as well as shifting
some of these funds'
unwanted assets elsewhere.
|
|||
| 6/7/07 | Out of townhouse, but not by choice |
By
Larry Carson Baltimore Sun reporter |
"It's absolutely not his error," said Gerald M. Richman, an Ellicott City attorney who represents Atta Poku, so far without a fee. "He didn't do anything wrong. It's an outrage what happened to him, but it's a quirk of the system." | |||
| 6/2/07 | MD Court of Special Appeals revives borrower's breach of contract action over HUD |
|
Issue: Can a borrower bring a breach of contract
claim against his mortgage lender for not complying with HUD
mortgage servicing requirements?
Holding: Yes; judgment vacated. If HUD regulations are incorporated into the deed of trust, the borrower may have a legitimate breach of contract claim notwithstanding the lack of a private right of action to enforce HUD regulations. |
|||
| 5/31/07 | Lawyer eyes Ameriquest: Clients: Home loan paperwork faulty |
By Scott
Van Voorhis Boston Herald Business Reporter |
A Rhode Island lawyer claims he has found a chink in the legal armor of subprime mortgage giant Ameriquest, one that could give hundreds of thousands of homeowners grounds to wriggle out of their loans. | |||
| 5/30/07 | Mortgages Bolstered Detroit's Middle Class -- Until Money Ran Out |
MARK
WHITEHOUSE
Wall Street Journal |
Unscrupulous players had little reason to worry about whether or not people could afford the loans: The more contracts they could sign, the more money they stood to make. | |||
| 5/30/07 | Ameriquest Faces Lawsuit by Borrowers | NPR | Chris Arnold talks to people who lost their homes after getting Ameriquest loans and to former employees who describe the hyper-aggressive sales practices. | |||
| 5/30/07 | Top Producing Originator Pleads Guilty In Massive Fraud Scam | originatortimes.com | Maize faces a maximum possible sentence of 98 years in federal prison. In his plea agreement, Maize has agreed to pay $2.75 million in restitution prior to his sentencing, although he may be ordered to pay more at sentencing. | |||
| 5/24/07 |
State agency seeks help as number of mortgage fraud cases rise |
Misty Williams - Tribune.com | "We're still trying to log all of the complaints that we've gotten," department spokesman Jack Hudock said. "They're all going to be investigated. | |||
| 5/17/07 |
In the Sub-Prime of LifeHomeowners complain that Litton Loan is quicker to foreclose than it needs to be |
Craig Malisow -Houston Press | They accuse Litton of forcing them into foreclosure by assigning predatory fees. And those who talk to Murray often walk away with one question: If that's how Litton treats its employees, how does it treat debtors it doesn't even know? | |||
| 5/17/07 |
State may sue investment banks Dann wants to target subprime-loan enablers |
Teresa Dixon Murray
|
The state's top lawyer, who took office in January, noted that many consumers haven't been able to sue mortgage lenders or anyone involved in their undesirable loans because they couldn't find a lawyer willing to take cases on contingency. | |||
| 5/15/07 |
JENNIFER
BJORHUS Pioneer Press TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press |
Anyone who helps commit mortgage fraud, defined as knowingly misrepresenting or omitting important information in the lending process, commits a felony punishable with up to two years in prison. Violators also must pay restitution to their victims. | ||||
| 5/15/07 |
The Subprime Lending Shakeout: A Litigation Perspective Credit First Swiss Boston, DLJ, and Select Portfolio Servicing misled the agencies whose ratings determined the market price of the securitiies |
Posted By Steve Jakubowski |
For those purchasers of securitized subprime mortgage-backed securities left holding the bag, however, there is one prayer that may provide much needed relief ... and that's the "prayer for relief" that accompanies a complaint filed in the US district court. As this 8-count complaint proves, there's no shortage of prayers for relief available to the disgruntled investor left holding the bag. | |||
| 5/15/07 | Jody Shenn -Bloomberg.com |
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann,
likening the subprime lending industry to armed robbers, said he
wants to sue Wall Street firms because their bond sales enabled
consumers to get mortgages they couldn't afford.
Ohio has already won the right through a lawsuit to review foreclosures by New Century Financial Corp. |
||||
| 5/14/07 | Fannie Mae repeatedly violated generally accepted accounting principles, issued false financial statements, and made other actionable public disclosures, thereby " 'engag[ing] in one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. corporate history.'" | |||||
| 5/12/07 |
By THOMAS LEE The Minneapolis Star Tribune |
[o]veraggressive lenders, hungry for profits, are more to blame for the increasing number of defaults among homeowners. | ||||
| 5/12/07 | TOBY STERLING -BusinessWeek | Bank of America Corp. filed an appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday over a ruling this month that froze the company's $21 billion purchase of LaSalle Bank from ABN Amro. | ||||
| 5/12/07 | Housing Predictor Staff | More than three out of four Americans believe mortgage fraud wrecked the booming real estate market. | ||||
| 5/11/07 | Jody Shenn - Bloomberg | Many observers find it ``curious'' that a surge in subprime mortgage defaults hasn't resulted in a wave of disclosures of losses on CDO equity. | ||||
| 5/11/07 | Matthew Goldstein | The Everquest filing notes this possibility, saying: "Subprime mortgages have experienced increased default rates in recent periods. A deterioration in the assets collateralizing the asset-backed securities held by our CDOs could negatively affect the cash flows." | ||||
| 5/11/07 | Testimony of Ameriquest employee | |||||
| 5/7/07 |
Credit crunch will 'shred investment portfolios to ribbons' |
By Ambrose Evans- Pritchard | When creditors led by Merrill Lynch forced a fire-sale of assets, they inadvertently revealed that up to $2 trillion of debt linked to the crumbling US sub-prime and "Alt A" property market was falsely priced on books. | |||
| 5/7/07 |
Money.CNN.com
Les Christie |
A number of interesting stories and posts. | ||||
| 5/7/07 |
David
Cho
Washington Post Staff Writer |
"The stress in that place was ungodly. It was like selling your soul," said Hardiman, "There was instant notification to everyone as soon as you rejected a loan. And you dreaded doing it because you paid for it. Two guys would come with a bat, and they were all [ticked] off because you cut their deals." | ||||
| 5/1/07 |
Igor
Greenwald
SmartMoney.com |
After paying out a $278 million settlement over its role in underwriting Enron bonds, it has now reserved $496 million to settle a criminal money-laundering probe by the U.S. Department of Justice. ABN Amro has already paid out $80 million in civil penalties over allegations that its lax procedures helped Iran and Libya circumvent U.S. sanctions, and routed billions in suspect transfers from Eastern Europe without too many questions asked. | ||||
| 5/2007 | On Your Side: Mortgage Fraud? | jeff.anderson@wrdw.com | It's called mortgage servicing fraud. It's happening all over the country and it could cost you your home if you become a victim of it. | |||
| 5/1/07 | OCRegister.com | Analyst Brett Hoselton of KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland changed his recommendation on GM shares to ``hold'' from ``buy'' today because of the mortgage losses | ||||
| 4/07 | Center for Responsible Lending | CRL�s specific responses to the critique of the Mortgage Bankers Association. | ||||
| 4/30/07 | Walden Siew - Reuters | At issue is what economists call "moral hazard". If lenders receive a fee to originate mortgages, they may care more about quantity than the quality of the loans. And if lenders know they will be able to sell or securitize loans to investors, they may not worry about whether borrowers can pay their mortgages. | ||||
| 4/30/07 | Massachusetts to seek delays on foreclosures |
Reuters |
In Massachusetts, where housing prices notched double-digit growth between 1995 and 2004, foreclosure filings surged 70 percent last year to a record 19,487 homeowners, as single-family home prices fell for the first time since 1993. | |||
| 4/28/07 |
Buying Jobs or Buying Trouble? Gov gives $3.5M credit for lender to come to Troy to create 350 jobs |
Brian O'Connor - Detroit News | Unmentioned in the state's announcement was the fact that a scant two weeks before, Massachusetts bank examiners charged that World Financial was routinely forging borrower's signatures on loan documents, using unlicensed brokers, creating phony records and hitting some borrowers with thousands of dollars in undisclosed fees. | |||
| 4/25/07 | The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Department | Drafting legislation to increase protections for consumers and provide penalties for mortgage fraud, including: criminalizing mortgage fraud; prohibiting abusive foreclosure rescue schemes; creating a mandatory pre-foreclosure filing notice; and establishing a central repository of foreclosure notices at the Division of Banks. | ||||
| 4/23/07 |
UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION BEING CHARGED WITH NEGLIGENCE IN MORTGAGE INDUSTRY |
Alex S. Gabor |
�There is no depression in the real
estate industry�, they say! Of course their paychecks and
survival depend on there not being a depression and covering up
the balloon they created out of thin air! |
|||
| 4/23/07 |
IEVA
M. AUGSTUMS AP Business Writer |
Bank of America Corp. said Monday it will purchase LaSalle Bank Corp. from ABN Amro North America Holding Co. for $21 billion in cash. | ||||
| 4/23/07 | Bloomberg News | KPMG LLP sued former auditing client Fannie Mae, the biggest source of money for US home loans, for "fraudulent deception" that prevented KPMG from uncovering $6.3 billion in overstated earnings. | ||||
| 4/22/07 | Worried homeowners share their high-interest stories | Tracy Jan, Boston Globe Staff |
[t]heir monthly mortgage payment jumped from just under $800
in 2002 to $2,700 last fall because of previous refinancing
to stave off a previous foreclosure, they said.
"We got to take on the fight to stop you from losing your home and to hold the people in the scheme out there accountable" |
|||
| 4/22/07 |
Martin D. Cates
& Associates |
90 percent of the appraisers reported having been the victims of such forms of coercion as nonpayment of fees and outright threats and many reported having lost business when they opted not to go along with the plan. | ||||
| 4/20/07 | Sam Garcia - MortgageDaily.com | Failed, Struggling and Acquired Mortgage-Related Companies | ||||
| 4/19/07 |
Latest count of major US mortgage lenders that have croaked since late 2006: 60 |
The MORTGAGE LENDER | Defrauded? Check out our legal help sign-up. Also: See the informational site that has crooked lenders sending in hate-mail; and an industry rogue's gallery as well. | |||
| 4/18/07 | Associated Press | It is "mind-boggling" that in many states, people can lose their homes in foreclosure without any court hearing and that the foreclosure is done by a company with ties to the lender | ||||
|
4/17/07
Testimony |
POSSIBLE RESPONSES TO RISING MORTGAGE FORECLOSURES |
SHEILA C. BAIR
FDIC Chairman |
Most of these borrowers are having difficulty making the payments on these loans after the "reset" to higher payments � often an increase of thirty percent or more -- that occurs after the initial two or three years of loan payments. According to one study, the interest rates for an estimated 1.1 million subprime loans will reset in 2007 and an additional 882,000 subprime loans will reset in 2008.Fewer and fewer of these borrowers are able to refinance because of the slowing rate of housing appreciation, higher interest rates and the problems faced by subprime lenders. | |||
|
4/17/07
Testimony |
Written Testimony of Christopher L. Peterson Associate Professor of Law University of Florida |
Examining the Role of Securitization � A hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment |
||||
| 4/15/07 |
How New Century ran out of money Some say it got caught in the perfect storm. Others say it ran into the rocks. |
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
|
Shareholder lawsuits, Delaware bankruptcy court filings and pending federal criminal and civil investigations will render the ultimate verdict on what went wrong and who is responsible. | |||
| 4/11/07 |
Lingling Wei DOW JONES NEWSWIRES |
the number of borrowers who are actually able to bring current their mortgage payments through bankruptcy is declining, and more filers are ultimately turning their homes over to the lenders. The finding means investors in high-yielding mortgage-backed securities should expect higher losses on the underlying collateral. | ||||
| 4/11/07 | Mortgage Fraud Funding Jihad? |
By
Patrick
Poole FrontPageMagazine.com |
[w]hat concerns federal authorities is how regularly mortgage fraud is showing up in terrorism investigations. | |||
| 4/11/07 | Special Report: The Mortgage Mess |
John W. Schoen MSNBC |
What the broker didn't explain, Kerrie Russo says, is that this was a "negative amortization" loan - an expanding debt that buried the couple deeper in hock even as they thought they were paying down their mortgage balance. | |||
| 4/10/07* |
Mortgage woes could be 'tip of the iceberg' Fraud, abusive lending crushes dreams for millions of home owners
|
John W. Schoen
Senior producer
msnbc.com
|
For some, the lesson learned is: �buyer beware.� But a series of interviews with subprime borrowers, mortgage lenders, appraisers, current and former regulators, and the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development paints a different picture � of a widespread pattern of questionable lending practices and outright fraud that has already sparked a wave of criminal and civil actions against various players in the $10 trillion market for residential mortgages. | |||
| 4/9/07 |
GARRETT ORDOWER
The Nation |
Congress now has a decision to make: Should those thousands of dollars be in their pockets, or in those of the millions losing their homes? | ||||
| 4/9/07 |
Workouts could soften impact of subprime lending woes Part 1: The new housing vernacular |
Matt
Carter Inman News |
With the collapse of the subprime lending market leading to tightened credit, many are wondering what happens to the millions of loans that are expected to default or more importantly, what happens to the homes and the people who bought them. | |||
| 4/8/07 |
Lawyer
links judge to scheme He says Judge suggested records could be falsified. |
|
In a deposition taken for a trial under way in Las Vegas, an attorney says District Judge Donald Mosley hatched a scheme to help his girlfriend avoid foreclosure on her home. | |||
| 4/8/07 | After five years, lawyer wants media out of court |
|
For five years, Tawanna K. Crabb has been arguing about her mortgage payments in open court, where anyone interested in the foreclosure case could observe the proceedings. | |||
| 4/8/07 | CAROLINA PROCTER Post-Tribune | Civil rights groups visited Washington, D.C., and called for a six-month moratorium on foreclosures. The groups said a predicted wave of foreclosures stems from "reckless and unaffordable loans" for which investors bear some responsibility | ||||
| 4/6/07 |
An Ameriquest speechwriter's mea culpa She penned executive addresses while the subprime mortgage company was sinking under its own questionable lending practices. |
By Candice Reed | Everybody else blames the lending practices that Orange-based Ameriquest has been repeatedly accused of: forging documents, hyping customers' credit-worthiness, "juicing" mortgages with hidden rates and fees and targeting the poor, the old, the disadvantaged. But it was I, a freelance writer from San Diego, who helped the company keep it going. | |||
| 4/4/07 |
Subprime Lending Crisis: Millions of Families Face Losing Their Homes to Foreclosure |
www.DemocracyNow.org | [a]nd now we're confronted now in this decade with this huge crisis, and it seems like many of these characters just reappear with new companies and new banks or new lending procedures, but the same kind of scams. What can be done on a more consistent level, to be able to protect people who do not necessarily know all of their rights in terms of lending, especially when it comes to homes? | |||
| 4/4/07 |
Payment Woes Worsen On Riskiest Mortgages |
By JAMES R. HAGERTY
Wall Street Journal Online |
The rapid rise in overdue payments and defaults has forced dozens of lenders out of business or into bankruptcy protection in recent months and darkened the outlook for the U.S. housing market. | |||
| 4/07 |
A Univ. of Houston student becomes an unrelenting pain to the two companies WELLS FARGO and ORIX that sued and bankrupted his mom. |
Craig Malisow Houston Press |
What he uncovered was a scheme perpetrated by ORIX executives to foreclose en masse, even on performing loans - at the expense of other bondholders - and collect money not only for the company but for themselves, via a secret partnership. | |||
| 3/30/07 | "Now, the fraud is becoming evident. The big Wall Street firms could have stopped it in the bud. The Wall Street engine drove all the things that have been done." | |||||
| 3/30/07 | Al Sunshine - CBS4.com | Now, Rayshaunda's case is under investigation by the North Miami police department. A judge has blocked her eviction after hearing her case. | ||||
| 3/29/07 | The Subprime Servicing Scam: Beware |
by George W. Mantor |
But what their mortgage service company did to them next is where our story really begins. This should be required reading for everyone with a mortgage. | |||
| 3/29/07 |
By
Lesley Mitchell The Salt Lake Tribune |
No one is sure why Utah has such a high rate of fraudulent activity. One suspicion is that unscrupulous lenders try to qualify too many heavily indebted Utah families for homes they cannot afford. Another is the makeup of Utah's trusting population, where many people place a great deal of trust in community, religious leaders and authority figures. | ||||
| 3/29/07 | GREGORY ZUCKERMAN, Randall Smith |
'Subprime' King New
Century Was Down but Not Quite Out; Then, Banks Shut Cash Spigot |
||||
| 3/29/07 | Garrett Ordower - The Nation | But much of the damage has already been done, with millions of homeowners facing foreclosure at the hands of an industry allowed to run wild. | ||||
| 3/29/07 | Compiled by Pat Minczeski and Brett Taylor | [o]ver the past few years, a large chunk of the subprime-loan market has shifted to higher-income metropolitan areas. In many of those wealthier areas, the delinquency rate has increased quickly. | ||||
| 3/28/07 | By AHRC News Services |
They asked the congressmen to begin an investigation of Due
Process violations and theft of Americans' homes by deception
using America's courtrooms.
WRITE TO THEM TODAY! |
||||
| 3/28/07 |
Kimberly
Blanton Boston Globe (Massachusetts) |
Asked by the
panel why she signed the loan, Frias explained that the
broker had told her, "if she changed her mind she would lose
her down payment, a life savings of $12,000." |
||||
| 3/28/07 |
|
Michael
S. Rozeff
LewRockwell.com |
Financial concerns include Greenwich
Capital Markets, Bear Sterns, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan
Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, American International Group,
Lehman Brothers, Prudential Financial, and Credit Suisse First
Boston.
Why does the financial sector pay so much money to a candidate whose seat is so safe if not to receive favorable law-making in return? |
|||
| 3/28/07 |
Subprime
Mortgage Collapse Eviscerates California Headquarters
|
Daniel Taub (Bloomberg)
|
After the collapse of the savings and loans in the 1980s, executives from that industry started subprime and other mortgage lenders, said Melissa Richards, general counsel for the California Mortgage Bankers Association. Their time at savings and loans gave them experience dealing with investment banks, which ended up buying packages of loans from subprime lenders for mortgage-backed securities, she said. | |||
| 3/27/07 | Mortgage fallout targeted by state |
By
|
Secretary
of State William F. Galvin yesterday called for the state
Legislature to give the court system oversight over foreclosure
cases in Massachusetts to protect thousands of homeowners who may
have been victimized by predatory lenders. "Are we simply
going to stand by while these homeowners lose their homes?� |
|||
| 1/12/06 |
States
Battle Feds Over Predatory Lending Laws
Financial Interests Shower Money on a Corrupt Congress |
Martin H. Bosworth ConsumerAffairs.Com |
"It would be a travesty if all [the states'] hard work was undone by a federal law that puts more homeowners at risk by eliminating state protections," CRL's executive vice-president Debbie Goldstein said. | |||
| 3/19/07 | Top five subprime lenders asked to testify: Dodd |
John
Poirier Reuters Dan Wilchins and Jonathan Stempel in New York |
"At the very least, homeowners facing foreclosure deserve to know what factors contributed to their dire financial straits, and what steps are needed to fix this pressing problem," Dodd said. | |||
| 3/19/07 | States Tried to Stop Subprime Bubble- but the Feds Shut them Down | By Nathan Newman | With millions of families facing these exploitive lending practices, the question is why the government didn't act to stop it? The answer is that the states did act-- but the federal government, backed by campaign contributions from predatory lenders, shut them down and helped create this mortgage crisis. | |||
| 3/19/07 |
What
We're Hearing
What exactly are criminal investigators looking at in regard to New Century Financial? |
By
Paul Muolo
National Mortgage News |
Another item being looked at is how much cash New Century said it had on its balance sheet. What New Century said it had -- and what it really had -- is a whole different matter. | |||
| 3/18/07 |
Fight brews over home equity loansLegislator seeks new consumer protections as lenders balk. |
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF |
Lenders are at the Capitol to weaken the protections (for consumers) and deterrents to abusive lending practices put into place in 1997 - so they can keep their illegal money machine working. | |||
| 3/18/07 |
Get The Facts On The Sub-Prime Mortgage Meltdown |
Terry Keenan - FOX News |
[t]he very same lawmakers who turned a
blind's eye to years of lax lending in their own backyard (at Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac)
now want to turn millions of Americans into victims of the housing
boom they championed. |
|||
| 3/18/07 | Banking regulators fell off tightrope |
By
Craig Torres and Alison Vekshin Bloomberg News |
"There was tension between the responsibilities not to mess up some banks' businesses and the responsibility to consumers," said Edward Gramlich, a Fed governor from 1997 to 2005. The result, he said, is that "we could have real carnage for low-income borrowers." | |||
| 3/16/07 | Ameriquest parent closes call centers, loan center | Reuters | ACC did not disclose how many people it was laying off. Its Argent wholesale mortgage lender, which is closing its White Plains, New York state-based processing center, employs more than 1,000, according to its web site. | |||
| 3/14/07 | $1,300...$2,000...there goes your mortgage | By Ellen Florian Kratz, Fortune writer | Now that the housing market has stalled, subprime borrowers are stuck with loans they really couldn't afford in the first place. Defaults and foreclosures are rising, and the industry is roiling as lenders face the consequences after years of handing out money irresponsibly. | |||
| 3/13/07 | B&C Servicers Face Day of Reckoning |
By
Ted Cornwell
Mortgage Servicing News |
With companies failing and Wall Street putting back loans or cutting off lines of credit, the servicing side of the business is likely to come under renewed scrutiny. | |||
| 3/13/07 | Accredited, New Century Lead Subprime Meltdown |
Jonathan
Stempel and Dan Wilchins / Reuters Additional reporting by Lynn Adler in New York, Muralikumar Anantharaman in Boston, Jui Chakravorty in Detroit, and Svea Herbst-Bayliss and John Poirier in Washington |
Trading
in shares of New Century, the
largest independent subprime lender, was suspended by the New York
Stock Exchange prior to delisting, and the company received a
grand jury subpoena in a federal criminal probe.
More than two dozen subprime lenders have quit the industry in the last year. Many analysts say New Century is on the brink of bankruptcy. |
|||
| 3/12/07 |
FBI
Links Fraudulent Appraisers with Terrorism
and Organized Crime � There they were, side by side: terrorism
and mortgage fraud". |
By Terrie Petree
communicatormagazine.com |
FBI mortgage fraud investigations will focus on �large-scale frauds perpetrated by organized crime and industry insiders, including attorneys, brokers, appraisers, and realtors.� There it is again; like mortgage fraud and Osama Bin Laden sharing homepage space, the FBI puts crooked appraisers in the same category as organized crime on their Web site. | |||
| 3/7/07 | FBI, Lenders Warn Fraud is Illegal | The FBI | FBI Mortgage Fraud investigations have focused on large-scale frauds perpetrated by organized crime and industry insiders, including attorneys, brokers, appraisers, and realtors | |||
| 3/6/07 |
Governor
made call on behalf of lender
Troubled Ameriquest sought infusion of cash |
Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | In a statement to the Globe, Patrick said he made the Feb. 20 call to Citigroup not in his role as governor but after a personal request to him from a top official at ACC Capital Holdings, the firm that owns Ameriquest Mortgage, which has frequently been accused of predatory lending. | |||
| 3/5/07 | Subprime Mortgage Blues | Nicholas von Hoffman - The Nation | No banker in his right mind would make such a mortgage, but for the last few years the sane bankers have been hiding under their desks or have left for the grocery business. | |||
| 3/07 | Internet �Terrorism� � Target: Mortgage Servicing | Alan Wolf - The Wolf Firm - USFN Member | Information on how the power of the Internet is causing worry for those operating on the criminal-side of the mortgage industry. | |||
|
3/3/07
Whitepaper |
Cleaning up a consumer lending mess | Christopher Peterson - an associate professor of law at the University of Florida. | In the worst cases, businesses that sold ill-advised loans to investors were paid long ago, and now can declare bankruptcy, leaving investors with not only losses, but thousands of potential lawsuits filed by families who are learning their loans may have been illegal from the beginning. | |||
| 3/2/07 | Chicago Title fined $6 million | Gazette News Service | State and federal investigations showed individuals profited by falsifying loan documents and rapidly reselling properties. | |||
| 3/2/07 | Goldman, Merrill Almost `Junk,' Their Own Traders Say |
Shannon
D. Harrington
Bloomberg.com |
Hmmm, Bear Stearns too? There is some justice in the world. Albeit rough justice. The type that comes around and bites you in the rear and takes off a hunk of skin. | |||
|
3/1/07
Whitepaper |
TURNING A BLIND EYE: WALL STREET FINANCE OF PREDATORY LENDING |
Kathleen C. Engel and Patricia A. McCoy Recipient of the Best Professional Paper Award of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, March 2007. |
Numerous studies have discussed the negative externalities that securitization imposes on creditors. Scholars have paid scant attention, however, to harms caused by securitization to debtors whose loans are securitized. This issue has erupted in the subprime home mortgage market, where charges of predatory lending, many of which have been substantiated, are mounting. |
|||
| 2/27/07 | Mortgage Servicing for UberNerds | |||||
| 2/27/07 | Freddie Mac Bans Unaffordable Subprime Home Loans | Center for Responsible Lending | Freddie Mac announced it will no longer buy common types of subprime mortgages that have been pushing millions of homeowners into foreclosure. | |||
| 2/26/07 | What Dangers Lurk in Today's Financial World? | Michael Panzner/SeekingAlpha | Lewis Ranieri helped create selling bonds backed by millions of home-loan payments and now he is worried about the proliferation of risky mortgages and convoluted ways of financing them. The problem is that in the past few years the business has changed so much that if the U.S. housing market takes another lurch downward, no one will know where all the bodies are buried. | |||
| 2/25/07 |
Mortgage
company shut down
Eagle First Mortgage caught in state's fraud crackdown |
Catherine Reagor The Arizona Republic |
The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions pulled the license of the Eagle First Mortgage and its broker, David Sanchez, last week. Regulators described more than 100 illegal money transactions, loan activities and hiring practices. | |||
| An illustrated guide to the coming real estate collapse |
By Michael Hudson |
|||||
| 2/23/07 | On Your Side: Mortgage Fraud | Jeff Anderson WRDW.com | When she finally talked to a representative at Countrywide Mortgage, they told her company records indicated she had been late on every payment for eight years. She says that was virtually impossible because the military paid her mortgage like clockwork. To her surprise, EMC Mortgage told her they never got the extra money. | |||
| 2/23/07 | Mtge Group: Let Market Forces, Not Regulations, Stem Delinquency |
By Benton Ives-Halperin,
Dow Jones Newswires |
Mortgage industry instructs regulators not to intervene in the fraud they created; let the industry take care of it, as they have years of experience in fraud and trickery to make it "appear" to go away. No harm done; everyone -but the defenseless homeowners- will be happy and richer. | |||
| 2/22/07 |
Lenders
told foreclosure picture grim
|
emmet.pierce@uniontrib.com | Mortgage fraud among the factors behind the recent surge in filings. Lenders were concerned with two key loan default issues: the prospect of litigation over the rising number of foreclosures and legislation that could make it harder to navigate through the foreclosure process. | |||
| 2/20/07 | Texas' chief justice calls for overhaul of state courts |
AMERICAN-STATESMAN |
"a privately litigated matter may well affect public rights. Its resolution may ultimately harm the public good or, because those decisions are secret, impede an innovation to a recurring problem, much to the detriment of Texas citizens." | |||
| 2/20/07 | Why This Market's Fairy Tale Can't Last Forever | Michael Panzner | When the unraveling is fully underway, there will be a flood of lurid headlines. Amid the avalanche of hearings, lawsuits, arrests, and trials, stories about violent strikes and protests will vie with news of plunging markets and businesses going belly up. Every day, tales of foreclosures and broken lives will blanket the airwaves. | |||
| 1/07 |
FINAL REPORT: For Minnesota's Attorney General LORI SWANSON |
State legislators, businesses (including community bankers involved in mortgage lending) and representatives of non-profit organizations | County level data in the Twin Cities area confirm that the foreclosure problem is better described as an explosion than an increase. | |||
| 9/24/03 |
The Criminal Elements Of Wall Street |
In the case of accounting, the physical evidence is found in the numbers. Forensic accountants search for the elusive smoking gun in the company's financial statements. Even manipulators of numbers leave a palpable "fingerprint" behind when they change things. | ||||
| 2/14/07 | Will Sub-Prime Loan Defaults Create Another Amaranth? | "Subprime loan buyers typically can force lenders to buy back the mortgages they sell if borrowers miss their first few payments, any type of fraud is discovered, or the loans otherwise fail to meet the guidelines laid out in a sales contract." | ||||
| 2/07 | The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter | |||||
| 2/9/07 | Judge Certifies Novastar Class Action |
Stephen Taub - CFO.com |
Filed in April 2004 on behalf of shareholders by Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, the class action reportedly claims the Kansas City, Missouri-based subprime lender Novastar concealed critical information, artificially raising the company's share price. | |||
| 2/8/07 | Wall St down on concerns over housing market | By Alex Barker � FT.com | The rise in defaults surprised investors and sparked selling of sub-prime mortgage lenders and homebuilders. | |||
| 2/8/07 |
Lifting
the Lid: |
By Tim McLaughlin
Reuters |
A new study strongly suggests securitization financing could be more susceptible to accounting abuse than previously thought. | |||
| 2/3/07 | Prosecution rests in HomeGold fraud trial |
By Page Ivey The Associated Press |
Sheppard is accused of defrauding 8,000 investors of about $275 million in connection with the 2003 failure of his company and its subsidiary Carolina Investors in one of the largest bankruptcies in S.C. history. | |||
| Feb 2008 Whitepaper | How Resilient Are Mortgage Backed Securities to Collateralized Debt Obligation Market Disruptions? |
JOSEPH R. MASON JOSHUA ROSNER |
They determine that even investment grade rated CDOs will experience significant losses if home prices depreciate, leading to broader imbalances in the U.S. economy that, if left unchecked, could lead to prolonged economic difficulties. | |||
| 1/31/07 |
Firm
ordered to end lending practices Mortgage Lenders Network ordered to cease illegal activities |
By
DAVE COLLINS The Associated Press |
The state Department of Banking on Tuesday suspended the lending licenses of an embattled mortgage firm that is under investigation for failing to provide funding for customers whose mortgage loans had already closed. | |||
| 1/27/07 | Suit says lender blocked reforms | By E. Scott Reckard, Times Staff Writer | Lee said Arnall "repeatedly blocked" his efforts to implement reforms after allegations of deceptive and fraudulent lending practices at Ameriquest. | |||
| 1/25/07 |
Investigators
search mortgage company
Carnation Banc and Evergreen Investment Corp. |
By Rick Armon and Jim
Carney
Beacon Journal staff writers
|
Summit County Sheriff's Department Capt. Steve Barry said the search warrant was related to the ongoing investigation into Evergreen Investment Corp. because there is a professional relationship between the two companies. | |||
| 1/23/07 |
Concerns over new law leads lender to drop R.I. loansOption One Mortgage Corp., the state�s dominant lender to borrowers with credit problems, has stopped making mortgage loans in Rhode Island. |
The law also prohibits lenders from extending �high-cost� home loans to borrowers without verifying the borrower�s income and ability to pay. The safeguards are aimed at protecting consumers with less-than-perfect credit from taking on mortgages they can�t afford and losing their houses to foreclosure. | ||||
| 1/19/07 |
AG
Swanson wants criminal
penalties
for unscrupulous lenders |
By BRIAN BAKST The Associated Press |
Consumers
would get more power to sue to recover losses, and a ban on loan
prepayment penalties that was scrubbed from Minnesota�s books in
1996 would be reinstated. |
|||
| 1/18/07 | Spike in foreclosures needs lawmaker action, group advises |
BY JENNIFER BJORHUS Pioneer Press |
New
Attorney General Lori Swanson announced a fat package of
legislative changes aimed at cracking down on abusive mortgage
lending. |
|||
| 1/4/07 | Foreclosure's Filthy Aftermath |
Maya Roney BusinessWeekOnline |
"And it's scary to think that with rising foreclosures, these animals will be some of the hidden victims." | |||
| 1/3/07 |
Taking
action against predatory lending
Minnesota Attorney General Swanson has good ideas to curb bad loans. |
StarTribune.com | During Tuesday's inauguration it was encouraging to hear Swanson say she will work against predatory mortgage lenders who "steal the American dream of home ownership from hardworking families." | |||
| 1/2007 |
Brokerage held liable in predatory mortgage loans
|
Consumer-Action.org | When investors are held liable for the actions of the companies they fund and the mortgage loans they purchase on the secondary market, it can have a chilling effect on predatory lending practices. In an important recent case, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision that Lehman Brothers knowingly participated in fraudulent predatory loans being made to subprime borrowers. | |||
| 10/29/06 | Mortgage fraud --the worst crime no one's heard of |
San Francisco Chronicle |
"now the proverbial vultures have come home to roost -- mortgage fraud is being busted left and right". | |||
| 12/25/06 | The "Foreclosure Factories" Vise |
By
Mara Der Hovanesian
BusinessWeekOnline |
"I have audited loans where the consumer has made all payments on a timely basis, and yet the servicing company manufactured a default and, in some cases, completed a foreclosure," says Marie McDonnell | |||
| 12/18/06 |
Cracks
start to appear in credit pipe |
John Dizard | Companies such as Ownit fail all the time, in every part of the business cycle, with few ripples beyond sad gatherings in the bar in the nearest mall. In this case, though, says Jay Diamond of Annaly Mortgage Management: �Ownit may have been the canary in the coal mine.� | |||
| 12/7/06 | Process for Foreclosing on Mortgage Loans Reflecting MERS as Mortgagee |
Fannie Mae Guidelines |
Effective immediately, MERS must not be named as a plaintiff in any judicial action filed to foreclose on a mortgage owned or securitized by Fannie Mae. | |||
| 11/6/06 | Fed To Banks: Halt Bond Fraud | Liz Moyer - Forbes.com | The Fed wants banks to stop fraud in the U.S government bond market before regulators have to step in. | |||
| 12/06 |
Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to Homeowners |
Ellen Schloemer, Wei Li, Keith Ernst, and Kathleen Keest Center for Responsible Lending
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Our results show that despite low interest rates and a favorable economic environment during the past several years, the subprime market has experienced high foreclosure rates comparable to the worst foreclosure experience ever in the modern prime market . |
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| 'Manufactured' foreclosures |
Jack Guttentag Mortgage Professor |
To cure what McDonnell terms a "servicer-manufactured default," the borrower must pay the full amount necessary to bring the account current. "For consumers who do not have sufficient savings and who are living from paycheck to paycheck, the likelihood of an extended delinquency and ultimate foreclosure is very high ... servicing abuse in escrow accounts ... is the leading cause of premature and wrongful foreclosure." | ||||
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