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Article
Articles
are added several times a day
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Source
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Comment
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"Ordered, that the note of issue is stricken."
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Supreme Court
Queens NY
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In the instant case, plaintiff identified itself as the creditor, maintained the action in its own name and has failed to offer any evidence that the owner of the note and mortgage has delegated authority to commence and maintain this action. Thus, there is an issue of fact regarding standing and the cross-motion for summary judgment is denied.
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Texas Supreme Court DENIES Wells Fargo's Petition for
Review to overturn COA decision in:
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Texas
Supreme Court
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Wells Fargo has failed to overturn "the judgment
voiding the deed of trust lien on Leath’s homestead and ordering forfeiture of the principal and interest on the related home
equity adjustable rate note."
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Off Topic
2/28/15
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It’s all about control. It’s your money, America. The system functions quite well.
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NY Post
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Adding more pages of red tape will not improve performance, but it just may get your broker to drop your account, just as many credit lines were closed after Dodd-Frank passed.
Many on Wall Street and non-political economists feel one of the things holding back our economy is the ever-increasing creep of socialism and added regulation into our finances.
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2/27/15
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A homeowner came to me with what I thought was a great fact pattern.
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Stopa Law
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She lost at trial even though the original Note was sitting in a different court file, initiated by a different plaintiff, at the time suit was filed.
How could Plaintiff have been the “holder” (requiring possession of an original, endorsed Note) at the time suit was filed
when that Note was in a different court file initiated by a different plaintiff? They couldn’t. But the law requires that they were. See McLean v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., 79 So. 3d 170 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012). So I took the case and
filed an
appeal.
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2/27/15
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National Mortgage News
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"As Ginnie Mae intended to keep the servicing of these loans only on a short-term basis, it decided not to make the appropriate changes in its internal processes and information systems to accommodate the significant changes. This was not a prudent decision as
Ginnie Mae’s inappropriate response to the changes contributed to the financial reporting problems facing
Ginnie Mae in fiscal year 2014," they said in the report.
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Mortgage Servicing News
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Wells Fargo, the trustee on the two deals, put a vote to investors in October on whether to terminate
Ocwen as a servicer. The termination was triggered when Moody's Investors Service downgraded
Ocwen's servicer ratings after New York's top banking regulator found the company had backdated foreclosure letters.
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2/27/15
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Ohio received about $330 million from the 2012 national mortgage settlement, which
ended disputes with mortgage servicers accused of acting "illegally" in foreclosure
proceedings.
The dispute wasn't between Ohio and the mortgage industry
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Cleveland
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Comments from Blogger Garry Kanter:
Why didn't the banks that owned these homes pay for the demolition?
How did the injured parties from the mortgage fraud benefit from these demolitions?
How many $ of unpaid property taxes magically disappeared vis the land banks?
They will only stop taking everything once they have taken everything.
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Report
February
2015
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Targeting the Poor and the Unsophisticated for High Risk Mortgages
The ACLU in its latest report on the mortgage crisis proves this to any
remaining doubters. This report also shows that these disadvantaged groups are
the least likely to get a modification or other settlement or assistance of the
various mortgage issues that we all know now were pandemic throughout the period
of 1996-present.
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Living Lies
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Banks do economic analysis every day employing thousands of analysts. Those
analysts knew that the prices were being driven above the value of the
property, knew that the endgame was the drop of prices to resume relationship
with values, and thus knew — because they rigged the game — that if they
bet the mortgages would fail, they would make a lot of money. The trick was to
lose somebody else’s money - not their own. and that is what they did.
Banks do economic analysis every day employing thousands of analysts. Those analysts knew that the prices were being driven above the value of the property, knew that the endgame was the drop of prices to resume relationship with values, and thus
knew — because they rigged the game — that if they bet the mortgages
would fail, they would make a lot of money. The trick was to lose somebody
else’s money - not their own. and that is what they did.
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COMMUNITIES OF COLOR, THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS,
AND LOAN SERVICING FAILURES
During the subprime lending boom of the early 2000s, communities of color were targeted for
the riskiest, most predatory mortgages.
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ACLU
Report
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Since the housing bubble burst in 2008, homeowners in these communities have disproportionately struggled with default and foreclosure. These are
the communities that most desperately need solutions to the foreclosure crisis. Instead, new
data obtained from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) by MFY Legal Services,
Inc. (“MFY”) and the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) supports the conclusion that loan
modification programs are failing homeowners in communities of color, as several prior studies
have also indicated. This data, concerning mortgage complaints filed with the CFPB, reveals a
number of disturbing trends.
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OneWest Bank has been charged with fraud in other states.
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abc15
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OneWest allegedly told the couple to miss their mortgage payments on
purpose so they qualify for a HAMP loan and lower payments. It’s a government
program (scam) to help homeowners with unaffordable increases in expense or reduction in income, but they said
OneWest turned around and took their home before they ever got help.
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A violation of the Sherman Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals.
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Home Equity Theft Reporter
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Two Georgia real estate investors pleaded guilty for their roles in a conspiracy to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Georgia, the Department of Justice announced.
“The division will continue working with its law enforcement partners to expose cartels that harm distressed homeowners and lenders.”
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2/26/15
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Rescission: The Wheels Are Turning
We continue answering questions tonight on rescission and legal strategies that lawyers should be thinking about.
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Living Lies
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It’s all about the lack of meat in the sandwich — there is no underlying transaction IN THE CHAIN CLAIMED BY FORECLOSING PARTIES — no money exchanged hands.
There is no loan at the base of all that paper that banks are fabricating for court. Money was loaned — but not by anyone in the chain that claims rights to the loan. They have no rights and the judicial system needs to scrutinize these transactions and the foreclosures initiated by parties who have no ownership, no authority and cannot prove the balance of the loan.
The question is whether the courts will realize that this is about money, not paper.
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Mortgage Servicing News
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Since its launch in June 2012, mortgage-related complaints account for nearly one-third of the more than 538,000 grievances published in the CFPB's
public database.
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2/26/15
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All principal balances are lower or gone, and reduced by half in the largest traunch (1-A). How can this be you ask? Did that many loans default and have the homes liquidated and proceeds applied to the loans? OR, did insurance payments, credit default swaps,
TARP money, or buy backs on the loans by Chase (as likely forced by the investors who have that right for non-conforming loans) pay off the loan balances that are now gone? The answer is likely a bit of all the above.
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Living Lies
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You can see what a mess this is, and why Chase and other “Servicers” don’t want to open the books on what happens to the Trust funds money to anyone. Investors in current lawsuits have to sue their own Trustee’s (like
Citigroup) to try to get to the “real” books, sound crazy, it’s happening…. since
Chase and the fund never legally held my loan due to multiple forgeries and botched assignments, they in essence committed theft through conversion of my loan payments when I made them, because they never held the legal right to accept payments from
me.… Like I said, this happens thousands of times daily to thousands of homeowners, and no one, not the government, regulators, judiciary, and especially the banks, want to discuss this mess.
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National Mortgage News
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The subpoenas, sent in November and December, sought additional information on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general, which in June sent a letter telling the company it had been selected for an audit of its compliance with FHA rules.
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Rosen Law
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Judge: “I’m going to print this transcript and refer it to the bar. What you are doing is insulting to me and to your opposing counsel. I am a trial Judge. You think I don’t know the rules of
evidence? You think I don’t know basic hearsay. You think it’s okay to try to testify about the contents of documents which are not in evidence and which have been specifically excluded. You think your witness can testify about what someone told him and that, that is not
hearsay? I’m taking a recess. I’ve had it.”
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 Oral
Argument in:
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Ohio Supreme Court
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ISSUE: May a foreclosure action be filed with a court when the plaintiff doesn’t have both the note and mortgage at the time of the complaint?
That question was answered centuries ago.
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DealBook
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Morgan Stanley has reached a $2.6 billion settlement with the Justice Department over the sale of mortgage securities
before the financial crisis.
(What percentage of their illegal profits?)
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Business Journal
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"Quite frankly, we foreclose as a last resort," she said. "But in the event a foreclosure does occur, we want to make sure that asset is in the best shape possible."
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aljazzera
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Krystal Malone is $9,000 behind on her taxes, even though her house is worth only about $10,000. Gabriel
McNeil bought his house for $1,500 in 2013 without realizing it had nearly 10 times that owed in back taxes.
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There has been national attention given to false documents used by banks in foreclosure cases and some of those same false documents can be used as evidence by investors in class actions against the banks.
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Federal Bar Association
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Consideration of direct evidence of another cause of a drop in a stock’s price will save both sides the time and expense of unnecessary litigation if the claims are meritless. While a defendant may present evidence related to price impact, if the court determines that a defendant’s misrepresentation were the cause for a stock’s drop in price then the plaintiffs will satisfy the reliance requirement for class certification based on the presumption that the misrepresentations were a fraud on the market.
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2/25/15
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In securitization practice the note ceases to exist. Assignments, endorsements and powers of
attorney are a sham, designed to conceal basic flaws in the entire securitization model.
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Living Lies
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The banks kept the money and assigned the losses to the investors. Then they bet on the losses and kept the profits from their intentionally watered down underwriting
practices. Then they stole the identity of the borrowers and the investors and bought insurance that covered “losses” that were never incurred by the named insured — the Banks. The family resemblance to Ponzi scheme seems closer than mere double dipping in an infinite scheme of dipping into the funds of thousands of institutional investors and into the lives of millions of homeowners.
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2/24/15
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No mention of stopping banks from committing crimes to steal homes.
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Michigan State University
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The objectives of these laws are to help homeowners overcome hardships and meet their legal responsibilities, reduce the number of vacant properties, improve public safety, increase tax revenues for city and county government services, and prevent delinquent taxpayers from purchasing additional foreclosed properties. The bills are now Public Acts 499 to 502 of 2014, respectively.
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2/24/15
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In 2008, funds flowed in waves into the mortgage industry. In 2015, it appears the funds are drying up.
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CNBC
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At some point the rules and regulations, fines and accounting changes made it evident to many bankers that they could not make money originating mortgages. Moreover, it seemed imprudent to put 30-year mortgages, with record low interest rates, on their books. Further, the banks had no stomach for making unqualified mortgages, which could get them sued for yet tens of billions of dollars more. Plus, the
Federal Reserve stopped buying mortgages and Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac began selling them.
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2/23/15
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Plaintiff starts off wanting leave to amend to add a lost note count at the beginning of trial.
Despite pleading that the Plaintiff is the owner and holder of the note in a “verified” complaint, they now know the note was lost all
along. First, opposing counsel attempts to place blame on the clerk of court but the clerk whom he calls to testify, proffers during their motion that the original was never filed. What they show was that a Notice of Filing of original note was filed in a prior 2009 case,
but when the bank was ordered to transfer the original note via an order from the Judge in the current 2013 case, they found that only a copy of the note was attached to Plaintiff’s notice of filing the “original
note.” This is not the first time we’ve seen or heard this…
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Rosen Law
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This is where the Judge had enough and goes off! She says to opposing counsel, “I’m going to print this transcript and refer it to the bar. What you are doing is insulting to me and to your opposing counsel. I am a trial Judge. You think I don’t know the rules of
evidence? You think I don’t know basic hearsay. You think it’s okay to try to testify about the contents of documents which are not in evidence and which have been specifically excluded. You think your witness can testify about what someone told him and that, that is not
hearsay? I’m taking a recess. I’ve had it.”
Then, opposing counsel tells me they are taking a voluntary dismissal. While another trial is pressing on, as the Judge signs the order dismissing the case, she looks over at me shaking her head in disbelief.
By the way in this case, we had certified copies of a prior complaint with no note attached, a certified copy of a notice of filing the “original note,” also with no note attached, a certified copy of new complaint with unindorsed note made payable to someone other than Plaintiff, and lastly, a certified copy of the order transferring note in which there was a note from the clerk which states
“only copies found.” I was only able to use the copy of the order with the note from clerk during my argument against P’s Motion for Continuance.
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2/23/15
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Combining Panama and Swiss tax havens to ensure secrecy is the new “transparent” in banking.
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Bill Black
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HSBC’s defense to the Guardian of Gulliver’s use of opaque tax havens was that hiding his income and wealth and his outrageous pay (and minimizing taxes) was the epitome of “transparency.”
He said he set up a Swiss account to hide his bonus from his Hong Kong colleagues, and then another one in Panama to hide the amounts from the bank’s employees in Switzerland.
‘Being in Switzerland protects me from Hong Kong, being in Panama helps protect me from the Swiss bank,’ he said.”
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2/23/15
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Wis. Stat. § 908.03(6). Prior to 2010, lenders using the business records exception to provide evidence of ownership and default through affidavit rarely faced any meaningful objection from a borrower on summary judgment.
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National Law Review
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While the Palisades decision is ultimately a narrow one, borrowers have—successfully—latched onto it in an effort to force lenders’ strict compliance with the business records exception. Indeed, over the last five years, borrowers’ reliance on Palisades has led to a number of decisions denying a lender’s right to foreclose on summary judgment. However, many of these cases would have been granted on summary judgment if the lender submitted an affidavit that complied with the business records exception.
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2/23/15
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From one crook to another; adding another layer of concealment
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Reuters
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Mortgage servicers such as Ocwen have grown exponentially since the financial crisis by buying up the rights to service mortgages after new capital regulations made the business too costly for banks to maintain.
But investments in systems and procedures did not keep pace with their expansion, causing headaches for many homeowners.
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2/23/15
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(We have requested the Order)
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Foreclosure Defense Nationwide
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The documents compelled include the MERS Milestone Report; loan notes from all servicers; the “collateral” (origination) file from origination to present; any assignments of the Deed of Trust; and, most importantly, all documents as to the “who, when, and where the endorsements were placed on the Note.”
These developments are of national importance, and show that at least two states are no longer going to blindly accept the “endorsement” theory without question and without issue.
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State lawmakers on Thursday debated during a committee hearing for a proposed property tax amendment that would stop counties from profiting from home foreclosures.
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Fox17
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“I think the county should get every dime they’re owed for the taxes and penalties,” Sen. Jones said. “But, I question when you sell a home for 80 (thousand dollars) when the person owes 2 (thousand dollars) why the county keeps 78 (thousand dollars).”
For a person who has a mortgage, they have a shot at getting their home back once it’s foreclosed. The law states they have 6 months after foreclosure to pay their debt in order to retain their house.
However, that’s not the case for people who own their home and no longer carry a mortgage. Once a county forecloses on their home it’s final.
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2/21/15
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It’s when you fall behind and the wheels of foreclosure begin to turn that the mischief begins.
Where is the written authorization that the trust
can foreclose?
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Cape Cod Times
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Because there are multiple investors, and because they can be scattered all over the globe,
trying to orchestrate a foreclosure by them would be a logistical and economic
nightmare. It makes far more sense to have the foreclosure carried out by the trust itself — but this solves one problem only to leave others in its place.
For one, the trust no longer owns your loan. For another, the investors typically own their certificates through a book-entry system managed by a Wall Street clearinghouse and are represented by its nominee. Absent proof that the trust is specifically authorized to foreclose on their behalf, its ability to do so is far from clear.
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2/20/15
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The cult of adverse possession is alive
The apartments are in foreclosure, according to court records, and have been vacant for years
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Bloomberg
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Adverse possession, the font from which squatters' rights spring, does exist, and in some cases can prevent a landowner from booting an unlawful occupant. But the crucial ingredient is time, and there are scant examples of anyone actually winning ownership of a home through adverse possession in the U.S.
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2/20/15
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"playing a game of “three card monty” with the Plaintiff."
Plaintiff intends to prove in this case that LNV
Corporation, and its loan servicer, MGC
Mortgage, Inc., the entities that currently claim ownership and servicing of the loan and right to
collect payment, are nothing more than shams and shell corporations. Plaintiff is not alone.
There are many other victims of LNV Corporation, MGC Mortgage Inc., and its affiliated
entities, including Dovenmuehle Mortgage Inc.
(We heard this case was dismissed with prejudice. ???)
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The Smith Firm
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Each of these sham companies is owned by D. Andrew
Beal, who is the sole owner of Beal Bank and
Beal Financial Inc. Beal is located in Plano,
Texas. Beal has a history of creating “sham” companies to use as fraudulent tax shelters.
Beal’s MGC and LNV are such sham companies. In addition to being used as fraudulent tax
shelters, Beal uses his sham companies to defraud homeowners of their property; to defraud
courts and to ultimately launder proceeds from their fraudulent activities overseas.
LNV, MGC, and Dovenmuehle work in collusion with each other to fund their activities by conducting fraudulent
foreclosures by fabricating forged and falsified mortgage related documents. We are informed
and believe that there are hundreds, if not thousands of victims of these companies.
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2/20/15
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Now that the Supreme Court has cleared up the issue of when a rescission notice has to be provided, the biggest question facing a bank is what to do when it gets one.
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Law360
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Borrowers may not have the cash to pay back the creditor, with most of the proceeds of the loan going into the house. If the borrower is unable to repay the principal balance, then the lender is left without the cash and without any claim against the borrower, King said.
“If the borrower doesn’t give you the money, then you don’t have a secured loan,” he said.
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2/19/15
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Lessons Learned by Lenders from Jesinoski v. Countrywide
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National Law Review
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This case should give all lenders pause when making disclosures – all material disclosures should be (a) as thorough as necessary under TILA, and (b) timely enough to keep the rescission window to three days. The borrower’s right to rescind will expire at the three day mark if the mortgage lender makes all necessary disclosures at the closing table, but make sure the disclosures are complete and meet all TILA requirements.
Inadequate disclosure could leave the borrower up to three years to rescind the
loan, a lesson lenders just learned from the Supreme Court.
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2/19/15
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Fraudsters have been using this same business model for 20 years because it
still works!
Unbeknownst to them, the servicer had for some time been accepting their monthly payments but not applying their payments toward their loan. Rather than credit their account with each regular payment it received, the servicer was placing those payments in a “suspense account.”
Servicers are financially incentivized to drive homeowners into default, the
Patricks' story is a recurring one, one which happens every day to unsuspecting homeowners.
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Sandusky Register
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By doing so, the servicer was causing additional late fees to be assessed. Worse yet, this process was causing the Patricks to be treated as if they weren’t making their regular monthly mortgage payments over a period of time when they in fact were. In turn, this caused the amount they were behind to go through the roof. So when they gathered up the $3,000 they thought they were behind and offered it to the servicer, it rejected the offer as being wholly insufficient. They were then told that, with attorney fees incurred in connection with the preparation of a foreclosure added in, the total amount required to bring them current on their mortgage had escalated to over $8,000, more than four times than it was just two months before! With that news, for the first time they realized that their servicer had laid a trap for them, and that trap had sprung.
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2/19/15
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A new report makes plain some of the grim results of housing-related stressors, and suggests practices that could save lives.
A large share of the deaths (37 percent) happened within two weeks of a specific housing crisis, such as an eviction notice or court hearing. The overwhelming majority of these suicides (79 percent) took place before the renters or owners actually lost their housing.
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CityLab
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Disturbingly, the study suggests that the mechanism of foreclosure proceedings might actually lead to increased risk for suicide:
Foreclosure may be exceptionally stressful because of its protracted nature and multiple negative events that constitute the process, particularly given the evidence that situational depression may respond in a dose-response fashion to negative life events. In addition, depression is more strongly related to stressful life events for which individuals perceive personal responsibility and lack of control over outcomes. All of these factors are mechanisms that make the foreclosure process a potent psychological stressor.
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2/19/15
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Mortgage Servicing News
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The losses caused a $1.9 billion drop in fourth-quarter earnings to $227 million, the company said, its lowest profit in that quarter since 2001.
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2/19/15
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So it seems that the people who lost their homes through illegal or improper foreclosure practices cannot be found. More than 600,000 checks ranging up to $125,000 have not been cashed and are in the process of being reissued. Recipients may still bring claims for damages or even title, state law permitting.
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Living Lies
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The point is that the foreclosures and the assistance to avoid foreclosure were conducted with faulty premises and improper motive. So the banks agreed to pay money with no prejudice to the borrowers who lost their homes. The interesting thing is the banks themselves have come up with those situations in which their practices are wrong. That is potentially an admission against interest — a powerful weapon to use against the banks that have already “completed” foreclosures that were either void (rescission was sent) or voidable (no proof of ownership, authority or balance).
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2/17/15
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Nearly seven years after the financial crisis, banks are still churning out profits and wrestling with regulators.
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DealBook
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Bonuses are shrinking. Revenue growth has stalled. Entire business lines are being cut. And some investors are even asking whether the biggest banks should be broken up — changes that are all largely attributed to a not-so-well-known set of rules regarding capital, a financial metric that captures how much cushion banks might have in the event of a crisis.
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2/18/15
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U.S. bank regulators are making another attempt to dole out about $380 million in unspent money that has been set aside to reimburse consumers for foreclosure-related abuses.
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WSJ
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The payments, which are going out this week, range from several hundred dollars to more than $125,000, the regulators said. As of last month, more than 3.4 million checks worth $3.1 billion have been cashed or deposited. But nearly 600,000 checks have expired and are being reissued, in some cases to update addresses, regulators said.
Spokesmen for the bank regulators declined to comment on what they intend to do if borrowers can’t be found
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The case was taken to the Supreme Court after the defendants appealed the Reykjavík District Court’s
ruling.
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Iceland Review
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Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, former CEO of the bank, got the longest sentence at five and a half years, unchanged from the Reykjavík District Court’s ruling. Sigurður Einarsson, former chairman of the board, had his sentence reduced from five years to four while investor, and one of the bank’s biggest shareholders, Ólafur Ólafsson, had his sentence lengthened from 3.5 years to 4.5 years and Magnús Guðmundsson, director of Kaupþing Luxembourg, got 4.5 years instead of 3 years.
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2/19/15
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Public policy expressed in the UCC Article 9 says that if you want to enforce a mortgage you must not only have some indication that it was transferred to you, you must also have paid valuable consideration for the mortgage.
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Living Lies
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Justice Scalia, in a terse opinion, simply told us that Judges and Justices were wrong in all those trial court decisions and even appellate court decisions that applied common law theories to modify the language of the Federal Law (TILA) on rescission. And now bank lawyers are facing the potential consequences of receiving notices of TILA rescission where the bank simply ignored them instead of preserving the rights of the “lender” by filing a declaratory action within 20 days of the rescission.
By operation of law, the note and mortgage were nullified, ab initio. Which means that any further activity based upon the note and mortgage was void. And THAT means that the foreclosures were void.
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2/18/15
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Transferring loans with the right data, documents and borrower contact information
is still a huge challenge for the industry. (But they can still depend on
miscreant judges to turn a blind-eye.)
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National Mortgage News
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Foreclosures and delinquencies may seem like problems from the past, but servicers are still struggling with a massive backlog of distressed loans and a return to normalcy is at least two years away, if not longer.
Large banks that had their reputations tarnished by the foreclosure crisis continue to sell off mortgage servicing rights because of regulatory requirements. Now the nonbanks that absorbed many of the banks'
problem (uncollectable) loans are facing their own gauntlet of regulatory pressure.
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2/17/15
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The office has the power to retrieve bank data, including through subpoenas. It has a large degree of independence, and is funded by money levied from banks.
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Reuters
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In 2013, it spotted risks in asset management in a report mandated by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a group of the heads of the main U.S. regulatory agencies.
The asset management report triggered attacks by the industry, which fiercely opposed any move toward tougher rules.
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2/17/15
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The proposed amendments were first published in the Federal Register
on December 15. CFBP's mortgage rules were first proposed in 2013 and went into effect in January 2014
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dsnews
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"These proposed amendments focus primarily on clarifying, revising, or amending provisions regarding force-placed insurance notices, policies and procedures, early intervention, and loss mitigation requirements under Regulation X's servicing provisions; and periodic statement requirements under Regulation Z's servicing provisions," the rule states on the Federal Register site. "The proposed amendments also address proper compliance regarding certain servicing requirements when a consumer is a potential or confirmed successor in interest, is in bankruptcy, or sends a cease communication request under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act."
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2/17/15
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Attorney General Eric Holder wants a Wall Street scalp. (supposedly)
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NY Post
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After years of pressure from some lawmakers, civic leaders and Occupy Wall Street protesters, the country’s No. 1 law enforcer said Tuesday he has instructed many of his 93 federal prosecutors to review any residential mortgage fraud case they have brought against a financial institution stemming from the 2008 financial crisis to see if any executive could be held accountable for the company’s actions.
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2/17/15
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“To the extent that individuals have not been prosecuted, people should understand it is not for lack of trying."
Holder said on Tuesday.
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Reuters
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U.S. attorneys who brought cases against institutions over misconduct in the pooling and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities have been asked "to try to develop cases against individuals and to report back in 90 days with regard to whether they think they can successfully bring criminal or civil cases against those individuals," Holder said
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2/17/15
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No one really knew the extent of the mess that was created.
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ValueWalk
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As the housing insanity headed straight over a cliff, the total amount of outstanding subprime and other unconventional mortgages soared. When mortgage lending finally peaked in July 2007, an incredible $2.31 trillion of non-guaranteed RMBS were outstanding.
Hopes ran high that modifications might slow the bleeding. Unfortunately, these hopes were dashed.
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Deadspin accuses Dan Gilbert of exerting influence to have blog post deleted.
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Housing Wire
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"Quicken Loans is a predatory lender. It's impossible to read the numerous lawsuits against the mortgage company and conclude otherwise." So when Kelly Dwyer, the editor of Yahoo's popular NBA blog Ball Don't Lie, made an offhand joke about that fact in a post last year,
the post was deleted.
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2/17/15
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Federal Court grants pro se's Motion to Strike exhibits; leaves BONY
with no evidence for Summary Judgment.
Homeowner's remaining claims allowed to proceed.
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Harriet Nicholson
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Yorkovich does not, however, make these
declarations under penalty of perjury, and the declaration is not supported by a
jurat. Therefore, the Court grants Nicholson’s motion to strike Yurkovich’s
declaration.
Because the Court has stricken most of Defendants’ evidence in support of its motion for summary judgment, the Court concludes
that Defendants have failed to meet their burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact, at least with respect
to the claims to which the stricken documents relate.
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National Mortgage News
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The North Texas region has been a hub for mortgage servicing for decades, dating back to the oil bust and
Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s.
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In some cases this may be your most potent weapon to combat foreclosure! If there are material violations in your loan documents, and you have a refinance transaction within the last three years you may have a right to rescind your loan.
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Foreclosure Defense Resource Center
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And, due to recent Supreme Court unanimous decision with a favorable opinion by Justice Scalia – even rescission years later after 3 years
you can still rescind if done within 3 years of you becoming aware of these kind of things: your lender was not who you thought – proven by getting copy of wire transfer and instructions funding your loan. Plus if
MERS involved – no disclosure of MERS and what it means/meant;
securitization separation of note from mortgage/deed causing the CRASH of 2008-9 due to MBS RICO derivatives Ponzi scheme.
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MortgageOrb
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The increase in filings was driven primarily by a 55% jump in bank repossessions, which hit a 15-month high in January, according to the firm's monthly foreclosure report. A total of 37,292 U.S. properties were repossessed by lenders in January, up 23% from a year ago to reach the highest monthly total since October 2013.
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2/16/15
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Goldman Sachs and UBS AG have agreed to pay $235 million to resolve claims in a lawsuit over residential mortgage-backed securities
(RMBS) issued by former Residential Capital LLC
(ResCap) during the pre-crisis period.
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Zacks
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In 2008, investors filed a suit and alleged that the three banks failed to disclose the risky nature of the RMBS while underwriting the securities in the period of
2006 and 2007. The banks have allegedly violated federal securities law by issuing false and misguiding registration statements and prospectuses for the offerings while underwriting. Investors incurred heavy losses when such investments went sour.
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DSNews
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The economist noted that leverage remains unaddressed by those responsible for initiating housing policy, and he recommended in his study that they may want to consider the ability to manage leverage in order to obtain financial stability in the residential housing market.
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2/16/15
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Creating conflict where there is none.
Note and Mortgage - or Note or Mortgage at Time of Filing?
"Corruption in finance is often rooted in corruption of language.
If you divorce words from their original meanings, you end up in an endless loop of doublespeak."
The Ohio Supreme Court is about to provide the perfect example.
If you can't prove ownership of a debt, then there is no debt (citation
omitted). It's that simple! MSF
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Legally Speaking Ohio
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On February 25, 2015, the Supreme Court of Ohio will hear oral argument in the case of
SRMOF 2009-1 Trust v. Shari Lewis et
al, 2014-0485. At issue in this case is
whether a plaintiff in a foreclosure action must have an interest in both the note and mortgage to have standing and, if not, whether it is sufficient if the plaintiff has an interest in either the note or the
mortgage.
COMMONSENSE: If you produce the original (not forged) Note, but don't have
the mortgage, then you may collect the unsecured debt, but
without the mortgage you cannot foreclose. If you have the mortgage without the
Note, the mortgage is a nullity - and still - you cannot foreclose.
To continue obtaining windfalls of free houses and wealth from its homeowner
victims, banks must bastardize the law and defile the integrity of every
court. We are about to watch and see if the banks can deflagrate any remaining threads of
integrity left in the Ohio Supreme Court. MSF
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HSBC’s admission that Burgos did not
personally observe the original note before executing her affidavit conclusively established that Burgos did not properly authenticate the note for the purpose of
establishing that HSBC is the holder of the note.
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OHIO COURT OF APPEALS
THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT
PAULDING COUNTY
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By failing to respond to Watson’s requests for admissions, HSBC admitted that
“HSBC does not have possession of the original
note, Exhibit A to the Complaint.”
We also agree with Watson that HSBC’s admission that “Burgos did
not personally observe the original note prior to executing the April 10, 2013 affidavit attached to the summary judgment motion in this case” precluded
summary judgment in HSBC’s favor.
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Barred by the Statute of Limitations
Here, the Defendant has met her prima facie showing that Plaintiff s instant foreclosure action
was commenced after the applicable statute of limitation period, demonstrating an entitlement to the
dismissal of the instant action, with prejudice.
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Supreme Court of Ney York Suffolk County
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"On a motion to dismiss a complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (5) on statute of limitations
grounds, the moving defendant must establish, prima facie, that the time in which to commence the
action has expired.". If the defendant meets that burden, it is then incumbent upon plaintiff to raise a question of fact as to whether
the statute of limitations was tolled or was otherwise inapplicable, or whether it actually commenced
the action within the applicable limitations period.
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2/15/15
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I will be writing a series of articles concerning the three mortgage fraud epidemics that hyper-inflated the bubble and drove the financial crisis prompted by four recent economic studies of mortgage fraud. My goal is to integrate the results of those studies with the work of criminologists, investigators, and data from other sources such as Clayton.
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Prof. Bill Black
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We know from the PSW study that our most elite bankers were willing to engage in piggy-back frauds that were so brazen that they were sure to be discovered in large numbers of cases and lead to huge losses to the elite banks. The logical inference is that the same elite bank officers would be far more willing to engage in other forms of fraudulent reps and warranties that were far harder for the victim, regulators, and prosecutors to discover and sanction.
The authors know that the answer is not “the lenders had no skin in the game” because they were selling the loans to the secondary market. The PSW authors know that the fraudulently originated loans could only be sold to the secondary market through fraudulent reps and warranties and that this meant that the loan originators had serious-to-fatal levels of skin in the game.
Changes in executive compensation created an intense Gresham’s dynamic that now creates perverse incentives for bank managers to cause “their” banks to make enormous numbers of bad loans.
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2/14/15
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A good overview of the shareholder case against the government on how it kept all the dough, with details on the remarkable document withholding in the trial.
For decades, Fannie &
Freddie maintained that their mortgage operations posed no risk to taxpayers; their pals in Congress echoed this refrain.
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Gretchen Morgenson
NY Times
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But then came the mortgage debacle, and taxpayers had to shore up the companies with
$187.5 billion.
It reminds me of a comment made by Ferdinand Pecora, the hard-driving prosecutor who investigated Wall Street’s role in the crash of 1929. In his memoir, “Wall Street Under Oath,” he wrote:
“Had there been full disclosure of what was being done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and
criticism.”
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2/14/15
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If upheld, the decisions could resurrect dismissed foreclosures dating back nearly a decade, potentially swamping court systems with yet another pool of default filings.
The cases could have widespread repercussions for banks, too.
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Herald
Tribune
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For unsuspecting homeowners, the ruling by the 5th District Court of Appeals in Daytona Beach, and another by the state’s 3rd District appellate court, could ultimately prompt evictions — sometimes years after cases were thought to have been decided.
Attorneys fear the decisions could strip borrowers of their primary defense in foreclosures — and perhaps change how defaults are fought in Florida.
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Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren calls on Department of Justice to ‘come down hard’ on
HSBC if beleaguered bank is found to have colluded with tax evaders
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Guardian
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Warren’s intervention will further stoke the scandal in Washington, where members of the Senate banking committee are preparing to grill a representative of the
Federal Reserve on Tuesday over how much regulators knew about US tax evasion connected to
HSBC Switzerland.
Under the terms of the deal, HSBC is obliged for five years to fully cooperate with prosecutors on any other investigations and commit no crimes after it signed the settlement.
Because the practices at HSBC Switzerland now under investigation pre-date the 2012 deal, it is unlikely they will yield grounds for reconsidering the deferred prosecution agreement.
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WFTV
Martie Salt
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The state attorney who saw the report, said to prove a criminal case, you
really need to have a victim to start with to ask: "Who gave you your
mortgage? Where did that mortgage go, and then track it all the way through. To
make a criminal prosecution, you need that kind of detail.
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2/13/15
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The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading
statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations, and prospects.
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CNN Money
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The existence of HLSS is dependent on its relationship with Ocwen. Ocwen is a financial services company engaged in the servicing and origination of mortgage loans, including standard residential and commercial servicing, special servicing, and asset management services.
Ocwen owns a large loan portfolio consisting of conventional, government insured, and non-agency loans, including a large number of subprime loans.
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2/13/15
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A U.S. representative from Pennsylvania stood up for Delawareans when he blasted the federal government for not spending the $36 billion in settlements with the nation's largest banks on victims of foreclosure.
"It is a cruel irony that those who lost the most to the foreclosure crisis seem to be helped the least from the Department of Justice's settlement," said Marino, chair of the House Judiciary's Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law subcommittee.
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Delaware Online
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"Directing a defendant to pay money directly to a third-party interest group is simply an end-run around the law," he said. "All told, the Department of Justice has directed as much as half a billion dollars to activist groups entirely outside the Congressional budget and oversight process."
Geoffrey Graber, a deputy associate attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, denied that the department pushed settlement money to these organizations. He defended the decisions saying
the consumer relief goes beyond what the courts could have ordered? and are helping Americans stay in their homes or buy their first homes.
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2/13/15
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In reaching mortgage-related settlements with the big banks, the Department of Justice forgot about investors.
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Morningstar
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In late January, the U.S. Senate held confirmation hearings for President Obama’s nominee for attorney general, Loretta Lynch. One question that senators should have asked Lynch: Are you an advocate for investors in a way that the current attorney general, Eric Holder, was not?
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Huff Post
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Republicans repeatedly suggested that the Department of Justice was illegally funneling money to "activist groups" using sham transactions embedded in legal settlements with two big banks.
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emptywheel
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As part of her Questions for the Record, Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch was asked about her role in the
HSBC hand-slap in 2012.
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2/13/15
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After five years of trying to bring justice to those behind the financial crisis, the U.S. has little to show but a handful of harmless fines against Wall Street firms
To hear U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tell it, justice was served when Standard & Poor’s agreed to pay US$1.5 billion for its role in contributing to the devastating 2008 financial crisis.
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MACLEANS
Canada
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The ratings agency, recall, slapped “investment-grade” labels on scores of securities backed by risky subprime mortgages—loans handed to homebuyers with bad credit or no verifiable income—that were ultimately sold to unsuspecting investors. Emails entered as evidence by government prosecutors suggested several S&P employees knew full well that the products were garbage. One even joked about the looming danger in an email that reimagined the lyrics to Burning Down the House by Talking Heads. A snippet: “Watch out. Subprime is boiling over.”
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2/12/15
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Scott Lee owned and operated Summit Capital, located in Mesa where he employed Kevin Lee and several other family members.
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FBI
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Leading up to the real estate crash of 2008, Summit Capital specialized in high-end residential mortgage loans and custom-home construction loans. Through Summit Capital, Scott Lee and Kevin Lee originated dozens of fraudulent loans by providing false information on loan applications, forging signatures, and creating false financial and construction-related documents.
Summit Capital and Scott Lee received nearly $1.5 million in commissions based on these bogus loans and caused millions in losses to a variety of lenders.
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2/12/15
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Banks have inked settlement after settlement with various federal agencies because their mortgage practices have been not only terrible, but terribly confusing.
(That is to intentionally hide wrongdoing. MSF)
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Huff Post
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Navigating the system without a qualified mortgage counselor is effectively impossible -- and frequently fruitless -- even for those with expert guidance.
Banks typically will not work with troubled borrowers who are not receiving
counseling (from agencies we funnel settlement money to.)
Here is all the counseling you need: The mortgage mafia is committing
felonies by stealing homes, and then covering it up with other illegal acts.
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2/12/15
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The Big Picture RT
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HSBC - the big bank that's brought you such hits as allegedly helping launder money for drug cartels and terrorists - is apparently at it again. Isn't time to finally hold banksters accountable for their actions?
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2/11/15
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MortgageOrb
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Officials at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) are reportedly considering dialing-back some of the agency's mortgage rules that can result in major penalties when lenders originate loans with minor defects.
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2/12/15
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Countrywide, Wells Fargo and
Ameriquest, overstated the incomes of borrowers — without telling them — to qualify them for larger loans than they could afford.
Journalist Michael Hudson told the story of the “Art Department” at an Ameriquest branch in Los Angeles:
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NY Times
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"They used scissors, tape, Wite-Out and a photocopier to fabricate W-2s, the tax forms that indicate how much a wage earner makes each year. It was easy:
Paste the name of a low-earning borrower onto a W-2 belonging to a higher-earning borrower and, like magic, a bad loan prospect suddenly looked much better. Workers in the branch equipped the office’s break room with all the tools they needed to manufacture and manipulate official documents. They dubbed it the ‘Art Department.’ ”
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2/12/15
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Many individuals are sending notices of rescission even on old loans based upon the premise that they only recently discovered the defects in the loan and defects in the loan closing
procedures. If the lender fails to file a lawsuit saying that they are a "lender" and where they prove their status as a lender, they lose. If they can't prove that the disclosures at closing were true and correct within the tolerances specified in the statute (TILA), they lose. If they fail to file within 20 days, they lose.
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Living Lies
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The idea behind the law was to address predatory or wrongful lending or enforcement tactics by banks whose dubious business plans were far too sophisticated for any normal borrower to understand what was really happening.
TILA and Regulation Z were written to level the playing field. Once the borrower discovered material defects in the loan or loan procedure, they are allowed to get rid of that loan and go get another loan. The primary impact, from a legal point of view, is that the mortgage is gone “by operation of law” and the note is nullified, leaving a bare debt for the “lender” to allege and prove. But whatever the debt might be, it is UNSECURED, and thus subject to discharge in bankruptcy.
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2/12/15
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While Miller was on duty overseas, he kept current on his mortgage, but fell behind on his HOA dues.
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News4
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After returning, he learned his homeowners' association was taking action to foreclose on his home. It was a process that would prove costly as Miller was not able to afford the $15,000 in attorneys' fees claimed by the HOA's lawyers. Miller eventually lost his home. But he is now fighting to change state laws.
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2/11/15
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"[w]here the plaintiff is not the original lender and standing is at issue, the plaintiff seeking summary judgment
must also provide evidence that it received both the mortgage and note by a proper assignment which can be established by the production of a written assignment of the note or by physical delivery to the plaintiff of the mortgage and note"
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New York Appellate Division, Second Department
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The only bases for Campbell's assertions that the note and the mortgage were
physically transferred to Wells Fargo as
custodian for the trust on March 1, 2007, and that Wells Fargo was in physical
possession of the note and the mortgage at the time this action was commenced,
were documents in the possession of Wells Fargo and ASC. These records
constituted hearsay. Since Campbell failed to lay a proper foundation for the
admission of these records under the business records exception to the hearsay
rule, those of Campbell's assertions that were based on these records were
inadmissible. Since the motion was predicated on evidence that was not in
admissible form, the plaintiff failed to establish its prima facie entitlement
to judgment as a matter of law
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2/11/15
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Do you think justice was done?
AF: Certainly not yet. I’m still hopeful that, with enough public pressure, criminal cases will be brought against the individuals responsible, not just at
J.P. Morgan but also at the other banks that sold fraudulent securities.
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WSJ
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My fundamental concern is that these banks are using their lawyers, lobbyists, and PR groups to protect individuals who should clearly be charged and tried in a court of law. The Constitution and the Rule of Law require that every person is equal before the law, regardless of their wealth or power. As long as these individuals are shielded from accountability for the damage that they’ve done, then their victims — in many cases the retirement funds of ordinary, hard-working Americans — will be left without justice and these sorts of illegal activities will, as we’ve already seen, continue to happen over and over again.
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2/11/15
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Undated endorsements, and MERS transferred
only the mortgage
The affidavits of the plaintiff's Vice President of Loan Documentation did not give any factual details of a physical delivery and, thus, failed to establish that the plaintiff had physical possession of the note at the time the action was commenced.
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N Y Appellate Division, Second Department
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While the copy of the note submitted by the plaintiff in support of its motion includes an indorsement to the plaintiff by the original lender and a second indorsement to the plaintiff,
both indorsements are undated and, thus, it is not clear whether the indorsements were effectuated prior to the commencement of this action. Regarding the purported assignment of the note and mortgage, the assignment of the mortgage from the
MERS to the plaintiff dated March 4, 2011, transferred only the mortgage and, thus, the plaintiff failed to demonstrate that the note had also been assigned at that time. Under these circumstances, the plaintiff failed to establish, prima facie, that it had standing to commence this action.
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2/10/15
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CFPB Report: Snapshot of Reverse Mortgage
Complaints: December 2011-December 2014.
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Prof. David Reiss
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The CFPB concludes that borrowers and their non-borrowing spouses who obtained reverse mortgages prior to August 4, 2014 may likely encounter difficulties in upcoming years similar to those described in this Snapshot, i.e., non-borrowing spouses seeking to retain ownership of their homes after the borrowing spouse dies. As a result, many of these consumers may need notification of and assistance in averting impending possible displacement should the non-borrowing spouse outlive his or her borrowing spouse.
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2/10/15
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Kuchta asserts that there is a difference between a court’s “jurisdiction over a particular case” and “subject-matter jurisdiction.” Where does the notion of “jurisdiction over a particular case” come from?
Read Jeff Nye's comment.
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Adam Steinman, University of Alabama School of Law
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How does Kuchta get around this problem? Chief Justice O’Connor writes: “Standing is certainly a jurisdictional requirement; a party’s lack of standing vitiates the party’s ability to invoke the jurisdiction of a court—even a court of competent subject-matter jurisdiction—over the party’s attempted action. But an inquiry into a party’s ability to invoke a court’s jurisdiction speaks to jurisdiction over a particular case, not subject-matter jurisdiction.”
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2/10/15
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On January 14, 2015, Governor Snyder signed a new bill to help homeowners, especially in Detroit and Wayne County, stay in their homes.
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Michigan State University
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In a move to avoid an upcoming tax foreclosure crisis, primarily in Wayne County and Detroit, the Michigan legislature passed a new bill allowing county governments to negotiate repayment plans with homeowners who have delinquent property taxes. In the past, the rate of interest and penalties charged was a set rate; now, if homeowners agree to participate in a payment plan, the county treasurer can waive some or all of that interest.
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2/10/15
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Another New York-area JPMorgan Chase employee is dead in an apparent murder-suicide, but experts cautioned against calling it a trend.
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CNBC
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Michael, 27, was a back-office employee in the bank's asset custody unit, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked for
JPMorgan since 2009.
"I am very good and creative with data manipulation and reporting and can leverage my business knowledge to provide senior managers what is needed before asked to do so," his profile states.
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2/10/15
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Deal to save HSBC's American office looks very bad in retrospect.
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Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
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Here's the really disturbing part of this story. Everything being reported in the last few days (including a 60 Minutes report and a "Panorama" documentary) indicates the United States knew about an apparent systematic tax evasion scheme as far back as 2010.
This raises a huge question about the deal Lynch's office gave to HSBC back in 2012.
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2/10/15
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Reuters
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The lawsuit focused on "sewer service," a long-running practice where debt collectors fail to serve complaints on debtors, and later
falsely certify to courts that service was made and that the cases have merit.
Sewer service often ends in default judgments because debtors do not know to appear in court. It can lead to bank account seizures, wage garnishments and ruined credit scores.
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2/10/15
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More here: Consumer advisory: Three steps you should take if you have a reverse mortgage
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Mortgage Daily
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CFPB
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"Many older consumers and their families are confused and frustrated by the terms and conditions of reverse mortgages." Since it began accepting them in December 2011 CFPB says it has received over 1,200 complaints about reverse mortgages.
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2/9/15
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The American foreclosure crisis gripped our nation, reminded all of us of the dangers of risky loans and left millions without their homes. At its peak, it was downright scary for homeowners worrying when the bank would repossess their homes.
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KOB4
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But we've discovered a darker side to the business of home foreclosures; it's a side that victimizes the most innocent of people. Banks often contract out the gritty process of clearing out homes, but as we explore in this investigation, contractors often gets it wrong.
In October 2014, HUD contracted Sigma Services Inc., a California-based company, to remove everything out of the home. But the Sigma Services Inc. workers went to the wrong address and completely emptied the Saavedra's home.
The sad irony is that the Saavedra's home never had a mortgage; it was paid in full a century
ago.
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Mortgage Daily
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Homeownership rates are the same today as five decade ago but foreclosure risk is two to three times higher.
The level of risk for both conventional and FHA mortgage was three times higher than during the 1960s.
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2/9/15
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Procedural Change Would Limit Justice Department’s Ability to Pursue Damages
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WSJ
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“This administration has taken extraordinary steps to hold lenders accountable for their actions that helped lead to the economic crisis. FHA also has put in place historic safeguards to protect consumers,” said
HUD, adding that the agency “is always exploring efforts to increase access to credit for qualified borrowers without impacting its ability to hold lenders accountable.”
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Event is on February 21, 2015 in Ventura, California
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This event is going to be a 4 hour, filmed for television, information packed lecture that will organize participants into
Grand Jury members of men and women ready to sit in courtrooms across California and the Nation.
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Press Release
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These teams will be lawfully formed and will have documentation that will give judges notice when they are attending court appearances, or supporting victims needing support holding public servants accountable to stop crimes and support “We The People”. The event will additionally discuss the foreclosure crisis and the attempts that have been made to stop crimes presented and hold the criminals accountable who are stealing our property, homes and lives.
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2/7/15
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The first Republican elected sheriff in Eddy County, New Mexico, became the first sheriff in 25 years to stand up to the IRS. He physically stood at the gate of a troubled citizen's property while US Marshals threatened his arrest. The landowner filed an appeal with the court and expects his case to receive due process before his land is publicly sold. The sheriff agrees. The judge does not.
“The IRS is a lie. The income tax is a lie,” said Carter. “Why should they be able to take anything? They’re worse than the mafia.”
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Priscilla Jones
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Approximately ten days before Christmas, U.S. Marshals broke in the door of Carter’s rental property with their guns drawn. The tenant was a young mother with a new baby—home alone while her husband was at work. Sheriff London was called to the property to intervene. He advised the Marshals that Carter’s case was in appeal and he deserved due process.
They threatened to arrest London, but he stood his ground and they backed off.
“I agree with Senator Ted Cruz and others who say the IRS should be abolished,” said Mack. “It’s time they got off the backs of the American people.”
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“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.” James Madison, Property, March 29, 1792
When the government can seize your property without due process, you no longer have a just government, and even by medieval terms your government is evil and
oppressive.
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Liberty First
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Judge Brack knows Mr. Carter is a pro-se litigant, knows that Mr. Carter has filed an appeal and also knows that a “Motion to Stay the Judgment” pending the appeal would be granted. But Judge Brack and the IRS do not care and are going to steal Mr. Carter’s land in spite of the fact that Mr. Carter is still engaged in his right to due process. These government agents are using a “form over function” approach to legalize theft. Sheriff London has decided to honor his oath and force the IRS to follow the Constitution.
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2/10/15
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Here Matt was, being a poster child of good mortgage behavior having never missed making a monthly payment, yet
his servicer was clearly setting him up for foreclosure.
Matt’s servicer was not to be denied in its attempt to drive him into foreclosure. Its’ first trick having failed, next it offered him a loan modification.
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McGookey Law
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By this time Matt’s servicer must have been getting impatient, thinking; “what do we have to do to get this guy to stop making his mortgage payments?” The answer came soon thereafter. The servicer began sending statements claiming Matt owed totally bogus charges, such as late fees and “property inspection fees”. No doubt its logic was that when Matt saw these illegal charges he would refuse to pay them, and when he did, the servicer could officially declare him in default. This was the state of things when Matt came to see us.
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2/9/15
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Plaintiff allegedly obtained its right to foreclose by way of an assignment of the mortgage and note from Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (hereinafter
MERS), acting as nominee for the original lender. However, the Hermans established, prima facie, that
MERS was never the holder of the note and was without authority to assign the note to the plaintiff.
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NY Appellate Division, Second Department
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In opposition, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact. While the plaintiff submitted, among other things, a copy of the note in opposition to the Hermans' motion, the plaintiff failed to establish delivery of the note to MERS prior to the execution of the assignment (cf. Midland Mtge. Co. v Imtiaz, 110 AD3d 773, 776). Moreover, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue fact as to whether it was the holder of the note at the time the action was commenced
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2/9/15
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“These unlawful judicial foreclosures forced hundreds of service members and their families out of their
homes,” acting Associate AG said.
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RTT
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The U.S. Justice Department on Monday announced settlements with five of the nation's largest mortgage servicers, by which 952 service members and their co-borrowers will be eligible to receive over $123 million for non-judicial foreclosures that violated the Service Members Civil Relief Act
(SCRA).
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2/9/15
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REGULATORY REFORM SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S CONTROVERSIAL MORTGAGE-LENDING SETTLEMENTS
See it live here: FEBRUARY
12, 10:30 am
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Fox News
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Judiciary Committee
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House Republicans are accusing the Obama administration of letting millions of dollars from recent mortgage-lending settlements go toward politically favored advocacy groups, in turn
"shortchanging" the people originally harmed by the financial crisis.
Goodlatte and Hensarling said in their 2014 letter to Holder. “As a result,
the settlement appears to serve as a vehicle for funding activist groups rather than as a means of securing relief for consumers actually
harmed.”
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2/9/15
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Since the mortgage crisis, the government has extracted billions of dollars in penalties from lenders that made
mistakes on fraudulent loans to borrowers who later defaulted
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WSJ
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A U.S. housing regulator is considering limiting one of the most powerful tools federal attorneys have to punish banks for
making mistakes committing fraud in mortgage lending, a move the
FHA hopes will encourage banks to give more home loans to worthy but weaker borrowers, according to people familiar with the matter.
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2/9/15
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DealBook
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Developments underscore a broader reality on Wall Street of late: One investigation begets another. With each settlement for money laundering, manipulating interest rates or aiding tax fraud, new cases crop up, often unearthed in the course of the previous investigation.
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11/30/15
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Attorney Tom Cox tells judge:
You excuse loan servicers and their lawyers for presenting of false affidavits in thousands of cases. I cannot believe that you would ever have tolerated the presentation of false or perjured testimony in your courtroom, and I cannot understand why you are willing to excuse it now.
So much do these institutions try to hide this dishonesty that GMAC
Mortgage, LLC attacked me personally for exposing the abusive affidavit signing practices of its Limited Signing Officer,
Jeffery Stephan. GMAC Mortgage wanted to keep Stephan's testimony under wraps so badly that it tried to obtain a court order to stop me from sharing it with other foreclosure defense lawyers, and it asked the court to fine me personally for what it called my "malicious dissemination" of the transcript. I was outraged by these efforts to intimidate and gag me, having never experienced such offensive conduct in my forty years as a lawyer.
Who Are the Culprits in the Foreclosure Crisis: The Lenders, The Borrowers or the Congress?
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Tom Cox
Huff Post
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Judge H. Lee Sarokin
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You assert, "I am concerned with the stability of contracts, the rule of law, if they are abandoned at this fragile time in our economy." But you imply that it is foreclosure defense lawyers who are jeopardizing the prized concept of "the rule of law" when they attack these improper foreclosure filings. These lawyers are performing the highest calling of our profession as they expose the blatant dishonesty of the nation's largest financial institutions. None of our present knowledge about this outrageous and widespread phenomenon would have been revealed but for the efforts of the hardworking and ethical lawyers representing homeowners.
Your expression of concern for our fragile economy suggests that you believe that the rule of law is a relative concept. You seem to suggest that it should be set aside when it comes to protecting homeowners in foreclosures in order to protect our recovery. One of the fundamental precepts of our Constitution is that the individual rights guaranteed by our laws must never be sacrificed. Due process of law is not a relative concept, it is an absolute.
I sincerely urge you to reconsider your remarks, to retract them, and to make a public apology to all of the private bar and legal servicer lawyers who are struggling so hard, often for low pay, to preserve the integrity of our judicial system against the rampant dishonesty of the foreclosure industry and its exceedingly well-paid lawyers.
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2/9/15
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Origination News
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"To be honest there is a lot risk with a second-lien holder," he said. "This is why you don't see second liens being made by banks on top of a first mortgage anymore."
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2/9/15
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The unusual lawsuit draws on secret videotapes and recordings to argue that the bank’s loan officers discriminated against blacks, Latinos and Asians who applied for mortgages.
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ProPublica
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The lawsuit claims that M&T Bank violated the landmark Fair Housing Act, a 1968 law that sought to end discriminatory lending practices and limit the historic segregation of many of the country's cities. The suit was filed by the Fair Housing Justice Center, a New York City-based non-profit organization that is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to enforce the federal law that bans housing discrimination.
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2/9/15
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Robotic
Signatures: Before You Admit THAT is YOUR Signature on the “Wet Ink” “Original”
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Living Lies
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For some reason, few people have actually brought up the issue in court and most simply go along with the farce without realizing they are contributing to the fraudulent scheme of the banks.
At trial the banks have a problem. They can’t bring in a real witness to verify the closing documents on the loan because they destroyed the original documents in most cases. So they
use the homeowner to authenticate fabricated documents created through automation.
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Weidner Law
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The dark days of foreclosure; bad documents all the way around. How will the
bank wiggle out of this?
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2/6/15
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The appeal is dismissed in part. The judgment of the Lorain County Court of
Common Pleas is reversed, and this matter is remanded with the instruction that the court
reconsider the Cornas’ motion to vacate.
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OHIO COURT OF APPEALS
NINTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
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After the Elyria property was sold at sheriff’s sale, but before the trial court
confirmed the sale, the Cornas moved to vacate the cognovit judgment pursuant to Civil Rule
60(B), arguing that the promissory note did not qualify as a cognovit note under Ohio Revised
Code Section 2323.13(E) because it was a consumer loan.
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2/6/15
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Thain said: "We and OneWest remain committed to substantial investments of both time and money in our communities."
(Yes, they will spend plenty of time stealing homes and money from our
communities. MSF)
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National Mortgage New
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The merger's fate has broad implications for many reasons, not least of which is the size of the deal and the fact that it would create another systemically important financial institution.
Many industry players are hopeful that an approval in this case could give way to more multibillion-dollar deals. The
CIT-OneWest transaction will likely go through, but additional hoops like a public hearing increase the chance of delays.
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2/6/15
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Borrowers/debtors are filing motions to set aside previous rulings by courts who assumed that the rescission was only effective when a court says so
(rejected unanimously by the Supreme Court) and that tender of the money was required for the rescission to be effective (also rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court).
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Living Lies
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The subject mortgage and note did not exist after the notice of rescission. That is the express terms of the law.
Hence any action to enforce or collect under the terms of the note or mortgage or deed of trust were void, ab initio. No court would even have subject matter or personal jurisdiction to consider a controversy regarding a nonexistent note and a nonexistent mortgage or deed of trust.
Further, the defendants were obligated to send a satisfaction of mortgage and canceled note to the borrower after rescission. Defendants are seeking to have the court ratify Defendant’s violation of the express provisions of the Federal Act. One is left to ask, upon what source of authority the Defendants rely that is higher than the US Supreme Court speaking
unanimously?
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2/6/15
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A federal judge has thrown out much of Prudential Financial Inc's lawsuit accusing
Bank of America of defrauding it before the financial crisis into buying more than $1.9 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities that later soured.
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Reuters
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In a decision on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler in Newark, New Jersey, said Prudential did not show that
Bank of America and its Merrill Lynch unit lied to rating agencies about the quality of loans backing its securities.
He also said Prudential could not rely on "after-the-fact" computer analysis to show the defendants knew when arranging the 54 securitizations at issue from
2004 to 2007 that property appraisals were being systematically inflated.
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2/6/15
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Motion to Vacate
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OHIO COURT OF APPEALS
NINTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
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Because the parties framed the motion to vacate as a Rule 60(B) motion and the
trial court did not explain its reason for denying the motion, we conclude that the court’s order
must be reversed, and this matter remanded for the court to reconsider the Cornas’ motion as a
common law motion to vacate.
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2/5/15
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A former affiliate of Wells Fargo falsified mortgage loan origination
files, made loans to customers that were secured by an interest in the borrower’s home, and committed other infractions in violation of New York State law.
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Housing Wire
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The cards allowed borrowers to make retail credit card purchases that were secured by an interest in the borrower’s home, which is against the law in New York.
“Our investigation uncovered that this Wells Fargo affiliate put borrowers’ homes on the line for routine credit card purchases – creating substantial and undue risks for consumers,” NYDFS Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said.
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2/6/15
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W Virginia Sup Ct. rules MERS did NOT have to record assignments
Wyoming County and all other similarly situated West Virginia Counties (“Wyoming County”) filed a putative class action against the trustees, alleging that the recording of trust deed assignments in county record books is required by law.
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SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS OF WEST VIRGINIA
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The circuit court denied the trustees’ motion to dismiss, ruling that trust deed assignments are required to be publicly recorded and that Wyoming County was entitled to show that the trustees had been unjustly enriched by using
MERS to record the assignments. The trustees challenged that ruling in this original proceeding in prohibition. The Supreme Court granted the writ, holding that the circuit court exceeded its jurisdiction in denying the trustees’ motion to dismiss, as West Virginia law does not require that the assignment of a trust deed must be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county commission.
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2/6/15
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Florida 5th District COA
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Colon argues that the court erred in entering the summary final judgment because no competent evidence was
presented to refute his affirmative defense that Bank failed to satisfy the notice
requirement of paragraph 22 of the mortgage. We agree and reverse.
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2/5/15
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Bespoke tranche opportunities are your new God America.
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Think Progress
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Goodbye, “collateralized debt obligations.” Hello, “bespoke tranche
opportunities.” Banks including Goldman Sachs are marketing that newfangled product, according to Bloomberg, and total sales of “bespoke tranche opportunities” leaped from under $5 billion in 2013 to $20 billion last year.
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2/5/15
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The Hermans established, prima facie, that MERS was never the holder of the note and was without authority to assign the note to the plaintiff. In opposition, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact.
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New York Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department
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While the plaintiff submitted, among other things, a copy of the note in opposition to the Hermans' motion, the plaintiff failed to establish delivery of the note to
MERS prior to the execution of the assignment.
Moreover, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue fact as to whether it was the holder of the note at the time the action was commenced.
Since the Hermans established their entitlement to judgment as a matter of law dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against them based upon lack of standing,
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2/5/15
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2-minute video
US expert William Black says penalties ‘must include jail’
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Irish Times
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Black said bankers believed “not much of anything happens” by way of consequence for their actions. He said this was unlikely to change “until the next bubble happens”.
He said his experience in the United Stated had shown “penalties have to include jail sentences for
criminality”.
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2/5/15
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We are seeing rising activity by investors who are drilling down on their “investment” that was not just handled negligently, but was the largest fraud of its kind in human history. Investors are starting to realize that they were screwed the moment they deposited money with the investment banks.
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Living Lies
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Approximately $13 trillion of American wealth disappeared by virtue of this game. But now the banks are starting to feel the heat. It won’t be long before they are fully cooked — and all the efforts by the government to prop up these banks will have failed the moment when the ratings companies state that the value of those holdings in derivatives are zero or nearly zero. That’s when the balance sheet becomes clear.
Memorandum
Opinion
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2/4/15
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For the 32,000 homeowners who were foreclosed on, only a little over a thousand have received checks in the mail, and when those checks arrived, they were usually for less than $1,500 and were too late to make a difference. The rest, so far, have received nothing
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Delaware Online
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"The money was received because of wrongdoing – to somebody and somebodies," said Penny Dryden, executive director of the nonprofit Community Housing and Empowerment Connections. "But the victim is just forgotten. ... Some are homeless, some are living with families, they can't even get a rental. They're fighting for their lives. It's a tragedy for Delaware to be in this position."
And, as Attorney General Matt Denn pushes a proposal to spend the remaining $36.6 million he inherited from some of those settlements on troubled schools and Wilmington's violent streets, these families are losing hope that they'll ever be made whole.
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A portion of the money went to those whose homes had been foreclosed. That aid came in the hundreds of dollars. The homeowners still lost their house.
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Delaware Online
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Simply adding it to the state’s general fund would be a further insult to the victims.
In truth, some of those in the financial industry should have gone to jail for what they did. However, that, unfortunately, is not the way our legal system works.
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2/4/15
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Zacks
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The case accused Bear Stearns of violating federal securities laws by selling MBS that were backed by roughly 47,000 subprime ‘Alt-A’ loans in 14 offerings between
May 2006 and Apr 2007. Further, ratings for these MBS were later reduced to ‘junk’ status despite nearly 92% of these being once rated as
‘AAA’ by the rating agencies. Consequently, value of the securities sank and the concerned investors faced losses.
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2/4/15
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Mortgage Servicing News
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The credit grader cut the servicer ratings to the second-lowest tier of "4," citing "weaknesses in the company's control environment" and "senior management's lack of oversight in connection with identifying and resolving operational deficiencies,"
Fitch said.
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2/4/15
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“It turned out that the plaintiff in the foreclosure was not really the person who held the note,” Jurow said. “And when another hearing was scheduled to hear from the real note-holder, they didn’t show up.”
AnneMarie DeLaCruz knows firsthand that a trip to foreclosure court can be like visiting a hall of mirrors.
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NJ Spotlight
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She and her husband Juan lost a foreclosure case against their home in 2012, when a judge threw out their response to the lender’s claim and entered a default judgment against them.
It was only after the couple appealed that they were able to obtain discovery documents from the latest holder of their debt that appear to support their description of the terms of the mortgage terms.
“I don’t know how they can do it, but companies can go into court and not tell the truth,” she said. “They inflate numbers, they make up numbers … where is the justice system?”
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2/4/15
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Mortgage Servicing News
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's overseer wants to allow debt cuts for a narrow group of borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth. The trick is figuring out a way to do it without incurring costs for taxpayers.
(Why would it cost the taxpayers when the appraised value is grossly
over-inflated and does not represent real value? MSF)
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2/3/15
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Senior housing officials accused of hiring, lobbying violations
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Housing Wire
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HUD will be in the barrel on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, when a committee will convene to investigate allegations that senior HUD officials violated federal law and obstructed investigators’ efforts to uncover potential wrongdoing.
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2/3/15
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Rather than listen to thousands of borrower complaints, housing advocates, foreclosure attorneys, market experts and, well…, us, the Obama Administration tried to paper over the many problems in the mortgage servicing market by creating the foreclosure settlement (officially the National Mortgage
Settlement of 2012), as well as the earlier OCC enforcement actions against big mortgage servicers.
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Tom Adams
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Now we have the disaster of Ocwen, the fifth largest servicer in the country, imploding as a result of the settlement charade. Sean Donovan, the Treasury and the Attorneys General were all told repeatedly that the servicing problems were serious and needed to be addressed. Instead, they listened to the banks and mortgage servicers themselves, who earnestly swore that they had seen the light and mended their ways.
Was the Administration active in encouraging banks to move the troubled servicing portfolios out to third party servicers like
Ocwen? It’s possible.
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2/4/15
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A Jacksonville woman was sentenced to two years in prison and must pay $49,000 for her involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme.
(Banks and lawyers commit more mortgage fraud in an hour and get no jail
time. MSF)
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News4Jax
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Between June 2009 and January 2012, Tumpkin worked as a loan officer at Homeward Residential, a mortgage processing company. During this time, she added fictitious fees disguised as legal services to numerous short sale transactions.
Fictitious fees collected from six of the transactions, totaling more than $23,000, were deposited directly into Tumpkin's mother's bank account.
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2/4/15
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5 Year Statute of Limitation in Florida Foreclosure Cases!
When the borrower defaults on a payment under a note containing an
optional acceleration clause, the lender can exercise its option to accelerate all
future payments, making the entire debt immediately due and payable.
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Weidner Law
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A cause of action on an accelerated debt accrues, and the statute of limitation commences,
when the lender exercises the acceleration option and notifies the borrower of this
exercise. See Greene, 733 So. 2d at 1115; Monte v. Tipton, 612 So. 2d 714 (Fla.2d DCA
1993) (holding that, in a mortgage containing an optional acceleration clause, the cause of action for foreclosure did not accrue, and the statute of
limitations did not begin to run, until the lender exercised her option to accelerate
and demanded the total balance of principal and interest).
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2/3/15
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Nationstar is following the same manual written decades ago that teaches you
how to steal homes you do not own. MSF
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Wet Virginia Record
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On Oct. 12, 2009, Nationstar represented to Long that it had acquired his mortgage loan, which was a false and misleading representation, as the mortgage company had never been the owner of the mortgage loan, according to the suit. A different notice informed him that
Nationstar had become the servicer of the loan.
Nationstar routinely held all or portions of some of Long’s payments in a suspense account for varying periods instead of crediting those payments to the amount allegedly owed at the time of receipt and, on multiple occasions, rejected and returned payments made by Long, according to the suit.
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2/3/15
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“It’s just like somebody coming in and saying, I want this house, I’m going to take it,” Guinaldo said.
He says they shut off the power to the sump pump and his basement flooded.
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abc 6 On Your Side
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ABC 6 Investigators looked at the long list of homeowners left out and locked out. Our investigation uncovered hundreds of complaints and lawsuits accusing
Safeguard Properties of critical mistakes.
Gecewich says nothing is removed until the bank owns the property and the foreclosure is complete. But our investigation found dozens of complaints filed with the Ohio Attorney General claiming that didn’t happen.
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2/3/15
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Never one to mince words, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan had a few harsh ones for Bank of America Corp. on Tuesday, ruling that it "utterly failed" to offer a compelling reason to retry a mortgage fraud case that put the bank on the hook for $1.27 billion.
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In a 15-page decision, Rakoff rejected a motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial lodged by Bank of America's lawyers at Williams & Connolly.
"The jury's conclusion that this was a massive and intentional fraud was amply supported by the
evidence," Rakoff wrote.
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2/3/15
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Courant
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"For the first time a Wall Street ratings firm has been held accountable for its role in causing the 2008 financial collapse," Jepsen said at the podium. "And the message is clear:
No business is too big, deep-pocketed, or politically connected to escape responsibility for its
misconduct."
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Pennsylvania gets $21.5 million in S&P mortgage fraud settlement
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Reuters
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Under the deal, S&P did not admit to any violations of law, but it did sign a statement of facts acknowledging that its executives in 2005 delayed implementing new models that produced more negative ratings.
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NY Times
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Companies can often reduce punitive damages through a tax loophole that permits them to save millions of dollars by deducting the awards as an ordinary business expense.
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2/2/15
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A homeowner hired Thompson to file an action on her behalf against JP Morgan Chase
Bank. The client paid Thompson a flat fee of $5,000. In April 2012, the superior court granted a temporary restraining order against the foreclosure of the client's house and required the client to pay $1,000 into the registry of the court. Thompson paid the money into the court's registry, and the client reimbursed him.
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Daily Report
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JP Morgan removed the case to federal court, and the client paid an additional $5,000 flat fee. Thompson then instructed the client to pay $1,000 monthly into his trust account in order "to show good faith"; the payments were not required by court order. The client made $15,000 in payments to Thompson's trust account. In February 2013, the federal district court granted
JP Morgan's motion to dismiss. In the meantime, the client negotiated, without Thompson's involvement, a loan modification with
JP Morgan. Thereafter, the client asked that Thompson return her $15,000, but he refused.
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Reuters
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U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer described Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's allegations as "so insubstantial" that
the state failed to allege a breach of the agreement.
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2/2/15
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The presumptions at the pleading stage do not apply to the burden of proving facts.
I think the courts are coming around on this issue but it must be presented properly. A thief can sue on the note he stole even if he forged a blank or special endorsement.
He will survive a motion to dismiss although law enforcement might be waiting in the back of the room to arrest him.
(unless he is a bank. MSF)
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Living Lies
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The presumption at the pleading stage is that possession implies being a holder. And being a holder implies being a holder with rights to enforce, and potentially one might even infer that the holder is a holder in due course. But at trial where the facts are contested, the thief must tell the story of his possession and rights to enforce. The fact that the actual payee or holder does not know the note was stolen does not or should not shift the burden of proof onto the homeowner to prove facts that are exclusively within the knowledge and care, custody and control of the thief.
The homeowner must merely deny that the thief is a holder with rights to enforce.
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2/2/15
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Corpcounsel
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This year general counsel and their companies can expect the government to continue seeking massive financial settlements for wrongdoing, require more admissions of guilt and demand information to prosecute more individual employees,
according to a new analysis from
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
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January | February
| March | April
| May | June |
July | August |
September |
October | November | December
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Copyright
MSFraud.org
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