Treat Foreclosure as a Crime Scene

[FayeforCure]

Something to reflect on locally as Jacksonville gained national attention as the epi center of robo signing in rocket dockets staffed by retired judges that boast about rushing through 25 foreclosures every hour:

http://jacksonville.com/business/real-estate/2010-11-12/story/jacksonville-foreclosure-court-national-focus



Treat foreclosure as a crime scene

Illustration by Matt Mahurin.

By MATT STOLLER | 12/15/11 1:48 PM EST



Bubbling under the surface of politics is the foreclosure crisis â€" where the power of big finance is brushing up against the rule of law. The party leaders seem to have decided it is essentially a giant â€" but unavoidable â€" tragedy. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said foreclosures have to clear for the housing market to reset. The Obama administration, meanwhile, has spent only about $2 billion of the $75 billion authorized for the Home Affordable Modification Program.

But the foreclosure crisis is not only a few million personal tragedies. It is a few million crime scenes.


Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley recently filed the first broad civil suit against five major banks and the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems for foreclosure fraud.

Her suit alleges that mortgage servicers routinely backdated and falsified documents to expedite foreclosures. In many cases, they foreclosed on loans they did not even own.

This is one of a series of suits that state officials are bringing against leading financial institutions. Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto last month indicted two employees of the foreclosure specialist Lender Processing Services, which works with the big banks, on 606 felony and misdemeanor counts of fraud.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden is also suing MERS â€" as I recently wrote in POLITICO â€" for unfair and deceptive practices. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman successfully intervened to stop a whitewash settlement of Countrywide’s ostensible fraud in packaging and selling mortgage-backed securities it knew to be poisoned.

These attorneys general have changed the legal environment around the mortgage and foreclosure mess â€" refocusing the core issue on justice. They are reframing the problem as a crime scene.

What is behind these suits? Simple: Crime by mortgage servicers and their contractors. And this is more than just the crime of these foreclosures themselves â€" it’s the residual tail end of a housing bubble based on fraud. The reason these bank servicers must now routinely employ notaries using false documentation is because they never established a clear chain of the property title upfront.

The attitude during the go-go days of the housing bubble was “here today, gone tomorrow,” as Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean make clear in their book “All the Devils Are Here.” This was a refinement of the financial deal makers’ code, “IBG-YBG,” meaning “I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone,” described by Jonathan Knee in “The Accidental Investment Banker.”

In this environment, why bother getting your paperwork in order when the goal is to put someone into a predatory loan, reap fees and disappear tomorrow?

Now that these homes are in foreclosure, however, the lack of paperwork is a serious problem. And, since no one has yet been held accountable for the fraud perpetrated during the housing bubble, the business model of financial institutions is often still predatory.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70504.html#ixzz1giojemIc

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Too Big To Fail.....

[FayeforCure]

The Fraudulent Foreclosure Mill explained by Florida Congressman Alan Grayson:

http://www.youtube.com/v/wIbgAEUG4DM

MERS

Since every time a financial instrument containing mortgages is sold, every mortgage (deed of trust) and note (obligation to pay the debt) presumably has to be re-recorded in US County courts and recordation fees have to be paid. So, the financial industry eager to trade in Mortgage-backed security needed to find a way around these recordation requirements, and this is how MERS was born to replace public recordation with a private one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MERS

MERS is the owner of 97% of all mortgages that originated between 2005-2008

At the root of the forclosure fraud is: a

chain of ownership confusion created by the mass securitization of mortgages, as well as paperwork problems caused by banks taking foreclosure shortcuts

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/some-florida-lawmakers-want-to-repossess-foreclosed-homes-2016857.html

[FayeforCure]

Arthur Delaney


SEIU Launches 'Where's The Note' Campaign To Help Homeowners Fight Foreclosure


First Posted: 10/12/10 06:04 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:00 PM ET


A coalition of groups led by the SEIU is launching a campaign to help homeowners capitalize on a growing foreclosure fraud scandal that has forced banks to halt foreclosures across the country.

The campaign suggests a question for borrowers to ask when fighting foreclosure in court: "Where's the note? Did the big banks lose your mortgage?"

The mortgage note is proof that a borrower owes a debt. Wall Street banks packaged and repackaged mortgages into exotic financial instruments during the housing bubble, and in some cases, they lost the note along the way. That's where the potential fraud comes in.

Ally Financial just expanded its review of foreclosures to all 50 states after an employee admitted to signing thousands of foreclosure affidavits without verifying the info in the documents. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are also taking that step and Wells Fargo is reviewing foreclosures in the 23 states where court approval is required. A coalition of 40 attorneys general is planning to launch an investigation as Democratic members of Congress call for a national foreclosure moratorium.

"Recent events have exposed a handful of banks that are throwing families out of their homes even though they don't have the mortgage note that proves they actually have a legal right to do so," says www.wheresthenote.com, the new site promoting the campaign. "There have been instances of two banks trying to foreclose on the same home, and in at least one case, of a bank trying to foreclose on a house where the homeowner had never even taken out a mortgage with anyone in the first place."

The website helps borrowers compose an email to their specific bank requesting the note. "To protect myself and my family, I need to know who owns my mortgage," says the letter. "Within thirty days, I would like to know the name, address, and phone number of the bank or investor that owns my mortgage. Furthermore, in light of the recent allegations of foreclosure fraud, I demand to see the original mortgage note proving ownership over my home loan."

Foreclosure defense attorneys and even a few members of Congress have encouraged borrowers to demand the note for some time. "You wouldn't imagine that the lenders would be that slovenly that they would not be able to produce adequate documentation of the debt," Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) told HuffPost last year. "But apparently a lot of times they really have been unable to."




SEIU's Stephen Lerner told HuffPost the campaign is part of a broader effort to force banks to modify mortgages by giving borrowers' lower interest rates and cutting principal, something banks have been reluctant to do.

"The whole thing is just beyond obscene," Lerner said of the fraud scandal. "All of this I think is going to lead to a much bigger grassroots response."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/12/seiu-launches-wheres-the-_n_759965.html

[FayeforCure]

Wow, sounds to me like homeowners that were foreclosed upon are getting another "feel good" run-around............with mortgage servicers auditing themselves to determine if they committed fraud!!

Should the review find that "financial injury" occurred as a result of an error or other deficiencies in the way the foreclosure process was handled, the homeowner may receive compensation for their losses

Yeah, sure 

Millions of homeowners eligible for foreclosure review

By Les ChristieNovember 1, 2011: 2:39 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Homeowners whose lenders played fast and loose with their foreclosures may be in for a payday.

More than 4 million mortgage borrowers who were foreclosed on between 2009 and 2010 will have a chance to request an independent review of how their foreclosure process was handled, according to Joe Evers, the deputy comptroller for large banks at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Should the review find that "financial injury" occurred as a result of an error or other deficiencies in the way the foreclosure process was handled, the homeowner may receive compensation for their losses. However, just how much money the borrower will receive has yet to be determined, said Evers.

The reviews are part of a larger enforcement action taken against 14 large mortgage servicers last April by the OCC, the Federal Reserve and Office of Thrift Supervision in the wake of the "robo-signing" scandal.

As part of that action, the lenders, which include Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citibank (C, Fortune 500), GMAC Mortgage, HSBC (HBC) Finance, Wachovia, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), agreed to clean up their foreclosure practices and repay victims.

Troubled homeowners get a lifeline

"The independent foreclosure review is a significant component of the mortgage servicers' compliance with our enforcement actions," said acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh.

When foreclosures flooded the system after the housing bust, many mortgage servicers became more cavalier in the way they handled foreclosures. Affidavits and other documents were signed by low-level employees who had little or no knowledge of what they were attesting to, attorneys hired to manage the foreclosure process were providing inadequate oversight and many bank employees were ignoring requirements to halt foreclosure procedures if loans were in the modification process.

The mortgage servicers agreed to review foreclosure cases that occurred between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010 and determine if borrowers suffered financial losses as a result of any of these practices.

Letters will be sent to borrowers starting Tuesday that will explain how to request case reviews. Foreclosures must have been on primary residences. Borrowers have until April 30, 2012 to request reviews.

Evers said that the consultants will examine each foreclosure on a case-by-case basis and could spend months coming to their conclusions.

The 4% mortgage -- good luck getting one

He said there was no firm estimate of how much the claims could wind up costing the banks but it could certainly run into the "hundreds of millions of dollars."

If you believe you may be eligible but do not receive a letter, you may visit http://independentforeclosurereview.com/ for more information about the review process. Assistance is also available at 1-888-952-9105.

The reviews are completely free for all eligible borrowers. Consumers should beware of anyone requesting to be paid for this service or who claims they can influence the outcome of the review.


Find homes for sale


First Published: November 1, 2011: 1:45 PM ET

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/01/real_estate/foreclosure_abuse/index.htm?iid=EL