False and Misleading Offering Documents Detailed in Class Action Lawsuit Against Countrywide Financial
Cohen Milstein Files Amended Consolidated Complaint in Case Involving $350 Billion of Mortgage-Backed Securities
WASHINGTON, July 15 /PRNewswire/ — Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC filed an Amended Consolidated Class Action Complaint this week in its landmark litigation against Countrywide Financial Corporation and other underwriter defendants who were prominently involved in the failure of mortgage-backed securities over the last several years.
Countrywide, since acquired by Bank of America, was one of the largest and most controversial institutions involved in mortgage-backed securities. Other defendants in the case, aside from Countrywide, several of its former top executives, and Bank of America, include 16 underwriters of more than $350 billion in Countrywide securities, among them J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Bear Stearns, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.
Cohen Milstein is Lead Counsel for the Class and Counsel for the Lead Plaintiff, the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System, as well as the Oregon Public Employees’ Retirement System and Orange County Employees’ Retirement System. The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church is also named as a plaintiff in the litigation.
“Amidst all this high finance, it’s too easy to lose sight of the fact that pension funds invested heavily in these mortgage-backed securities and so retirees are the real victims here,” commented Steve Toll, Managing Partner at Cohen Milstein and co-chair of its Securities Fraud/Investor Protection practice group.
In the amended complaint, the Plaintiffs further buttress their allegation that the defendants published false and misleading offering documents, including registration statements, prospectuses, and prospectus supplements. Specifically, these documents misrepresented or failed to disclose that underwriting guidelines for the mortgages backing the securities had been systematically disregarded.
According to the lawsuit, from 2005 through 2007 Countrywide was the nation’s largest residential mortgage lender, originating in excess of $850 billion in home loans throughout the United States in 2005 and 2006 alone. Countrywide’s ability to originate residential mortgages on such a massive scale was facilitated, in large part, by its ability to rapidly package or securitize those loans and then, through the activities of the underwriter defendants, sell them to investors as purportedly investment grade mortgage-backed securities.
In order to generate a steady flow of mortgage loans to sustain this mass production of mortgage-backed securities, Countrywide routinely issued loans to borrowers who otherwise would never have qualified for them – and indeed, did not qualify for the loans they received — through, for example, “low doc” and “no doc” loan programs, often with adjustable interest rates that had been designed for borrowers with higher incomes and better credit.
Upon pooling these mortgages and issuing them as MBS certificates, over 92% received the very highest, investment-grade ratings from rating agencies; ultimately, however, 87% were downgraded to junk. Tellingly, one year after the date of the certificate offerings, delinquency and default rates on the underlying mortgages had increased 2,525% from issuance. In explaining such an unprecedented collapse in ratings on these certificates in 2008 and 2009, the rating agencies noted that they were forced to change their models because of previously undisclosed and systematic “aggressive underwriting” practices used to originate the mortgage loan collateral. Along with the exponential increases in delinquency and default rates of the underlying mortgages and the collapse of the certificates’ ratings, the value of the certificates plummeted.
Plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that the Defendants’ actions violated Sections 11, 12(a)(2), and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933, legislation, still on the books, originally enacted in response to similar abuses that led to the Great Depression.
The Countrywide case is pending before Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Cohen Milstein has been named lead or co-lead counsel by courts in eight of the most significant mortgage-backed securities cases currently being litigated, including Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual as well as Countrywide.
Docket No. 2:10-CV-00302
SOURCE Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
Filed under: foreclosure |
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So am I to have a care in the world for the people who lost the retirement money? I do not think so, as when we are losing our homes these people call us losers and scumbags and whatever, when we provided the asset by which they were getting profit, it was the middle men who did all the wrong and made all the money, now they are getting the house, and they got the money from the investors too. The Judges need to lose their pension, and their investment. People like sasser need to lose everything she has so maybe she may wake up. I hope soon the home owners can hit the streets, but most were cowards and ran away into the night like sorry people, they are the real losers, cowards, the super poor of tomorrow, who lost everything did not fight, did not get a proper lawyer and gave in without even much of a fight, hell some of them never went to the internet.
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE PERSON~~~~~ WHO WROTE THIS . I’M GOING THOUGH THIS RIGHT NOW .BUT I’M ASKING A LOT OF QUIESTION THIS TIME .I ALSO HAVE A COUNTRY WIDE ARM TRYING TO GET OUT OF THE LOAN OFFICER SAID TO ME DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT I’LL TAKE CARE OF IT I TRUST HIM HE WAS THE LOAN OFFICER HE SURE TOOK CARE OF IT HE SET ME UP TO FALLDOWN. I BEEN TRYING TO GET HELP FOR THE PAST 3 YEAR~~~~THE ONLY ANSWER I GOT IS THAT IT’S MY FALT FOR SIGNING THE LOAN.I HAVE THE MODIFICATION PAPERS BUT I’M NOT SIGNING THEM BECAUSE IT DON,T WORK FOR ME . I WILL NOT SIGN ANY THING UNTIL I’M 100 PERSENT IT’S GOING TO HELP ME I FEEL THAT NO ONE CARE WHAT HAPPEN TO YOU .I WORK SO HARD TO HAVE A HOME AND AT THE END THEY JUST WANT TO TAKE IT A WAY FROM ME NO MATTER WHAT .
TW
Do not know – but it is just one big ENRON – all over – only with many many many players.
How many Goldman Alumni are in that video… anyone know?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNLlku9JQYU&hl=en_US&fs=1?color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b]
Kickboxer,
The CountryWide loan mods were also for the subprime ‘alt-A’ or ‘jumbo’ fixed rate loans. I have a signed, notarized, BREACHED mod on THAT type of loan.
I believe that BofA intends to eventually breach or ‘cancel’ all the permanent mods. Do you want to know why I maintain that?
ANSWER: THEY REFUSE TO EVER SIGN ANY OF THEM YET CLAIM THAT WITHOUT THEIR SIGNATURE, THAT THE CONTRACT IS NOT VALID. Yet they fail to EVER contact the borrowers to let them know that the contract is being ‘canceled’. Even MHA mods have been ‘canceled’ after they were PERMANENT. Having a mod with BofA is like playing Russian roulette with your home. You will not know when they will ‘cancel’ your mod.
What is really strange about that logic on their offered agreement requiring their signature, is that the offered agreement became a contract when the BORROWER signed and complied with the contract. To keep it from becoming a contract after it was offered, BofA needed to find and report any problem with the contract within DAYS of getting the notarized contract returned to them by the borrower.
To further this logic, the lender offered you the original mortgage and YOUR signature was notarized. Have you ever gone back and noticed that NO ENTITY signed that agreement on the part of the lender? They offered the agreement and it became a contract with them when the borrower signed and the document was notarized.
TRESPASSS UNWANTED I HEAR YA
Trespass,
I’m trying to follow you but I don’t understand what you mean. Should I be looking at my deed more closely? Is the main issue the splitting of the deed and note? The lack of disclosing a 3rd party?
I too have been in my home for almost two years without paying. But I think the bank is preparing to foreclose on me. The constant phone calls from their collection department has come to a sudden stop and I got a letter saying we were being referred to the “foreclosure review committee.” I don’t think they ever intended on modifying our loan. I don’t think they want to help those of us with prime loans. The Countrywide mods I have heard of are for subprime ARMs.
I have been looking at similar homes for sale in my area. I can get a much bigger and newer home for half of what I owe on this fixer upper that I am in. It’s heartbreaking.
I don’t give legal advice, because I don’t know legal things.
People always ask me if I’m an attorney. I assure you, I am not. I only have a legal dictionary and learned a few things in the patriot groups and once I found that not useful, left that behind, but some things I learned was useful and helped me to see things I hadn’t seen before.
I’m not an agent, I’m a non-resident alien. I have live at a non-residence. I know how to conduct myself in their system for the most part, and I’m very territorial. If I have a contract with ABC and they file it in the public, I don’t care what ‘notice XYZ files, if it ain’t a contract, it ain’t enforceable. I will push back, and not think twice. I don’t have to fight anyone about not having a contract that doesn’t exist.
Many people lose their homes under that basic premise, and their entire wealth is transferred. I’m sorry that is happening to you.
I don’t know enough to help people, I only know what I’ve gone through and what I’ve seen and understand.
I find that people don’t believe a complex problem has a simple solution. It’s complex because the person after your wealth made it complex. It’s simple if you can say, “You can’t have it!’
But that’s just me talking.
Judges follow Rules of Court. Easy for them to make decisions based upon the cases before them and who’s more expert than another in presenting a good case.
By the mere legal definition of evidence, there is ‘no’ requirement that the evidence represent the truth. All it has to do is convince the judge that based upon what was presented it is the ‘facts established for that case.’
If we can get our heads out the clouds and see, we are dealing in la-la land and that we are dealing with evidence that represents what the person bringing the suit wants it to represent, and the person who assumes the role of Defendant is “denying and prohibiting them from getting their remedy and relief” for the evidence they presented.
Please.. people…can I pull one of you into court and present evidence that you promised to bake me a cake every Sunday for the rest of your life and if you don’t you owe me a $1000 as a replacement. My evidence will be that I allowed you to live in your home and I have legal title.
Now tell me what attorney are you going to hire to ‘fight’ me in court over a case like that?!
I’m trying to tell you, if you come to the beginning and stop worrying about the inner middle, the middle, the outer middle, the inner edge, and the outer edge, and just come to the beginning that started all of this and don’t get caught up in the majic trick of the illusion, or the illusion of power or the illusion of wealth, or even the illusion the judge is in their back pocket, or that you can’t find an attorney, just come to the beginning.
What was it that you signed?
If every word in that document was gold, and worth a gazillion dollars on the paper it’s written on, can i come and taint that document with things that aren’t written.
If your document files in the public and defines a ‘Lender’.
Can I make a notice of foreclosure (recently learning a notice is not filed, and is only kept two years before being destroyed, and is gone forever); can i put the words Current Mortgagee and Original Mortgagee on a notice and take over your document?
Will you pay attorney’s fees over a notice filed that didn’t even establish a ‘perfected security interest’ in the home?
Sheesh, yes, it’s gone in two years if if a Trustee Deed is transfered as a result of that document, that Trustee Deed lasts for all eternity and the original ‘fraud’ document is gone, wiped out, cleared in two years and you can’t even reference it to get your property back and maybe even three times exemplary damages for the theft.
It’s bad enough people are losing their homes, but it’s worse when the banks are having a field day knowing you see, but don’t see.
You chase carrots that throw out, you fell for the illusion, you allow judges to sign off on fraud and get mad saying the judges were paid, when I can guarantee you, if proven a judge did anything contrary to law, that judge would be in jail.
Our lack of knowledge has us pointing to the banks, servicers, investors, and everyone except ourselves.
That’s why!
We won’t take ownership for our part in this problem!
We must take ownership…look the demon in the face and say yep, it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t have a role in this too!
I signed something I didn’t understand.
I purchased something I shouldn’t have purchased.
I did something I knew I shouldn’t have done.
When we look inside and face our role in this, we will see the whole picture.
As long as we deny, we create the energy field of denying, and as we seek our recourse, we are denied it.
Many will save their homes, because they aren’t afraid to see what role they played in this and peel back the layers and see it’s just an illusion.
The court has no obligation to you to hold your hand and help you win a case if you can’t see what it is you did, and you can’t speak to tell the court they have no right to do what they are doing.
It’s not about a fight! You think I’m crazy and you won’t listen and you lose your homes.
I’m still in mine…and I haven’t had to fight.
I see it, my deed is specific. They are so arrogant they violated it regardless of what’s in your deed.
Unless you just purchased a home, those deeds all up to last year there are violations.
Find what it is that they did wrong.
Don’t allow a court to decide a case that shouldn’t go to court.
A court has jurisdiction to hear a dispute between people under a contract. If there is a breach of contract, show it! you win! You don’t have to fight to show a breach!
I won’t push this issue any further, but I tried to explain something to my neighbor and I swore she drank ‘brainwash juice’ and she only knew what the rest of the world knows about this..and that’s what they hear on the news. She doesn’t know anything else. Very hard to talk to.
All I could do was send her love, and know that when her time came, she’d not know enough to take care of herself, and since she can’t understand me, she won’t be able to learn how to take care of herself.
People who feel safe with a modification, only delayed things.
There was a better chance outside a modification, in my opinion, only time will tell though.
I have a friend that got behind on their payment and the bank sent their checks back, would not accept them. It was by the virtue of losing her job and cashing out her 401K and sending in a lump sum, that they started taking the checks again.
She spoke to me in an astonished voice, she said, ‘It’s like they didn’t want to work with us, they wanted to foreclose!”
Well, ah, yes, they do..and a modification gives them more months of money until they do.
Please, once you see through the illusion you will wonder why so many have lost their homes!
Light and Love
my guess is judges today are gutless and do not want to be the first judge to make a decision that will go to appeals and fail. thus threatening their cushy government job. any other thoughts?
why am i not surprised? and the judges in california continue with califraudulistic espialiducious?
is it because the judges are riteous? or are they on the take? Are the big banks feeding them 401K’s pension funds etc…… Buying them Lunch? Hanging out at the same clubs? Donating money to their elections or there favorite charities? Paying the Property taxes on property taxes at inflated appraisals? (small price to pay to get an almost free house or investment?
Just Wondering?