BANKS HITTING THE WALL

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is not just a paper crash, which old-timers like myself will remember from the Wall Street paper-crash of the late 1960’s. Simple logic leads to the inevitable conclusion that property rights and contracts, mortgages, notes and obligation are all about paperwork and recording. The trail is defective because it reflected the desire of the “securitization” intermediaries to have full control over every aspect of the MONEY. It reflected their total lack of concern with the actual documents. And in the end, the hedge transactions and exotic instruments they created were proof of fraud and negligence.

It was the money they were moving, not the paper. They avoided those pesky recording fees, and didn’t bother to report or pay taxes, fees or file returns on transactions in which trillions of dollars changed hands. Those deficits we are all worried about on the Federal and state level? They are all curable by simple enforcement of and collection of taxes that are due from these hidden transactions that can now be traced easily. Collection is easy and can be tied to settling the foreclosure mess and the title mess. It’s easier than you think.

Those insurance, credit default swap, and other credit enhancement techniques that were used destroyed the the nexus between the lending by the investor and the borrowing by the homeowner. They continue to try to stay in the middle keeping the investors away from direct collaboration with homeowners — because when the two sides of these transactions meet up, the numbers won’t add up and some very arrogant people whose names are well-known are going to face charges that were inconceivable as late as a month ago.

But don’t go celebrating just yet. You still need a lawyer and you still must plead and prove your claim. One thing is certain regardless of what they do, the pace of foreclosures is going to either cease or slow to a crawl.

October 8, 2010

Largest U.S. Bank Halts Foreclosures in All States

By DAVID STREITFELD and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

Bank of America, the nation’s largest bank, said Friday that it was extending its suspension of foreclosures to all 50 states.

The plan swept states with some of the highest foreclosure levels, including California, Nevada and Arizona, into a swelling crisis over lenders’ flawed paperwork that had been mostly confined to 23 other states that require judicial review of foreclosures.

Bank of America instituted a partial freeze last week in those 23 states, and three other major mortgage lenders have done the same. The bank’s decision on Friday increased pressure on other lenders to extend their moratoriums nationwide as well.

An immediate effect of the action will be a temporary stay of execution for hundreds of thousands of borrowers in default. The bank said it would be brief, a mere pause while it made sure its methods were in order.

But as the furor grows over lenders’ attempts to bypass legal rules in their haste to reclaim houses from delinquent owners, there is a growing expectation that foreclosures will dwindle for months as the foreclosure system is reworked.

Stan Humphries, an economist with the housing site Zillow.com, said what was initially cast as a problem of sloppy record-keeping is rapidly evolving into one that suggests the banks’ procedures for recording loans might not have followed the law.

“The former scenario represents a hiccup for the market, maybe a 30- to 90-day slowdown in foreclosure initiations,” Mr. Humphries said. “The latter scenario is more like hitting a wall.”

The uncertainty is putting the housing market in turmoil and causing vast confusion. Bank of America, for example, said it was not halting sales of foreclosed properties to new owners, but Fannie Mae, the giant mortgage holding company, is doing exactly that with properties it bought from Bank of America.

One real estate agent in Florida said Friday that he had six deals involving former Bank of America properties that had been at least temporarily scuttled. Representatives for Fannie, which was taken over by federal regulators after it failed two years ago, did not return calls.

Real estate agents said the extent of any disruption depended on how long the moratorium lasted, how many lenders ultimately participated — and what people in default decided to do.

“If it’s still January, February, March, and they’re not foreclosing, you’ll see a big effect,” said Jim Klinge, an agent in San Diego. “It’ll be a banker’s holiday, free rent for everybody and a lawyers’ gold mine.”

As soon as Bank of America announced its freeze in a terse press release, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Edolphus Towns, the New York Democrat who leads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, both pointedly asked other lenders to follow suit.

Increased pressure also came from Christopher J. Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who announced a Nov. 16 hearing on foreclosures.

The other lenders, however, did not seem to be swayed.

JPMorgan Chase, which has halted foreclosures in the 23 states where they need a judge’s permission, says it is putting hundreds of lawyers and executives to work addressing what it characterizes as a “technical” paperwork problem with 56,000 mortgages with improper documentation. Officials have no plans to halt foreclosures nationwide, and believe they can fix the problems within weeks, they said.

Chase officials acknowledge they had a flawed process, but they say they have not mistakenly foreclosed on any homeowners, because the underlying information is accurate. People close to the bank say that about one-third of the properties tied to mortgages under scrutiny are vacant, in line with their assessment of the overall industry.

The average borrower that Chase has foreclosed on, these people added, has not made a payment on the mortgage for about one and a half years — a figure that they say is also consistent with the industry.

Inside Citigroup, which has not suspended foreclosures, officials said they were breathing a sigh of relief. Sanjiv Das, the head of CitiMortgage, began a review of loan servicing processes about 18 months ago in anticipation of a groundswell of foreclosures.

At that time, Citi stepped up its employee training and tightened its documentation processes, giving officials there confidence that they have sidestepped the document issue. But given the huge number of mortgages it processed and its sprawling operations, Citi — which has faced one embarrassment after another — is not publicly declaring victory.

On Friday, Wells Fargo, another big lender that has not halted foreclosures, continued to maintain that its foreclosure processes were accurate and said it was not planning to initiate a nationwide moratorium.

“As a standard business practice, we continually review and reinforce our policies and procedures,” said Vickee Adams, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman. “If we find an error or if an improvement is needed, we take action.”

Bank of America’s chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, said he did not believe the bank’s action would disrupt the housing market.

“We haven’t found any problems with the foreclosure process and what we’re saying is that we’ll go back and check our work one more time,” he said.

Not only is Bank of America watched more closely as the nation’s largest bank, it also finds itself deeper in the subprime mortgage mess. It holds $102 billion in subprime loans on its balance sheet from the period when lending standards were most lax — 2005 to 2007 — more than JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup or Wells Fargo, according to a report by Christopher Kotowski, an analyst with Oppenheimer.

Bank of America’s troubled mortgage portfolio is a legacy of its July 2009 acquisition of Countrywide, a subprime specialist that was among the financial institutions with the most troubled loans, as well as its January 2009 merger with Merrill Lynch, which was a major player in the business of taking mortgages and transforming them into securities to be sold to investors.

In addition, as the beneficiary of two capital infusions by Washington under the federal bailout, Bank of America was among the banks most dependent on Washington to help survive the financial crisis, receiving $45 billion from taxpayers. Of that, $20 billion came in emergency aid after Merrill’s losses were revealed.

That money has been paid back, but several analysts said the company was eager to maintain good relations with the government, and emphasized that restoring the bank’s public image was a crucial factor in the action on Friday.

“What prompted Bank of America is they see the political writing on the wall, and this has clearly become a political issue,” said Guy D. Cecala, the editor of Inside Mortgage Finance. “Almost every lawmaker is calling for a national mortgage foreclosure moratorium, and given the momentum out there, they wanted to deal with it on their own terms.”

In fact, earlier this year, with a government ban on automatic overdraft fees for debit cards looming, Bank of America actually went further than its rivals and pre-emptively eliminated the overdraft option entirely. Other banks allow customers to now opt in to the program, which can result in huge charges for small overdrafts.

Another reason for Bank of America’s broader action, suggested Richard X. Bove, an analyst with Rochdale Securities, is that the attorney general of the state where it is based, North Carolina, has called on the bank to halt foreclosures there.

“It’s a pre-emptive strike,” he said. “The smartest thing to do is to get ahead of the attorneys general around the country on this.”

Eric Dash and Binyamin Appelbaum contributed reporting.

23 Responses

  1. Crisis hit everything. not only at finance sector, i got mega loss last year because of collapse on trading business

  2. This Has Got to be BS since when have banks given a damn about their erroneous reign of fraud? TRUST ME WAIT UNTIL AFTER ELECTIONS, THEY’LL MOST LIKELY GO RIGHT BACK TO FULL THROTTLE.

  3. Bob M

    You are so right. But, letters do not work . Been there. Need to continue to speak out – LOUD and CLEAR. Need to continue individual case but ALSO organize our own advocacy group.

    There were once consumer advocacy groups – but they have disappeared – silent. Need our own. To keep the issues alive and heard. And, to wake sleeping courts.

    I will speak – but not an good organizer. Anyone else??

  4. Tbrown:
    The lawyers are a problem, In Mass there are only a few attorneys who understand how the mechanics of the securitization chain works, more importantly, who want to know. Make sure you watch the Vid and I see today Neil has posted the entire case. It is a must read for a complete understanding for all our cases. This is case on point. But like I said, your argument is clear and so aren’t the violations in the chain of assignment. You have a firm grip on this issue. I will keep you informed as to this landmark case, when the SJC rules and affirms the lower court, you will have a case on point. I’d say that house is yours.
    People need more leverage to bring these criminals to the bargaining table. A prison sentence usually works. Most attorneys up here tell me I know more about this fraud and all that goes with it than they do. As a matter of fact I have sat down with a couple to give them guidance. I’ll tell you what I did prior to filing the complaint. This is a chess game; you have to be ten moves ahead of them, don’t forget, they never stop scheming.
    First, I sent a letter to the CEO of the Bank describing the illegal conduct of his employees, agents, outside contractors, and Officers which are under his control and I demanded he do his own investigation in this matter. That letter was included as an exhibit in my complaint. This was outside of the demand letter pursuant to our consumer protections laws. Therefore he knew or should have known of his officials criminal acts. That sets the tone for a claim of scienter in the civil matter, but also for a criminal RICO violation.
    Now he has had almost a year to correct the errors of their way, but has done what I had expected Him to do, which was nothing. However, I put him on notice, and now that I am filing a motion with the court to refer this matter to the Department of Justice, the US Attorney’s Office, and the State Attorney’s Office, for criminal prosecution, they are scrambling. When I filed the complaint I included a letter which I sent to opposing counsel and put him on notice that if he filed one false document, made one misleading statement to the court that I would file a complaint with the Board of Bar Overseers and have him disbarred from practice. I put up barriers prior to the complaint. We all know the attorneys for the Banks are corrupt, as well as the banks themselves and I have known this for years. I have made it impossible for them to submit anything thus far in my case. As a matter of fact the day my case was removed from state court to federal court, an hour after I received notice the case had been removed I was in the court with two motions. Before I had walked out of the court the attorney called, picked my brain to see how much I really knew, and in the end asked if I was open to settlement. I said yes. These people know that we are furious as it relates to their criminality. Some more than others and I am fit to be tied. I have no problem going the criminal route and they know it, and they know that I set the stage from the beginning.
    I am telling you this because you have more ammo than you know. If your assignments are as you say and that and they are trying to take your house based on this fraudulent paperwork, that’s a crime, theft by fraud. Notwithstanding, this is continuing criminal enterprise and through a continued pattern and practice of the same scheme have stolen trillions of dollars and devastated the citizens of this country in the process.
    The judge in your case (unless he or she lives in a bubble) is now more than ever more inclined to see your paperwork for what it is as a result of a weeklong Media slaughter of the banks. The truth is winning out an the more judges realize they have been duped and made coconspirators in this Ponzi scheme , the angrier they will become because let’s face it; no one wants to be made the fool. The judges have made the same mistake we made; we put our trust and faith in these criminals to perform their fiduciary duties within the bounds of the laws of this country and the states we all live in.
    Why does your attorney want to withdraw?? To move for and be successful on a Motion for Summary judgment there can be no set of material facts in dispute and that you are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. You could move for partial Summary judgment and have any remaining triable issue resolved at trial. Clearly your case has merit or more than likely your case would have gone bye bye, by way of a dispositive motion. You could file a motion for judgment on the pleadings.
    I don’t understand what’s going on, if I had your case I’d be done by now. As for the lost note I think now most judges will reject that on it faces in light of the damaging testimony under oath as to the deliberate destruction of the wet ink copies of the note and mortgage. This has been done on an industry wide basis.
    Challenge that lost note Affidavit. If you feel as though you might be in trouble or have any doubt as to the success of your case, take your entire file by hand to the FBI office. Has your attorney discussed with you that possibility?
    BM

  5. Bob
    I do have the original Note the original lender told me it was paid in full and stamped it as such endorsed in Blank by the senior VP and mailed it to me along with a letter stating that the loan was paid in full. The PSA in my case is 226 pages and the prospectus is 495 pages. My loan was put into the trust without any assignments of the note or Mortgage.
    I found My loan number on the Wells Fargo site using the ctslink. We are waiting for a jury trial . The Bank (the successor trustee) already tried to get a summary judgement which was denied. I’m trying to get my attorney to file a motion for summary as they are Not the real party in interest and lack standing. I’m the owner and holder of the Note and it is a Bearer instrument as it is endorsed in Blank and duly negotiated to me and in my possession.They produced a lost Note Affidavit from the original lender to the seller in to the securities that is all they have. The seller and servicer admited in a sworn affidavit that they sold the loan to the trustee in june 2003 however a written assignment was Never prepared. But What the seller is missing is that all though an assignment never occured from them to the trust. the seller can not assign directly to the trust. They had to have an assignment to the despositor , then from the despositor to the trust.Then the “successor Trustee” went and filed an assignment at the ROD office from Mers as nominee for the original lender , who by the way is defunct and has been since 2005 when it was aquired by another bank and subsequently closed down by the FDIC in 2007. My original lender removed my loan out of the MERS system in 2002 and I have a letter from MERS which states that the loan was transfered off the MERS system and MIN# deactivated and as of present date the mers system still says that the loan is deactivated and the last known servicer is the FDIC as receivership for the original lender. So yea something stinks and I think I’m going to have to go Pro-se as mY attorney don’t get it and is trying to withdraw . By the way S.C. is a judicial state and a recording state . As for as the AG goes he told me that it sounded like a civil matter to him, the second time I contacted him. the first time he refered me to a social services program that helps people try to pay the mortgages are help getting a loan MOD. To top it all off I was not behind on my payments and I was never late and before you ask why was i making payments still if I had the Note, My attorney told me to keep paying because they are really messing up and he told me to wait till they foreclose we will make them look like fools. Yea right my attorney does not understand the securities..

  6. Tbrown:

    First, no AG in any state will represent or take up a cause in a civil matter for an individual. Second, where are you in your litigation? Third, if they said your mortgage was never assigned, then how did it get securitized. I’m confused. Clearly if your loan was securitized then it had to have been assigned and if it wasn’t then something stinks.
    You do not need any particular case to support your argument; the legal language for your assignment is in the Pooling & servicing agreement. It is very precise as a matter of fact. Most P&S agreements are approximately 150 -170 pages long, have you read it all? Moreover, every state has assignment laws as to how a note and mortgage are to be assigned and recorded, some more stringent than others but never the less, the laws are on the books.
    You said you have the original note, were did you get it? Is it your copy or was it obtained through discovery. If is obtained through discovery, it is not the wet ink copy, therefore not the original. I have been trying to get my wet ink copy for over a year to have it ink tested for age and authenticity. And what I mean is that there are three levels of ink testing that can be performed, one that does no damage, one that does minimal damage, and one that destroys the document. However, if that document was purported to be signed on particular date, the test will verify or deny that fact. I have made it clear that that is exactly why I want the document, do you think I will get it, no way in hell. However, I believe what you mean is that you have the original that you signed, and if that is not the case then you do not have an original, because no bank is going to hand over the original, not to a lawyer and definitely to a layman. It would be entrusted to the court. But let me say this Tbrown, there are no original wet ink copies because they have all been destroyed.
    Give me more info. If you filed a pro-se complaint, you need more than just the assignment issue to protect yourself. My complaint has 12 counts and last month I filed a motion to amend based on new evidence and new Defendants. The shotgun method, albeit valid claims each and every one of them.
    Tell me where you’re at.
    BM

  7. I have the Note, the original Note, I have an affidavit from the servicer that says they have a lost Note , I have already been through Discovery, interrogatories, ETC.. I have found the PSA ,I have Found the Prospectus, I have also went to the CTSLINK on Wells Fargo which is the Master Servicer and the custodian of records and found my loan #. In the Affidavit from the servicer it also stated that there was NEVER an assignment of the Note or Mortgage, to anyone , but I’m in a judicial state (s.c) and cannot find any cases like mine.I have not seen on any of these webistes including the Hamlet, any case or advice that can help. I need Media attention. My local Ag office refered me to a social service office and said this was a civil matter not under his Jurisdiction..WTF.. I have Proof of securities fraud, period. I even contacted Jim Demint a senator from S.C., the FDIC ,the OTC , The FBI , the SEC, you name I contacted it.

  8. Tbrown: watch this vid. It will answer your question.

    http://www.suffolk.edu/sjc/archive/2010/SJC_10694.html

    Any problems viewing let me know.

    Bob M

  9. Neil, thanks for your efforts, and everyone who wrote their attorney generals for their state and help provide evidence of their particular foreclosure situations and evidence of the fraud related to their foreclosures. Even if the lenders try to come back with clean hands, they have no idea the evidence against them from those of us who were proactive and followed the process of our foreclosure and many who have followed the money.

    Bless us all for staying honorable and not doing as they expected and revolting for them to implement some sort of military rule.

  10. what about when the borrower brings up the PSA and the attorney for the plaintiff bring up the fact that the PSA assigns all right title and interest from the seller to the despositor then to the trust? and the attorneys say it is an assignment without the paper trail.

  11. Here is what troubles me most about this entire situation. I am not worried for myself and have not been because I do not need an attorney to represent me. Don’t get me wrong, as a pro-se litigant; I struggle but never to the point of giving up. In order to traverse this mind field you must be tenacious, the anger in you must be the catalyst that drives you forward.
    I feel terrible for the people who have no outlet, does not have the wherewithal financially or otherwise to protect themselves.
    Nothing operates in a vacuum, that is to say these criminals knew the risks involved in their actions but the rewards greatly outweighed the risk. They knew that those who would fall into distress and could no longer pay their mortgages surely could not pay for competent counsel. All corporations have a Risk Management Department and if you think for one second they did not know exactly what they were doing you are sadly mistaken.
    As an example: Take the Bank of America now the largest bank in America. How did they get there??
    I am an idiot compared to these people; however you have to answer the question that begs the most. Why would the Bank of America enter into agreement to take Merill and Countrywide, both trouble assets of which the Bank of America (BAC) is paying dearly for? Billions of dollars in lawsuits lost already and the storm is far from over. The answer is a simple one, greed! BAC took what some might say was a risk, but it was far from it; after AIG had failed and the government had to bail them out, BAC knew that they would be buried by these two entities, but that the government would also have to bail them out. They knew by acquiring these entities they would be dragged down but that in the end, when the storm was over they would have exponentially grown there assets and shed some competition thereby gaining a much larger share of the market place all on the back of the very people’s homes they are stealing, us the TAX PAYER. These people have no regard for the human tragedy.
    When Ken Lewis took the helm at BAC he went on a mission to acquire every Bank that he could get his hands on, he had what he called his white sheet, it had a list of banks that through hell or high-water he was going to acquire at any cost. Soon he will be in prison. My point is that his plan backfired, just like this Ponzi scheme they are all involved in, and now you are going to see a domino effect, one by one the rats will come out of the wood work to save themselves; they will be throwing each other to the wolves’. The wolves’ being the Department of Justice because now that the pernicious fraud that has been perpetrated upon our courts every single day for the past ten years has become evident, and the Judges are screaming mad. As the weeks, months and years have ticked by and we all held our ground, persistence is winning out. That is not to say it is time to relax because it is not, it is time to charge.
    However, what really distress’ me every day is the poor souls who thought they had no recourse but to take their own lives and in some cases their children’s lives and then their own. I want the families that have been left in the destructive wakes of these criminals to know, that there just may be some justice and maybe a claim for negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter, or wrongful death for you to pursue. Lawyers listen up. If in these terrible case, it can be proven that the foreclosures were illegal; then these criminals are responsible. I have read every story there is about the suicides in the face of foreclosure and they are all a very sad tale, and this is America? A family in Cal. The parents killed their five children and then themselves, the Mother of three in Mass, who took her life because she couldn’t bear the thought of losing her home. These are the real unintended consequences. There are hundreds of these stories, when will someone take notice and bring these criminals to justice. WHERE are the Clarence Darrow’s’ of the World????
    Here is the harsh reality, I know many lawyers and most are pretty frank with me, the bottom line is that they believe there is no pay day in this for them, the client base is broke and the cost of litigation is expensive. They know up front that they will have to lay out the money to litigate the case and there are no guarantees. I have showed many that there is a payday, in more ways than one. Then there is another type of payment, the knowledge within that today you helped someone in need of you. Imagine if one lawyer took one client pro bono. How many lawyers are there, the number is endless? Just have a look at Martindale &Hubbell. Every state has a lawyers digest; take a look at how many lawyers are in every state, what a difference that could make.
    Nobody knows better than me how the machine works and with that said, again, Neil Garfield, thank you for your tireless effort.
    I feel as though I have been a little selfish not sharing up until now, but rest assured, I have my reasons.
    I will leave you with this quote From Old Abe.
    “It is an old maxim and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people’s money being used to pay the fiddler…all this to settle a question in which the people have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people, and now, that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel.” – Abraham Lincoln, January 11, 1837
    One more,
    “The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than the aristocracy, more selfish than the bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.” Abraham Lincoln 16th president of the USA

    Bob M

  12. Neil is right – quote – “Those insurance, credit default swap, and other credit enhancement techniques that were used destroyed the the nexus between the lending by the investor and the borrowing by the homeowner.”

    Not only have these derivatives destroyed the nexus – they have allowed total chaos as to who actually owns collection rights.

    Loan rights are being moved and sold – right under your nose – and, maybe even during litigation. This what happens – once they know – you nailed them.

    Neil is also right – quote – “when the two sides of these transactions meet up, the numbers won’t add up.”

    TARP – too fast – too quick – with no consideration of the victims. Those at top knew what was going on. Who, in their right mind, would ever think that massive foreclosures are good for America?

    Mortgage title – even if you are paying – it is likely not accurate. And, who is buying America? Other countries own us – and are now owning our homes – cash paid.

    National security – frightening. Stability? We have none. .

  13. MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM STAY BY ONEWEST. A PARTY NOT EVEN MENTIONED IN THE CHAPTER 7 FILING. HOWEVER, MOVANT ONEWEST COMES INTO THE COURT WITH 1) NO STANDING, 2) FALSIFIED AFFIDAVITS 3) DISCOLORED NOTES NOT COPIES OF THE ORIGINALS 4) SIGNED AFFIDAVITS BY BRIAN BARNHILL THAT ARE INACCURATE 5) DEED OF TRUST THAT IS FAULTY AND NOT PERFECTED 6) A SECOND ASSIGNMENT OF THE DEED OF TRUST WHICH TRIES TO CORRECT SECURITY INTEREST AND TITLE ISSUES.. DEBTOR ASKS FOR SANCTIONS. READ THE ENTIRETY AS IT IS LISTED AS UNSECURED DEBT, ONLY ORIGINATOR IS LISTED

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/39002836/ONEWEST-HAS-NO-STANDING-MOTION-FOR-RELIEF-FROM-STAY-WITH-OBJECTIONS

    They will get caught

  14. JP Morgan Chase and sub-groups Tried to use the your home is vacant with me and it is clearly not. All I see here in mass is page after page of their forclousers in the papers with there name on it or their sub group Chase Home Finance LLC.If you are Trying to work with Chase and they send you a letter from Chase Home Finace LLC do not bite. I see pages of repossesions here that are all linked to JP Morgan Chase and that sub-group.It is truly consumer beware.A true bait and switch only for the sake of obtaining information from you so they can take your property and any money you may have. Do not answer your phone, change your number do not give out any information they are fishing, trying to put together some pieces that will stick to the wall and please do not give them any banking information. I don’t care if they hire a million lawyers it’s not going to change the fraudulent paperwork already out there.And they can’t manafactuer any new documents .I don’t care if I have not made a payment in 10 years, it’s not yours.The same with Citibank, they are just as bad. All documents on record are fraudulent. These 2 preditory operations need to be closed down.

  15. Pooling and Servicing question:

    How do you respond when the opposing party states that the borrower is NOT a party to the Pooling & Servicing Agreement? I filed a Federal lawsuit and opposing counsel has answered but within the answer they state that I am not a party to the allege trust agreement. Any suggestions? Just curious as to how some of you all would re-present or argue.

    I was able to locate my loan number in said allege trust in the 2007 SEC docs but that was the last year they filed anything (15-d filing gave them the unregulated status). Thank you.

  16. CO MINGLING OF FUNDS. PONZI SCHEME.

    The banks made the same mistake that ultimately put enron down.

    They made the politicians loose their jobs.

    A big no no.

  17. Hearing on mortgage foreclosures on Nov. 16
    WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Friday announced he will host a hearing on Nov. 16 to investigate allegations of improper and fraudulent mortgage servicing and foreclosure processing. Dodd’s expected hearing comes after three lenders, including Bank of America Corp., agreed recently to foreclosure moratoriums until they could determine whether or not employees signed off on affidavits without verifying the information in the paperwork. “American families should not have to worry about losing their homes to sloppy bureaucratic mismanagement or fraud,”

  18. Again Arizona foreclosure issues. Where is John McCain and Governor Brewer? Maybe they are building a fence on the Mexican border or maybe in a hast to hide the funds generate from scammed victims that promoted their election campaigns. It is time to perform and audit !
    .

  19. Boycott the Foreclosing Banks

    Use CASH!

    and someday silver.

  20. This makes me so furious !!!!
    We should make it a priority to go after the SERVICERS !!!!!
    The servicers are the real criminals !!!!!

    Bankers Propaganda Letter to Congressional Staffers – Efforts Mortgagers Are Making for At-Risk Homeowners

    Posted by Foreclosure Fraud on October 9, 2010 · 6 Comments

    From Urban Dictionary: The term “pigs ass” is used in many situations. It is most commonly used when someone claims something is not true.

    Here is a taste of the propaganda bombarding our elected officials daily. Refuse to let this deception continue undisputed and unrefuted. Please contact your US & State representatives with a copy of the predators’ drivel below and your rebuttal.

    There is much work to do.

    ForeclosureHamlet.org

    ____________________________________

    October 8, 2010

    The Honorable XYZ

    United States House of Representatives

    Washington DC 20515

    Dear Representative XYZ,

    We are writing to set the record straight on the efforts mortgage servicers are making to assist
    at-risk homeowners, as well as to address the issues that are being raised about the processing of documents for mortgages that are in foreclosure.

    Foreclosure Document Reviews

    As we have said consistently, foreclosure helps no one, and it is the last thing our mortgage servicing companies want to have happen. That is why our members work hard every day with their customers who are behind on their mortgage to try to find a solution that avoids a foreclosure. This effort has produced dramatic positive results for homeowners. Mortgage servicers have completed 1.3 million loan modifications for homeowners thus far in 2010 and more than 3.7 million since 2007.

    Unfortunately, there are circumstances when a modification or other potential solution such as a short sale is not possible and foreclosure proceedings must be undertaken. As has always been the case, no change in the terms of the loan will help a homeowner if they don’t have adequate income to make even greatly reduced monthly payments, or if they have no desire to remain in the home. If that is the case, a foreclosure must be pursued by the servicer.

    We want to assure you that foreclosure is not initiated by servicers until many months of delinquent payments, after repeated attempts to work with the homeowner, and only when all other foreclosure prevention efforts have failed.

    In several states, some mortgage servicers have put final foreclosure sales on hold while they review their document procedures. It is important to note, however, that these are document process reviews; in almost all cases there are no factual disputes about whether the mortgage is delinquent, the amount of the arrears, or whether foreclosure is proper. Indeed, a substantial percentage of foreclosures are uncontested by borrowers. In the overwhelming majority of cases, we believe the facts presented to the courts in foreclosure proceedings about the debt amounts and delinquencies have been accurate.

    Servicers should be permitted to complete the review of their document processes that they have already begun. Calls for a blanket national moratorium on all foreclosures are a bad idea and would cause significant harm to communities at risk, the unstable housing market and the fragile economy. A foreclosure moratorium would not change the ultimate outcome for borrowers impacted by this situation.

    Distressed Homeowners Are Being Assisted

    The foreclosure document and affidavit reviews servicers are conducting are only a part of the on-going efforts being made to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. Servicers are also continuing to work to assist thousands of homeowners everyday who are behind on their mortgage payments.

    These are the facts:

    * Mortgage servicers completed 149,000* loan modifications for homeowners in August 2010, including 116,000 proprietary loan modifications and 33,000 Home Affordable Modifications (HAMP.) [*HOPE NOW Alliance October Data report]

    * 91% of all proprietary loan modifications in August reduced homeowners’ monthly payments so that the modifications are affordable and sustainable.

    * Through August, mortgage servicers completed 1.3 million loan modifications in 2010 and almost 3.7 million since 2007.

    * There have been 775,000 completed foreclosure sales through August 2010, compared to 1.3 million loan modifications through August. 2010

    * Short sales and deeds-in-lieu are being offered as a dignified alternative to foreclosure for homeowners who have exhausted all their foreclosure prevention options and cannot maintain their mortgage.

    * Servicers continue to contact and assist at-risk homeowners in a wide variety of ways. Companies have individual customer assistance centers and participate in face to face outreach events across the nation individually and sponsored by Making Home Affordable and the HOPE NOW Alliance. More than 77,000 homeowners have received assistance at 87 HOPE NOW face-to-face events held all across the country since 2008.

    * Homeowners can reach a non-profit counselor at a HUD-Certified counseling agency 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through the 888-995-HOPE Homeowners’ HOPE hotline operated by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation.

    * Servicers and Counselors have worked to enhance electronic submission of documents for loan modifications through the new HOPE LoanPort system.

    Mortgage servicers continue to help thousands of consumers avoid foreclosure every day. Real progress is being made. The foreclosure document and affidavit review process that servicers are undertaking will clarify the situation significantly.

    Attached is a link to the resource sheet for Congressional staff to assist your constituents. We will continue to work with all Members of Congress on mortgage loan inquiries that you receive from your constituents.

    Sincerely,

    Steve Bartlett
    President and CEO
    The Financial Services Roundtable

    John Dalton
    President
    Housing Policy Council

    John A. Courson
    President and Chief Executive Officer
    Mortgage Bankers Association

    ~
    4closureFraud.org

  21. Although the war on the fraud and deceit is far from over I would like to congratulate Neil & his staff and all the fighters from all over it was a great week and I think we can all say that it was a important win and great unfolding of what we have all known for some time on the great cover up.Best and everyone enjoy the weekend and lets march on to win this very important battle.

  22. dear neil why dont you run for president! i THING IT A GOOD IDEA BECAUSE YOU :JUST GET IT! THE BANKS DID’NT THINK THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WOULD FIGHT BACK! BUT WE ARE FIGHTING AND HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO WIN!!!!

  23. Robert Reich
    Robert Reich

    Former Secretary of Labor; Professor at Berkeley; Author, ‘Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future’
    Posted: October 7, 2010 05:55 PM
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    The Secret Big-Money Takeover of America
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    Read More: 2010 Elections , Campaign Finance , Chamber Of Commerce , Economic Crisis , Economy , Income Disparity , Income Inequality , Robert Reich , Third World America , Politics News

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    Not only is income and wealth in America more concentrated in fewer hands than it’s been in 80 years, but those hands are buying our democracy as never before — and they’re doing it behind closed doors.

    Hundreds of millions of secret dollars are pouring into congressional and state races in this election cycle. The Koch brothers (whose personal fortunes grew by $5 billion last year) appear to be behind some of it, Karl Rove has rounded up other multimillionaires to fund right-wing candidates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is funneling corporate dollars from around the world into congressional races, and Rupert Murdoch is evidently spending heavily.

    No one knows for sure where this flood of money is coming from because it’s all secret.

    But you can safely assume its purpose is not to help America’s stranded middle class, working class, and poor. It’s to pad the nests of the rich, stop all reform, and deregulate big corporations and Wall Street — already more powerful than since the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators.

    Credit the Supreme Court’s grotesque decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, which opened the floodgates. (Even though 8 of 9 members of the Court also held disclosure laws constitutional, the decision invited the creation of shadowy “nonprofits” that don’t have to reveal anything.)

    According to FEC data, only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed.

    Last week, when the Senate considered a bill to force such disclosure, every single Republican voted against it — thereby revealing the GOP’s true colors, and presumed benefactors. (To understand how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.)

    Maybe the Disclose Bill can get passed in lame-duck session. Maybe the IRS will make sure Karl Rove’s and other supposed nonprofits aren’t sham political units. Maybe pigs will learn to fly.

    In the meantime we face an election that marks an even sharper turn toward plutocratic capitalism than before — a government by and for the rich and big corporations — and away from democratic capitalism.

    As income and wealth has moved to the top, so has political power. That’s why, for example, it’s been impossible to close the absurd tax loophole that allows hedge-fund and private-equity managers to treat much of their income as capital gains, subject to a 15 percent tax (even though they’re earning tens or hundreds of millions a year, and the top 15 hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion last year). Why it proved impossible to fund expanded health care by limiting the tax deductions of the very rich. Why it’s so difficult even to extend George Bush’s tax cuts for the bottom 98 percent of Americans without also extending them for the top 2 percent – even though the top won’t spend the money and create jobs, but will blow a $36 billion hole in the federal budget next year.

    The good news is average Americans are beginning to understand that when the rich secretly flood our democracy with money, the rest of us drown. Wall Street executives and top CEOs get bailed out while under-water homeowners and jobless workers sink.

    A Quinnipiac poll earlier this year found overwhelming support for a millionaire tax.

    But what the public wants means nothing if our democracy is secretly corrupted by big money.

    Right now we’re headed for a perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top, a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy, and a public in the aftershock of the Great Recession becoming increasingly angry and cynical about government. The three are obviously related.

    We must act. We need a movement to take back our democracy. (If tea partiers were true to their principles, they’d join it.) As Martin Luther King once said, the greatest tragedy is “not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

    What can you do?

    1. Read Justice Steven’s dissent in the Citizens United case, so you’re fully informed about the majority’s pernicious illogic.

    2. Use every opportunity to speak out against this decision, and embarrass and condemn the right-wing Justices who supported it.

    3. In this and subsequent elections, back candidates for congress and president who vow to put Justices on the Court who will reverse it.

    4. Demand that the IRS enforce the law and pull the plug on Karl Rove and other sham nonprofits.

    5. If you have a Republican senator, insist that he or she support the Disclose Act. If they won’t, campaign against them.

    6. Support public financing of elections.

    7. Join an organization like Common Cause, that’s committed to doing all this and getting big money out of politics. (Personal note: I’m so outraged at what’s happening that I just became chairman of Common Cause.)

    8. Send this post to your friends (including any tea partiers you may know).

    Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

    * 2010 Elections
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    Not only is income and wealth in America more concentrated in fewer hands than it’s been in 80 years, but those hands are buying our democracy as never before — and they’re doing it behind closed doo…
    Not only is income and wealth in America more concentrated in fewer hands than it’s been in 80 years, but those hands are buying our democracy as never before — and they’re doing it behind closed doo…
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