“[Customers and employees] accuse the company of using high-pressure salesmanship to target elderly and vulnerable homeowners, as well as misleading borrowers about their loans, and falsifying property appraisals and other information to push through bad deals….
A group of ex-employees, meanwhile, have gone to federal court to accuse Quicken of abusing workers and customers alike. In court papers, former salespeople claim Quicken executives managed by bullying and intimidation, pressuring them to falsify borrowers’ incomes on loan applications and to push overpriced deals on desperate or unwary homeowners.”
Internet Store Notice: As requested by customer service, this is to explain the use of the COMBO, Consultation and Expert Declaration. The only reason they are separate is that too many people only wanted or could only afford one or the other — all three should be purchased. The Combo is a road map for the attorney to set up his file and start drafting the appropriate pleadings. It reveals defects in the title chain and inferentially in the money chain and provides the facts relative to making specific allegations concerning securitization issues. The consultation looks at your specific case and gives the benefit of litigation support consultation and advice that I can give to lawyers but I cannot give to pro se litigants. The expert declaration is my explanation to the Court of the findings of the forensic analysis. It is rare that I am actually called as a witness apparently because the cases are settled before a hearing at which evidence is taken.
If you are seeking legal representation or other services call our South Florida customer service number at 954-495-9867 and for the West coast the number remains 520-405-1688. In Northern Florida and the Panhandle call 850-765-1236. Customer service for the livinglies store with workbooks, services and analysis remains the same at 520-405-1688. The people who answer the phone are NOT attorneys and NOT permitted to provide any legal advice, but they can guide you toward some of our products and services. Get advice from attorneys licensed in the jurisdiction in which your property is located. We do provide litigation support — but only for licensed attorneys.
See LivingLies Store: Reports and Analysis
Editor’s Comment and Analysis: Quicken is one of those company’s that looks like a lender but isn’t. They say they are the bank when they are not. And they have been as predatory or more so than anyone else in the marketplace, despite the PR campaign of Dan Gilbert, formerly of Merrill Lynch Bond Trading department, who now heads up the company after selling it and then buying it back. They also have an “appraisal” company that is called Cornerstone Appraisals, that shares in the appraisal fees a fact missed by every one of the lawsuits I have seen.
The Quicken two step generally involved the company as an aggressive originator and nowhere is their aggressiveness more apparent than in the lawsuit than in the lawsuit described below. The one fact that everyone still has wrong however is that there is an assumption that Quicken loaned the money to the borrower. In fact, Quicken was neither the underwriter nor the lender and never had a risk of loss on any of the loans it originated. It used the Countrywide IT platform to underwrite the loans, inflated appraisals to increase its fees, and lured borrowers into deals that were impossible — like the lawsuit described below where a piece of property was worth about 1/6th of the original appraisal amount. AND when even the borrower thought the appraisal was ridiculous and refused to sign the loan, they reduced the appraisal and loan so it was still more than 4x the value of the property.
After that the closing funds came from an investment bank, not Quicken Loans or even Countrywide. The investor money was applied to the closing but the investors received nothing of what they were promised. They didn’t get a note or a mortgage. THAT paperwork went to naked nominees of the investment bank so they could steal, trade and create the largest inflation of pseudo-dollars in the shadow banking world that we have ever known — ten times the actual money supply.
Quicken Loans arrogantly rolled the dice and ended up with punitive damages in the millions and a large fee award top the the law firm of Bordas and Bordas in Wheeling Ohio. The Bordas firm proved many points worth mentioning.
- Appraisal fraud was at the heart of the mortgage meltdown. If industry standards were applied as stated in the petition of more than 8,000 licensed appraisers in 2005, these deals would never have happened and none of the foreclosures would have happened. And let’s remember that the appraisal is a representation of the LENDER not the borrower.
- Cases taken on contingency fee represent a huge share of commerce in the legal profession. My opinion is that liability and damages are starting to form a pattern and that cases against lenders for wrongful foreclosure, slander of title, fraud, RICO and other causes of action will start settling like PI cases currently do, which is why so many lawyers go into personal injury law.
- Judicial recognition of the overbearing and egregiously fraudulent behavior of the banks against unwary or unsophisticated homeowners is at the brink of total acceptance.
- As courts begin to zoom in on these closings they don’t like what they see. None of it makes sense because none of it is legal.
- Courts don’t like to be played as the fool or tool of a gangster perpetrating a large scale fraud. They get testy when pushed, and that is exactly what happened in Ohio.
- Most importantly, plain old good lawyering will win the day if you are prepared, understand the material and practice your presentation. Jason Causey, Jim Bordas, and their legal team deserve many kudos for taking on a company whose PR image was squeaky clean and then showing the dirt underneath — just as the Trusts were gilded with a few good looking loans and the rest, underneath, were toxic waste.
“Quicken ordered an appraisal of the home that Jefferson was interested in refinancing and the appraisal request included an estimated value of the subject property of $262,500. The trial court would later conclude the value of the property was $46,000.
“Appraiser Dewey Guida of Appraisals Unlimited, Inc. valued the property at $181,700 and after Jefferson backed out of the process for a few weeks because of her concern that she would be unable to afford the payments, Johnson was able to close her on a $144,800 loan.
“Although Jefferson had initially received a written Good Faith Estimate for a loan in the amount of $112.850 with a 2.5 “loan discount points” and no balloon feature, this much larger loan actually charged her for 4.0 points, while only giving her 2.5, and had a balloon payment after 30 years of $107,015.71, the amount of which was not disclosed, according to court documents.”
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Quicken Loans ordered to pay $3.5M in mortgage case, appeals …
wvrecord.com › Ohio CountyAug 7, 2013 – WHEELING – A judgment in a fraud lawsuit against Quicken Loans has only gotten bigger since an appeal to the state Supreme Court, so the …
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Mortgage Mess: Why Quicken Loans May Not Be as Squeaky Clean …
http://www.cbsnews.com/…/mortgage-mess-why-quicken–loans-may-not-be-as…Feb 8, 2011 – Quicken Loans‘ lending practices may not be as exemplary as the company contends. A federal lawsuit starting in Detroit today and other legal …
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Ripoff Report | quicken loans directory of Complaints & Reviews
http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/quicken–loans.aspxRipoff Report | Complaints Reviews Scams Lawsuits Frauds Reported. Company Directory | quicken–loans. Approximately 342 Reports Found Showing 1-25.
Filed under: AMGAR, CDO, CORRUPTION, Eviction, foreclosure, GARFIELD GWALTNEY KELLEY AND WHITE, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud, Servicer | Tagged: BAC, Bank of America, Bordas and Bordas, countrywide, Dan Gilbert, Jason Causey, Jim Bordas, Judge David J. Sims, Merrill Lynch, Ohio, Quicken Loans, West Virginia, West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act, Wheeling |
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I make this crystal clear in my articles at http://lixe.org
Neil, tell us what lesson the Brown v Quicken dispute teaches your readers. I get this: if you have a mortgage, you need to get the mortgage examined for causes of action against the lender. You could win monumental punitive and compensatory damages and legal fees for suing on those causes of action. That is far preferable to losing the house in foreclosure and owing a huge judgment lien. Securitization audits and your declarations are worthless for achieving this end. Call Bob Hurt at 727 669 5511 for a full FREE explanation.
MS,
Don’t tell me what i did or didn’t do. Shooting from the hip, as usual.
The problem is if the true facts are to difficult to understand…the foreclosure victim will move on to a more sexy or appealing alternative.
Its the alternatives that are the scam. I.e. “lenders” often have their own title company and/or appraisers, neatly created as independent Inc with all the same officers. Double dipping as an art form.
And…So….What does that all mean ?
The chance of saving a home is almost exclusively held in the breach of the accounting rules and lenders SEC PPM disclosures and IRC violations as a tax payer entity.
A swindler is one who sells securities in a home based on its value without owning the home. Therefore the securities were sold as lenders assets without owning the home.
Selling stock without owning the home is the substantive case and gravamen arguing the origination that was in fact the sale of the home in advance of a default.
This is fact that involves a great deal more discovery and claims that constitute the principal homeowner arguments. All foreclosure defenses must focus on the transfer of title .
If your like most – you wont.
Instead homeowners are caught up on lost notes and mortgages conveyed by the Depositor on those securitizations …(?) and of course Robo signors and Mers Corp bad assignments – registerclaims @ live.com
There, you have it. Globalism cannot succeed any more than the first Tower of Babel did. But there’s gonna be a lot of cleaning up to do. Everyone will have a job! And learn a couple of languages: they will come handy.
http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2013/09/28/the-saturday-essay-why-the-nation-state-existing-in-a-globalist-context-is-a-doomed-concept/
September 28, 2013 · 6:18 am
THE SATURDAY ESSAY: Why the Nation State existing in a globalist context is a doomed concept
Only the deranged bank/multinational/media loonies can stop the return to a tribalist model – and any attempt to do so would result in their self-destruction.
So…
Every station talking about how dysfunctional this country has become. Thing is… it is soooooo much in debt, raising that ceiling means nothing. Giving the clowns a tent where to perform means nothing. Watching them perform is… well… pretty desperate. Barnum has better ones, they make us laugh and we don’t have to pay for their retirement and health insurance until they croak.
BUT many people make a pretty good living at selling hot air, And imbeciles breath it.
What a fuck up country!
Don’t be so quick to say Countrywide did not lend the money. Countrywide Bank has a wholly owned subsidiary call Countrywide Securities that acted as an investment banker on many securitizations. Now, whether the notes and mortgages were conveyed by the Depositor on those securitizations occurred, we can all respond with a resounding NO.
@Chris King,
Contact the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and submit your CV and videos. They need you. The world needs you outside of foreclosure in America. You have what it takes. Go for it.
Really. I’m serious.
http://www.icij.org/
I think I’ll track you down and send you that directly.
Meanwhile some joy in NYC as Gretchen Morgenson reports on BoA BK contempt ORDER…. which I have posted online. They just kept pinging someone AFTER the BK discharge…. bullies.
http://mortgagemovies.blogspot.com/2013/09/kingcast-and-mortgage-movies-celebrate.html
Breaking Bad With Big Bank CEOs: How Bad Bank CEOs Use the Bystander Effect to Dupe Good People Into Working For Them
smartknowledgeu’s picture
Submitted by smartknowledgeu on 09/30/2013 06:09 -0400
This may become the most important article I’ve ever written. But whether it becomes that article or dwells in anonymity is up to you, the reader, and if you are willing to be a messenger of truth in our fight against insidious and criminal elements that have infiltrated our society and have now become accepted in our everyday lives as normal, when instead, we should be rejecting these elements wholeheartedly without question and without equivocation.
Usually when there is smoke, there is a good chance there is fire. A really good chance. Except if you work for the commercial banking industry. When there is smoke, deny, deny, deny is the meme for bank CEOs and this is how they have deceptively convinced thousands of good people around the world to turn away from their collective consciousness and “break bad” with them. The Money Masters have carefully studied psychology for centuries and have masterfully used their knowledge of a phenomenon called “the Bystander Effect” to keep not only thousands of global worker bees (that merely earn a tiny fraction of their own obscene salaries) obedient and ignorant of their crimes, but also thousands of mid-level executives as well. In fact, at times, these bank CEOs so masterfully wield “the Bystander Effect” to their advantage that they are able to even conjure up shocking support of their crimes from good people that they have employed. I know this to be true because I have spoken to many bank employees that defend the most egregious of their boss’s crimes, including blatant money laundering for the most violent of drug cartels and incredulously even defend their bank’s money laundering for terrorist cartels.
Today, it is much easier to write an article like this that exposes the truth about today’s modern banking system than it was just a mere five years ago due to the growing movement of people interested in learning the truth about our global banking system, and that is a good thing…
Really good article. Read the rest here:
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-09-30/breaking-bad-big-bank-ceos-how-bad-bank-ceos-use-bystander-effect-dupe-good-p
They said it couldn’t be done. They said it shouldn’t be done. Well… it is being done! And all it takes is one city in one state to start what will be a healthy reversal.
http://mandelman.ml-implode.com/2013/09/carpe-domum-the-little-city-that-could-richmond-california/
Richmond Ready to Rumble… Carpe Domum! (Seize the Home!)
Led by the city’s Green Party, activist mayor, Gayle McLaughlin, the city is tried of waiting… they decided that they’d feel in more control of their own economic destiny by buying 624 underwater mortgages, in order to write them down to something near market value for their owners.
So, at the beginning of this past August, the city sent letters to 32 banks and trustees with offers to buy the 624 homes… except the letters also said that if the banks and trustees wouldn’t agree to negotiate the price, the city would force their agreement using the powers of eminent domain.
I’m pretty sure the reaction would have been slightly more muted had the city announced that it was set on testing a nuclear bomb in the middle of San Francisco Bay.
The city’s plan is to offer to purchase both current and delinquent mortgages held in private-label mortgage-backed securities… Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans would be off limits… and the offer would be at a price determined by an independent appraisal. If no one would sell the city the homes, they’d use eminent domain to make the sale happen.
However, to defend against the accusation that some homeowners used their homes like ATMs, no homes with second mortgages will be purchased by the city. So, if you were one of the people who didn’t buy a new home during the bubble, but instead decided to take out a second and remodel your current home, you’re out of luck, pal. Maybe next time you’ll buy up like every good American should. [What will be interesting though is what happens when the 2nd “mortgage” has been bought by a JDB. An argument can be made that those are no longer mortgages at all but simply unsecured debts that should be discharged in BK…]
Cornell law professor Robert Hockett has developed a technique that would allow the city to use eminent domain to seize the mortgage, as opposed to the home itself.
Can you do that?
Apparently, you can. The question is whether or not a property that is “intangible” can be taken under eminent domain. And Professor Hockett says it can.
According to the Washington Post…
The very first time the Supreme Court heard a case on eminent domain, in fact, had to do with a state taking an intangible form of property. In the 1848 case West River Bridge Company v. Dix, the state of Vermont used its eminent domain powers to take a franchise contract.
The Court argued that the distinction between “property which is corporeal” or tangible and property that is intangible, like the franchise under question, “has no foundation in reason.” They were “aware of nothing peculiar to a franchise which can class it higher, or render it more sacred, than other property.”
Since then, eminent domain cases have come up in everything from sports franchises to stocks, and every time the fact that the property in question wasn’t a physical thing didn’t matter for the case.
Litigation… becoming more popular than Monday night football!
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-28/citigroup-follows-jpmorgan-as-legal-target-peabody-says.html
Citigroup Follows JPMorgan as Legal Target, Peabody Says
By Dakin Campbell – Sep 28, 2013 12:00 AM ET
Citigroup Inc. (C) is poised to be the next U.S. bank to attract legal and regulatory scrutiny as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) looks to settle a host of probes, according to an analyst at Portales Partners LLC.
Citigroup’s $5 billion estimate of potential legal costs that weren’t covered by reserves at midyear is second only to JPMorgan, Charles Peabody of Portales said yesterday in a Bloomberg Radio interview. That shows Citigroup may be bracing for more legal challenges, Peabody said.
Enlarge image Citigroup Inc.
Citigroup Inc.’s estimate for potential legal costs rose from $4 billion a year earlier. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
“It’s very conceivable that Citigroup will be next in the firing line,” Peabody said. “Their litigation costs have been accelerating faster than anyone else’s.” Citigroup is the third-largest U.S. bank by assets and JPMorgan is ranked first. Both are based in New York.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier this month that announcements about banks other than JPMorgan would be made in the coming weeks and months. Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat has seen litigation costs climb to $1.44 billion in the first half of 2013, putting this year on track to be the most expensive for such costs since the financial crisis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Mark Costiglio, a company spokesman, declined to comment. The lender is facing “legacy issues” tied to mortgage products, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said in July.
Citigroup’s estimate for potential legal costs rose from $4 billion a year earlier. JPMorgan raised the upper end of its estimate to $6.8 billion from $5.3 billion. Bank of America Corp. reduced its figure to $2.8 billion from $4.1 billion after settling some of its biggest pending cases.
Citigroup’s litigation costs totaled $8.1 billion from 2008 through the end of June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with $21.3 billion at JPMorgan and $19.1 billion at Bank of America. Wells Fargo & Co.’s totaled $2.7 billion.
“You’re going to see a continuation of headlines dealing with litigation,” Peabody said.
Of course they are not squeaky clean, none of them are !!!
The truth shall set us free… With all that good truth coming out, we should all start enjoying our coming freedom before it all manifests!
Yep, “lenders” often have their own title company and/or appraisers, neatly created as independent Inc with all the same officers. Double dipping as an art form. Mine was one of them… and when i picked up on it and reported it, I was amazed at how little interest it generated. Maybe now it’s going to start smelling so bad that clean up won’t be optional any longer…