by William Hudson
While reading the Housing Wire today, something caught my eye. Black Knight Financial Services reported that in Mississippi 11% of all homeowners are behind on their mortgages. And then I remembered reading about a newly elected mayor in Jacksonville, Mississippi who claimed that Wells Fargo zeroed out his mortgage on the day he was elected. I’m not sure if there is any connection- but could it be that our elected officials are receiving financial “incentives” (like principal forgiveness) from the banks?
Wells Fargo allegedly paid off new Jackson, Mississippi mayor Tony Yarber’s outstanding mortgage balance that was in default. In fact, Yarber states he had not made a payment since November. On the same day he was elected to office he received a letter from Wells Fargo stating that Wells Fargo had authorized the release of the remaining lien on his home in the amount of $91,621.94, on April 22, 2014. “Essentially, they wrote it off,” Yarber said. “Wells Fargo said don’t worry about sending no more money,” he said to local reporter Anna Wolfe.
Yarber, a pastor, previously delivered a sermon declaring the lien extinguished, mentioning being part of the “very unfortunate real estate swindle of the early 2000s.” Apparently if you have a little political clout and pray, God (and Wells Fargo) will answer your prayers and erase your mortgage. The “Election is over. We trusted God. Y’all talked all that noise,” Yarber said in his sermon. “And while they was running their mouth, a letter came in the mail from Wells Fargo. The letter said, ‘Dear Mr. Yarber, concerning loan number whatever it was, at 1605 whatever street you stay on, we have no more interest in that property. Consider the $92,000 that you owe us washed away.’” It is likely that this is not an isolated event-whereas most politicians know to keep quiet, Wells Fargo simply had the misfortune of writing off the mortgage of a man who felt compelled to publicly thank God for this wondrous act.
The letter from Wells Fargo stated that “due to inactivity of the above mortgage account, we are releasing the lien on your first mortgage with us.”
“This means we will forgive the unpaid principal balance on your first mortgage loan and release you from any obligation to make payments on the loan now or in the future,” the letter states.
In 2007, Yarber took out a 40-year, $92,872.48 mortgage on his south Jackson home. On May 16, 2014, 22 days after taking office, the lien release was recorded in Chancery Court.
If Wells Fargo is writing down mortgages for Political Gain- I encourage Living Lies readers to go down to your local county records offices and examine the mortgage documents of your elected leaders and officials. Wells Fargo has failed to officially comment but said the release was not part of the national mortgage settlement (and likely consulted with their tall-tower attorneys once the story broke).
Filed under: foreclosure |
Reblogged this on California Freelance Paralegal and commented:
This is just more proof that most if not all politicians are corrupt. Frankly I am surprised that this is the first time this issue has been written about as I am sure that this is not the first time for a big bank to forgive a mortgage for a politician.
RE “I encourage Living Lies readers to go down to your local county records offices and examine the mortgage documents of your elected leaders and officials.”
I have done A LOT of public records review of local elected leaders and officials, some do have Releases of their liens …e.g. the Recorder and REO Realtor
Q: How can one identify whether the official had paid it off or if their bank had extinguished the lien?
Good thinkin;, RR. Actually, I had heard through the grapevine that some of the judges and the attorneys were buying up foreclosed homes very cheaply. I know of one person here in SC whose house went that way and wound up being the property of the attorney on the other side of her foreclosure case. Hmmmm…..
Here is what one person running for the office said:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s speech, at the Center for Popular Democracy’s annual gala in Washington as reported by Washington Post.
“Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown — because it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap,” Warren said. “What kind of a man does that? Root for people to get thrown out on the street? Root for people to lose their jobs? Root for people to lose their pensions?”
Watch YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Mrfu4yE-w&feature=youtu.be
What are we going to do if the possible future president is also for foreclosure? What is happening to this great nation !
interesting how my full name popped up, isn’t it? Never saw that before……must be WordPress merging my identity. Or the Feds are back in my computer…..
Make that “Massive Election-Rigging System”
Louise, what better way to “pay off a judge” than to do it without cash? Anybody in the world ever heard of MERS? Massive Economic Racketeering System? Think about it! This has been under our noses all along! I think we should all make it a point to devote a couple hours to taking a look at the property records of these all these judges that go out of their way to ignore and break the law on the bench ruling for the foreclosure mills and banksters. And while you’re at it, find some of the LLC’s owned by foreclosure mill lawyers. I bet they’re there! What a perfect scenario! We’ve all been scratching our heads wondering WHY and HOW this could all be happening in courts of LAW? There is no law when the other side already paid off these black-robed robbers to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars without triggering an IRS SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORT, how can there be?
By Jove! I think I’ve got it!
And no sense pointing it out to the Feds. They know all about it. They created it.
UKG, very interesting and a missing mortgage? Maybe this goes much further than we think. Maybe we should look at all the judges property records and see what is going on.
my judge got a new mortgage from Wells Fargo, and he said so on the bench. Just one problem, I can’t find any record of an existing mortgage.