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http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/15/racketeering-claims-against-bank-of-america-revived.htm
Racketeering Claims Against Bank of America Revived(CN) — Homeowners can sue Bank of America for claims it feigned compliance with a mortgage assistance plan that was a condition of the bank’s $45 billion bailout in 2008, the 10th Circuit ruled Monday.
Bank of America hired Urban Settlement Services dba Urban Lending Solutions to administer its Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. The bank was required to participate in HAMP as a condition of receiving a $45 billion bailout from the federal government to shore up the bank’s bad loans during the 2008 financial crisis. The government also guaranteed $118 billion in potential losses at the bank. HAMP required Bank of America to collect financial information from at-risk borrowers, and evaluate their eligibility for a loan modification that would allow them to pay a lower interest on their mortgage. The program allowed eligible borrowers to enter a trial period plan to demonstrate their ability to make lower monthly payments, and permanently modified loans if the borrowers made regular payments. But a class of homeowners led by Richard George say Bank of America and Urban conspired to obstruct and delay their HAMP loan modification applications. The defendants lied to borrowers, according to a 2013 lawsuit filed in Colorado, denying they had received HAMP application documents that they had in fact received, as proven by FedEx tracking numbers, in order to mislead homeowners about the status of their applications. The bank was allegedly motivated to feign compliance with the HAMP program in order to keep interest rates high on homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages. A federal judge dismissed the class’s RICO and promissory estoppel claims, but the 10th Circuit revived them Monday. “According to the plaintiffs, the enterprise’s dilatory tactics and wrongful denial of HAMP loan modifications defrauded borrowers of money. The plaintiffs specifically allege BOA profited from the fraud by improperly charging fees associated with delinquent loans and by ‘push[ing] homeowners into in-house modifications’ that carried higher interest rates than those associated with HAMP loan modifications,” Judge Nancy Moritz said, writing for the three-judge panel. The appeals court found homeowners’ allegations sufficiently specific to sustain their racketeering claim against the bank. The judgment notes that plaintiffs identify bank employees by name, specify the dates on which they spoke to said employees, and explain the actions they took based on the misinformation they were allegedly given. The homeowners’ claim against Urban also passes muster, because the allegations, if true, support a finding that Urban was aware of the overall scheme to defraud borrowers, the 38-page ruling states. In addition, Moritz found that Bank of America made a promise to homeowners on its website and in documents sent to homeowners explaining the HAMP process, supporting their promissory estoppel claim. “The language in BOA’s [trial period plan, or TPP] documents clearly and unambiguously promises to provide permanent HAMP loan modifications to borrowers who comply with the terms of their TPPs. And this is true regardless of whether those TPP documents state that promise inversely – i.e., that if the borrowers fail to comply with TPP terms, BOA will not modify the loan,” the judge wrote. |
Filed under: foreclosure |
This is a racketeering scam that is not limited to BofA. Wells Fargo did the exact systematic fraud with me. Their goal is to inflate our loans with fees and high interest by denying HAMPS. The banks want to foreclose to make insurance claims on an amount greater than what you actually owe. Freddie Mac reported a staggering statistic that 60 percent of foreclosures have been on borrowers that had less than 7 years remainin on their loans. Imagine what that group looks like. Probably middle aged and paid more than 20 years and have equity for banks to steal as retirement age approahes. Little to no savings to fight the throngs of lawyers the bank keeps on retainer. Keep in mind that lawyers are debt collectors and the goal of the bank is to generate a delinquency so they can come after you with their cache of foreclosure attorneys. And we are all paying for this fraud with the $45 billion tax payer bail out. The Wells Fargo fake bank account scam is just the tip of the iceberg of widespread racketeering that is going on in the banking industry. Lawyers aren’t going to take on the case unless they can make money. Settlements do nothing more than payoff government agencies who agree to the settlement. The FBI should be investigating criminal racketeering at Wells Fargo and BofA but law enforcemt seems intimidated by white collar Wall Street executives. Hey they are simple thugs and they belong in prison.
Dear Neil. I need a copy of this ruling for my judge here in Illinois. I accused Wells Fargo of racketeering for near identical barges of dragging out a modification and denying a HAMP, charging fees and steering me into a higher interest in-house modification. Is the case Richard George vs urban and BofA? 2013. US circuit court of appeals?
Tina, New Jersey judiciary don’t care. They are still siding with the banks. They are ignoring the law. A blind man can see the fraud. The banks want the foreclosure. The modification is unreasonable and they hope you will default again. None of the settlements have been honored at all. There is no principal reductions no making homes affordable. Nothing no oversight for homeowners no follow through from any agencies. None. Good luck.
I was promised a Hamp by Megan at Greentree. Her exact words were, “Bank of America is offering you a Hamp because you qualify “. I tried to short sale do a DIL and then decided to let it go to foreclosure…They told me not to pay because Fannie mae would not approve if not 90 days delinquent..This was all a ploy so they could be paid off by insurance after the 91st day. They jerked me around and then denied me the DIL. Then the offer for Hamp came if I made payments for 3 months.But they never gave me a Hamp. I ended up with what they call a streamline with a higher interest rate and $23,400 tacked onto a 40 yr loan…What a joke! They amaze me..I’ve thought about suing for the fraudulent assignment of mortgage they recorded with stamped signatures for both the robo signers and notary…They also didn’t mention my name…They have screwed up so much on mine and in 2 yrs I found all the proof I need that fraud is involved and New Jersey has a law against filing and recording false paperwork…These banks are a joke ..
I was promised a Hamp by Megan at Greentree. Her exact words were, “Bank of America is offering you a Hamp because you qualify “. I tried to short sale do a DIL and then decided to let it go to foreclosure…They told me not to pay because Fannie mae would not approve if not 90 days delinquent..This was all a ploy so they could be paid off by insurance after the 91st day. They jerked me around and then denied me the DIL. Then the offer for Hamp came if I made payments for 3 months.But they never gave me a Hamp. I ended up with what they call a streamline with a higher interest rate and $23,400 tacked onto a 40 yr loan…What a joke! They amaze me..I’ve thought about seeing for the fraudulent assignment of mortgage they recorded with stamped signatures for both the robo signers and notary…They also didn’t mention my name…They have screwed up so much on mine and 2 yrs I found all the proof I need that fraud is involved and New Jersey has a law against filing and recording false paperwork…These banks are a joke ..Tired of the bullshit…
Is there nothing anyone can do in the whole country to stop the theft of homeowners’ homes by these lenders who seem to have the government and our entire judiciary in cahoots with them? What on earth is it that all this theft is going to hide or cover up that would be so bad if brought to light that is worth millions of people being forced out of their homes and all these people involved totally abandoning all rule of law? In the above 10th Circuit case, Judge Moritz was appointed by Barack Obama to the court January 6, 2014 and commisioned July 29, 2014 – so how long do you think an approval of this “racketeering” case will hold up given that the Department of Justice has taken a flyer on prosecuting any of these pretender-lender-offenders? It has been so discouraging. I have read and studied everything I could find on the foreclosure fraud subject for over five years now, including court cases in my own state and other states’, whose laws differ from my own state, but I am a college-degreed Accountant and Tax Practitioner, not a lawyer, and am treated with contempt by the lawyers in my own state. None of them will try to fight the fraud. The only issue is the homeowner stopped paying the mortgage to the Servicer, and so the homeowner is in “Default”. None of the judges will admit or rule that the lenders trying to foreclose have anything in the transaction “not quite right” either or will entertain the idea that the Servicer does not even likely have a correct balance owed to it. Totally disgusting. My house is being auctioned tomorrow and there is a chain of defunct entities in my loan’s history, that went out of business, including Countrywide and Bank of America. Now I have Deutschebank as Trustee of a Morgan Stanley trust, Servicer SPS is the “forecloser” but Deutschebank sent its own lawyers representing it.
Absolutely positively racketeering. Wisconsin WOCCA is even better.
Plead with specificity.
We had applied for HAMP and made three TPP. We then called B of A to mention that we have not received the document for permanent modification. They then told us that we have to apply for HAMP which we had already applied for and made three Trial Payments to get permanent modification. We were taken aback hearing this non-sense. Now our mortgage is serviced by Specialized Loan Servicing which wrote to us that they can’t comment on previous servicer. If SLS doesn’t know much about the previous servicer how the alleged mortgage got transferred to them? We asked for promissory note we signed and they sent us a paper with no signatures at all and no endorsement taking us as a some kind of joke joke. These things are affecting us adversely. Could we file a case for damages for mental anguish caused by them?
Nothing!!! Nothing will come from any of this. The bank will buy their way out of this just like all other times. Lawyers will come out of it with a big win, but nothing will undo the harm that has been done to the homeowners and the public. There is something that I think they may be beginning to understand, and that is millions of people like myself now believe that our system has been rigged. No justice for this major crime, no homeowners made whole again. I no longer trust our courts and will do without before doing any business with anything wall street. You will never get another dime from me!!!!
Reblogged this on California Freelance Paralegal.
There was a class action suit with chase breaching hamp mods too and all of chases ambiguous language. Look up chasemdlsettlement.com. Another big lie and corrupt courts. Lawyers in boston made out like bandits. Im still waiting for what they told me i would be eligible for if i remained in settlement All a bunch of crap. Isnt it gary klein?
If you have a freaking Liar Loan then servicer lawfully had no bearing to modify a null and void contract to begin with. Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon committed a crime by falsifying documents period. Nothing these bank’s did is excusable. Lies on top of lies in corrupt courts who have allowed this corruption to continue. Even since the Nash vs Bank of America verdict 5/2016, in Harris County TX alone under the supervision of Hon Stan Stanart and his clerks, as recently as 8/11/2016 assignments of Deed of Trust and corporate Assignment are being filed at the hands of Bank of America, Doc Solutions under America’s Wholesale Lender, Bank of New York Mellon, and MERS. According to the USPTO officially Trademark America’s Wholesale Lender was cancelled. Yes, there is no more America’s Wholesale Lender®. MERS® still creating Assignmens. And what is Bank of America saying? “Bank of America does not do this sort of thing. We have stopped using robosigning” blah blah blah. Folks no new news and courts should be getting it down, America’s Wholesale Lender trademark does not exist as a Corporation in any state in 2005, 2006, 2007, and as of 2016 there is no longer a Servicemark or Trademark. It was criminal from the beginning and it is a criminal act now.