For some reason I have been getting more questions about MERS lately. My analogy has always been that MERS is like a holograph of an empty paper bag. So here are some basic factors for the checklist and analysis:
- MERS never signed any contract with any borrower.
- MERS never has any contractual or other legal relationship with investors (certificate holders) or Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) like Fannie, Freddie or Sallie.
- MERS never signed any agreement or contract with most named “lenders.”
- MERS never signed any agreement or contract with respect to any specific loan transaction or acquisition.
- MERS was never the Payee on any note from a borrower.
- MERS never loaned any money in any residential loan transaction.
- MERS never paid any money for the acquisition of any residential loan agreement, debt, note or mortgage.
- MERS never handled any money arising from the origination of the loan.
- MERS never handled any money raising from administration of the loan.
- MERS never received a loan payment.
- MERS never disbursed any money to any creditor of a debt created by a loan.
- MERS does not conduct meeting of its board of directors to authorize any officer to sign any document.
- MERS never asserts warrants that the information maintained on its platform is true, correct or even secure from manipulation.
- MERS’ members can enter the system to insert any data they want to insert, delete, or change.
- MERS never claims any right, title or interest in any debt, note or mortgage. In fact, its website disclaims such an interest.
- MERS never maintains any agency relationship with any actual lenders.
- MERS never retains any agency relationship with any named lenders who are creditors after the loan is consummated.
- MERS has no successors.
- MERS never has power on its own to assign any right, title or interest to any debt, note or mortgage.
- MERS never has power as an agent to assign any right, title or interest to any debt, note or mortgage except for a principal who does have a right, title or interest to whatever is assigned.
- MERS never warrants that it has any agency relationship or power of attorney on behalf of any party whom it warrants is its principal and who owns the right, title or interest to any debt, note or mortgage.
- MERS never has any legal relationship or retainer with any lawyer seeking to enforce the note or mortgage in any transaction or court proceeding.
- MERS never has any legal relationship or agreement with any company asserted to be an administrator or servicer of a residential loan.
- MERS never has any legal relationship or agreement with any trustee of any REMIC trust.
- MERS has been sanctioned, banned and fined in many states along with the parties who claim rights through the use of MERS. Despite that MERS has never changed its practices or procedures.
- Any document of transfer of rights to a security instrument that shows a signature of a person who is identified as an officer or employee of MERS is a false document, with a false signature containing one or more false utterances.
- MERS is always a naked nominee possessed with no powers, rights or obligations and possessed with no rights, title or interests in any loans originated or acquired by third parties; however the courts have held that if a new party had paid for the debt, then it may instruct MERS to execute an assignment even if the original principal no longer exists.
- MERS is never party to any part of any loan transaction or loan acquisition in which consideration is paid.
- MERS is always a diversion from the true facts. In 2008 16 banks took my deposition for 5 1/2 days straight regarding the status of MERS. I said then and I say now that the use of MERS is less meaningful than using the name of a fictional character like Donald Duck.
- Despite thousands of attacks on me and my work over 12 years, not one memo, treatise or article has ever been published that said otherwise.
- No expert opinion has ever been given by affidavit or in live testimony to the contrary.
- In fact, not even a blog article or fake news article has ever said MERS is either a legitimate alternative to tracing title through county recording or a legitimate beneficiary under a deed of trust or a legitimate mortgagee under a mortgage.
- The asserted presence of MERS on any document or pleading or notice always means that the lawyers, servicers and other third parties are seeking to conceal material facts from the borrower and from the courts.
Filed under: evidence, expert witness, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, legal standing, quiet title, securities fraud, standing, TILA | Tagged: forensic analysis seminar |
[…] Source: Just to be clear, MERS is absolutely nothing. […]
And more research to consider.
Its all about fraud,Ponzi scheme and tax evasion – along with identity thefts and breach of US property titles
http://depot.som.yale.edu/icf/papers/fileuploads/2503/original/07-06.pdf
A CDO is a distinct legal entity, usually incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Its liabilities are called CDOs, so one might hear the
seemingly circular phrase ‘the CDO issues CDOs.’
Offshore incorporation enables the CDO to more easily
sell its obligations to United States and international investors and escape taxation at the corporate entity level.
When a CDO is located outside the U.S., it will typically also have a Delaware co issuer. This entity has a passive role, but its existence in the structure allows CDO obligations to be more easily sold to U.S. insurance companies
https://www.thebalance.com/role-of-derivatives-in-creating-mortgage-crisis-3970477
The real cause of the 2008 financial crisis was the proliferation of unregulated derivatives during that time. These are complicated financial products that derive their value from an underlying asset or index. A good example of a derivative is a mortgage-backed security.
How Derivatives Work
Most derivatives start with a real asset. Here’s how they work, using a mortgage-backed security as an example.
A bank lends money to a homebuyer.
The bank then sells the mortgage to Fannie Mae. This gives the bank more funds to make new loans.
Fannie Mae resells the mortgage in a package of other mortgages on the secondary market. This is a mortgage-backed security. Its value is derived by the value of the mortgages in the bundle.
A hedge fund or investment bank divides the MBS into different portions. For example, the second and third years of interest-only loans are riskier since they are farther out. There’s more of a chance the homeowner will default. But it provides a higher interest payment. The bank uses sophisticated computer programs to figure out all this complexity. It then combines it with similar risk levels of other MBS and resells just that portion, called a tranche, to other hedge funds.
All goes well until housing prices decline or interest rates reset and the mortgages start to default.
Role of Derivatives in the Financial Crisis
That’s what happened between 2004 and 2006 when the Federal Reserve started raising the fed funds rate. Many of the borrowers had interest-only loans, which are a type of adjustable-rate mortgage. Unlike a conventional loan, the interest rates rise along with the fed funds rate. When the Fed started raising rates, these mortgage-holders found they could no longer afford the payments. This happened at the same time that the interest rates reset, usually after three years.
As interest rates rose, demand for housing fell, and so did home prices. These mortgage-holders found they couldn’t make the payments or sell the house, so they defaulted.
Most important, some parts of the MBS were worthless, but no one could figure out which parts.
Since no one really understood what was in the MBS, no one knew what the true value of the MBS actually was. This uncertainty led to a shut-down of the secondary market. Banks and hedge funds had lots of derivatives that were both declining in value and that they couldn’t sell.
Soon, banks stopped lending to each other altogether. They were afraid of receiving more defaulting derivatives as collateral. When this happened, they started hoarding cash to pay for their day-to-day operations.
That is what prompted the bank bailout bill. It was originally designed to get these derivatives off of the books of banks so they can start making loans again.
It is not just mortgages that provide the underlying value for derivatives. Other types of loans and assets can, too. For example, if the underlying value is corporate debt, credit card debt or auto loans, then the derivative is called collateralized debt obligations. A type of CDO is asset-backed commercial paper, which is debt that is due within a year. If it is insurance for debt, the derivative is called a credit default swap.
Not only is this market extremely complicated and difficult to value, but it is also unregulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. That means that there are no rules or oversights to help instill trust in the market participants. When one went bankrupt, as Lehman Brothers did, it started a panic among hedge funds and banks. That was the true cause of the 2008 financial crisis.
corruptionpedia2, –YES – DERIVATIVES. THEY are not securities.
They are default debt contracts. And, here is the big issue –
Government had to so conceal all by holding interest rates down. But, these mortgages are tied to LIBOR – and not the U.S. rates. So — interest rate keeps going up -on mortgages – whether paying or not – the rate increases and what you owe increases. All when there was no valid mortgage loan to begin with. NOTHING was funded other than a cash-out. ALL JUST TRANSFERRED DEFAULT DEBT. But the stock market benefited by holding down of the U.S. interest rates. This will not last. Student of economics, like me, know — it will not last. All goes in cycles. Banks already suffering by low rate due to global slowdown. And, this has nothing to do with tariffs (not that I support that – but, as one Professor mentor once told me long time ago– other countries do not play fair). Global slowdown has been in making for very long time with or without tariffs. .
Who are the INVESTORS? No one you will ever know. No one you will ever have known named in court. They remain behind the curtain.
Here is the problem – once the economy falls – as it will – all of this will come crashing down. All currently held up by covered up fraud on policies that allow concealment. We cannot allow this. We must expose. We can be grateful to Neil for each and every individual case he can help – but without massive appeal to representatives, we will remain victims.
Get off all the other issues in election propaganda. It will not work and is irrelevant to the REAL massive issues at stake.
Sorry – Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham., Elizabeth Warren, and all the other Democrats and Republicans who refuse to address the real issues out there. Wake up. You will lose your own “investments” tied also to the fraud. It will crash – maybe not today – or tomorrow – or even within year. But, it will crash.
It will all come to fruition. There is no way it will escape forever. – Impossible. Unfortunately, we will lose as we try to get where we want to be without massive government help. But, we will get there. Impossible for them to avoid. Writing on the wall.
Thanks to all, and Neil, for keeping the issues alive. This is not a Dem or Rep issue. This is justice that must be addressed. No matter what.
Racketeering at it best!!! Greedy old Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo et all seem like they are right back at the same old game unless I am missing something here.
Great points Neal as always. Too bad that our very own government and all the congress people are completely conforable with this and more than likely all benefitiing. Like many have said before the biggest Ponzi Scam in American and we fellow Americans and Veterans are the losers!!! Some of President Trump’s appointments reflect he could care less like old Munuchin!! Sorry fellow Americans but we have all been had!!! Semper Fi.
Hey. So how can this be used as a defense either in foreclosure or bankruptcy? The Judge I had for my foreclosure case clearly stated, “I don’t want to hear one thing about MERS, that has already been decided in the Taylor case”!!! MERS was never addressed by the court nor did it even want to touch it with a 10 foot pole! It was in my answer and other filings but was not to be used as a defense. My question has always been, 40 something attorney generals filed a lawsuit against the use of MERS resulting in a 25 billion dollar settlement! I read the entire filing by NY attorney General a Schneiderman, and not that I was a big fan, it spelled it out perfectly! Yet the homeowners aren’t allowed to use this in court to fight their foreclosure or the legal party of interest as the chain was clearly broken!!
How do we use this to our advantage??
The point is that borrowers whom banks treat like casino chips, should not jump off the table but take more control over the situation from the beginning.
Banks are afraid that borrowers will learn about their scam with derivatives (a secretive contract to buy something attached to Joe Doe’s loan which does not even exist yet, for example, an option that Joe Doe will default on his mortgage while Joe is current on his payments).
These contracts usually backed by mortgage backed securities – but Joe, who usually does not know anything about MBS (Master Bull Sh..) of course has no idea that here are hundreds secondary contracts backed by MBS – derivatives – where Joe is also a party and a guarantor.
Derivatives bring banks trillions from a thin air.
I guess the best way is to ask for full disclosures before you sign the loan – in the same manner like banks run your credit check.
Or ask your Servicers for validation of debt; or send them a Qualified Written Request who is the Issuer/Trustee; and documents to prove that a Trust who holds your securities actually exists.
You will be surprised with their responses.
Yep corruptionpedia 2… it’s a strange game. Seems the only way to win is not to play. If we all quit playing… maybe they’ll starve.
corruptionpedia2 — well put.
Problem I have with MERS that I presented to the Dept of VA is that MERS is not authorized to do business in the State of NE, and the Deed of Trust was not illegally recorded so even in the world of MERS the mandatory first recording the Title was not done. So we got a fraudulent Title that not even transferred to WAMU who purchased the debt, who then stops existing on Sept 25, 2008, without the ability to sell the debt because the blank endorsed Notes are owned by Ginnie Mae, who not authorized by the US Congress to buy or sell any mortgage loan.
As the Note clearly shows that WAMU is listed as the purchaser of the debt and is backed up by a letter from the originator of the loan, and a blank endorsement of the Note when the loan is attached (not owned) to the WAMU Ginnie Mae MBS and debt cannot be called due after Sept 25, 2008 because WAMU stops existing.
Wells Fargo who started mortgage servicing WAMU Fed Gov loans with the Jul 31, 2006 deal, now tells the CFPB and US Sen office that they don’t see any records involving WAMU with my loan? So how is it that I have a letter from the originator and the FDIC verifying the purchase of the loan by WAMU plus a copy of the Note with WAMU endorsing in blank the Note!
Because WAMU did not submit a Assignment of Deed of Trust as it would have tip off the Sarpy County Register of Deed that it was impossible for the originator to deliver and record the Deed of Trust after it sold the debt as it did not have any financial interest to be able to place a lien against the property.
Wells used the outlaw firm in Kozeny & McCubbin to forged an Assignment as if Wells purchased the debt from the originator, excluding WAMU involvement and then sold the property illegally to the Dept of VA as if Wells was the :”holder in due course”! So I placed at the VA’s feet how could the non owner of the debt sell to the Fed Gov my properties when in fact I did not owe Wells or Ginnie a dime!
Demand creates supply.
We all know about banks and Judicial misconduct, but one of the main engines who propel foreclosures fraud are actually…INVESTORS.
Investors know about banks Ponzi scheme with derivatives attached to mortgage securities (thin air junks) – yet they buy them en mass .
Investors know that Lone Star, BlackRock, BlackStone and their subsidiaries – Caliber, PennyMac, Bayview, ect – are predatory foreclosers who make money from racket.
Yet, investors (pension funds, ect) give them trillions to get 50% profits from stealing Jow Doe’s home and Ponzi schemes with derivatives.
Investors are very interested in foreclosures because their 50% returns are coming from debt bonds attached to defaulted loans; plus options/futures that this loan will be foreclosed; property resold and a new loan issued – with new securities and new derivatives. .
Investors are gamblers, banks are casino owners. Judges and the Government are security guards for the casino.
This is why investors accept inflated settlements – because they are involved more than anyone else. They buy bogus securities.
As long as banks have investors’ demand for fraud, they will supply it.