Use of QWR and DVL is extremely important in counteracting the tracks laid down by securitization that fake a contractual relationship with the homeowner

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Neil Garfield

If you are not willing to challenge the basic assumptions of the loan or debt, then you probably should not even start any challenge or defense. If you are willing to do that you will probably win or force the “dark side” into a settlement that you find favorable to your interests.

You don’t need to understand how the debt vanished. You only need to know that if you challenge its existence and therefore its owner and agents, the dark side will fail.

The inability of consumers to understand the securitization process is not a legal excuse for preying on them.

The inability of lawyers and jduges to understand the securitization process is not a crime. It simply means they must be convinced.

The existence of the process of securitization and the use of that label is not a legal or accounting substitute for transactions in which value was paid for the purchase of loans in shares distributed to investors.

  • No sale of loan=No securitization.
  • No Securitization=No creditor.
  • No creditor=No servicer. 
  • No servicer=No accounting records
  • No accounting records=No case against homeowners. 

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According to the rules and regulations, service or notice to one of the parties involved in “servicing” is service or notice to all. But if you want to establish the foundation for later enforcement by the homeowner it is a good idea to serve notice on everyone you know, or anyone uncovered by the forensic investigation.

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ADMINISTRATIVE STRATEGY: Most people view the FDCPA and RESPA as useless and most people raise challenges to fake creditors in which they lose the case. It is a good idea to send a QWR and DVL to everyone you know is involved in the attempts to establish claims, rights, title, or interest in the administration, collection, or enforcement of alleged obligations.
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In that letter, one should specify that according to information supplied by them [either in the public domain or in correspondence and notices directly to you] the functions they identify are clearly within the definition of a servicer and are probably aiding in the process of debt collection as that term is defined.
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THEN go on to say that the money you have paid appears to have been misdirected by or on behalf of the recipient of the QWR/DVL.
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If possible you want to cite the fact that the only party that appears to be named as a creditor disclaims any knowledge of the content, existence, or administration of any unpaid loan account receivable owed by you.
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Hence it is fair to assume that they (the named creditor) are not receiving money nor making distributions to “investors.” If that is true then they have no right or authority to appoint any agent over any obligation owed by you, if any exists.
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Hence the first question is a request for a description of your functional role in the processing, administration, and enforcement of any alleged obligation owed by me and an identification of the party(ies) on whose behalf you engage in such activities or functions.
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You are writing therefore to validate the existence of a loan account receivable, the identity of the owner of that account and to validate the payment and/or receipt by that entity of money paid by you on that account.  Further, you are writing to validate that money paid by you has been paid by the company named as “servicer” or whether such payments are transmitted by some other person or entity.
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These are the tracks in the sand that counteract the tracks made by the securitization players immediately after every “closing.” Without those tracks, your defenses and challenges appear to be hail mary passes. With them, you can show any court that they have repeatedly stonewalled any questions about the existence of the debt they say they are trying to collect and the existence of any authority to collect it.
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You don’t owe money to anyone who claims it just because you issued a note and mortgage. It can ONLY be an obligation owed to a creditor who can be identified. You don’t owe money at all if the loan account doesn’t exist.
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Through the process of legal reformation in the courts, a loan account might be created and it might not. But until that account exists, there is nothing to pay and there is no creditor to pay because a “creditor” can ONLY be a person or entity that owns and maintains an unpaid account receivable owed by you.
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The fact that the investment banks who control this scheme did not credit a loan account is no excuse in and of itself for the failure to create that loan account and then credit it with money received on account of that.
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Their choice to substitute a sham “servicer” who performs no services or functions relating to receipt or disbursement of money does not excuse them from compliance with laws, precedent, and standards that have evolved over centuries of legal jurisprudence. And the inability of consumers to understand the securitization process is not a legal excuse for preying on them.
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Nobody paid me to write this. I am self-funded, supported only by donations. My mission is to stop foreclosures and other collection efforts against homeowners and consumers without proof of loss. If you want to support this effort please click on this link and donate as much as you feel you can afford.
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Neil F Garfield, MBA, JD, 75, is a Florida licensed trial and appellate attorney since 1977. He has received multiple academic and achievement awards in business, accounting and law. He is a former investment banker, securities broker, securities analyst, and financial analyst.
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CLICK HERE TO ORDER ADMINISTRATIVE STRATEGY, ANALYSIS AND NARRATIVE. This could be all you need to preserve your objections and defenses to administration, collection or enforcement of your obligation. Suggestions for discovery demands are included.
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FORECLOSURE DEFENSE IS NOT SIMPLE. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF A FAVORABLE RESULT. THE FORECLOSURE MILLS WILL DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO WEAR YOU DOWN AND UNDERMINE YOUR CONFIDENCE. ALL EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT NO MEANINGFUL SETTLEMENT OCCURS UNTIL THE 11TH HOUR OF LITIGATION.
  • But challenging the “servicers” and other claimants before they seek enforcement can delay action by them for as much as 12 years or more.
  • Yes you DO need a lawyer.
  • If you wish to retain me as a legal consultant please write to me at neilfgarfield@hotmail.com.

Filed under: CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, foreclosure defenses, forensic investigation, investment banking, Investor, Pleading, Servicer, sham transactions, standing | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Latest Moratorium Extensions Are Two-Edged Sword

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Neil Garfield
The new president is facing incoming fire from all directions. If he does not extend the moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, hundreds of thousands of people are going to be homeless. But the extension does not come without costs.
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As you have seen on these pages, I am quite confident that none of the scheduled payments from homeowners are legally due. On the other hand, I am loathe to tell homeowners or tenants that they should withhold payments if they can make them.
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The reason is basically extortion or duress. By withholding a scheduled payment without a court order telling you can don’t need to make the payment, you put yourself and your home in jeopardy. the Wall Street foreclosure team will use that as their excuse for pursuing collection and enforcement ending in foreclosure and eviction if you don’t properly defend.
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The situation with tenants is even more dire. Many if not most rental units are owned by small landlords who do not possess the resources to get through this pandemic period. When the time comes that their units are exempted from moratoriums by time or edict, they will be required to pay the “arrearage” just like everyone else. Those homeowners who are using the moratorium as an excuse to withhold payment without having a plan of attack are headed for trouble — possibly the kind they can’t fix.
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The obvious answer to this problem is for homeowners to launch preemptive lawsuits against the securitization team. But my observations and experience show that most judges will not allow such lawsuits to go forward. this is because it is seen as an attack on the financial system generally and because judges are afraid that allowing such lawsuits will invite many more that will clog all the court systems. I have had many judges agree that the lawsuit did state a claim but dismissed it anyway sometimes after as much as 14 months of sitting on the motion to dismiss.
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Some people believe that the judges don’t get it. But most of them do “get it” — at least in part. Since those judges believe the loan exists, the loan account exists and that the homeowners almost certainly owe the payments, they see little harm in waiting until enforcement action is brought against the offending homeowner. Then they will occasionally rule in favor of a homeowner who reveals fatal deficiencies in the proof of the claim.
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It is during the moratorium periods that homeowners have an unprecedented opportunity to start actions against the securitization team — but not entirely the way most might think. By sending a proper Qualified Written Request and Debt Validation Letter you open up a more palatable action for the Judges in advance of enforcement. This is the opening step in the homeowner’s challenge.
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They must answer and they risk some rather harsh sanctions if they lie — so they withhold information. But the information they give in response to the statutory inquiries will most likely contain inconsistencies with their correspondence.
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Your questions need to be very specific. And they should start with existence, ownership, and authority over a loan account receivable on the ledger of some company; that entry can only be legal and valid if value was paid in exchange for a conveyance of ownership of the loan account receivable (aka underlying debt or underlying obligation). This is the most basic requirement established by law and custom over centuries in English common law and statutes, American common law; it is also established as the law in every jurisdiction in their adoption of Article 9 §203 of the Uniform Commercial Code.
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Next, the homeowner can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Board and the Consumer Division of the Attorney General of their State. Once again a response is mandated by statute and the securitization/foreclosure team does no dare withhold a response. but once again their response is going to be filled with legalese evasion of admitting the simple fact that they don’t own the loan account receivable and they have not been given any authority from anyone who does own it.
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Homeowners should not allege nor try to prove that all securitization of residential “debt” is a fraudulent scheme or a lie, even though that is true. It scares judges and it sounds like a conspiracy theory to them. So keep it simple and to the point.
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Foreclosure is about restitution for an unpaid debt. If the claiming party has no actual ownership of the debt arising from a real-world transaction in which they paid value in exchange for owning the loan account receivable they fail the test of the condition precedent set forth in 9-203 of the UCC. And that opens the door to “limited” actions for violations of the FDCPA (title X, 124 Stat. 2092 (2010) and other statutes. Those statutes have a bite to them and the foreclosure mills are afraid of them.
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The advantage of the preemptive action by the homeowner is that very often the securitization/collection/foreclosure team is not ready with fabricated documents containing false information about transactions that never occurred.
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The rule of thumb is to create a vehicle that can be gradually expanded as more information is obtained and the judge is gradually educated as to the true facts of the case. And remember that attorney fees are often recoverable in such actions along with statutory or compensatory damages.
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Once filed and discovery is underway, the best practice is to take information gleaned from discovery and then request a leave of court to amend the pleadings to include a broader action for declaratory, injunctive, and supplemental relief.
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The homeowner would be seeking damages for illegally trying to enforce a debt, and disgorgement of amounts paid to parties who had no nexus to ownership, or authority over the claimed “debt.” While this premise is true in virtually all cases in which securitization claims were in play, it can only be established by revealing the inability or unwillingness of the opposition to answer the most basic questions about existence, ownership, and authority over the debt.
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They can’t but you must do much more than accusing them. You must out litigate them which is why you most likely should have a lawyer who knows how to file motions to dismiss, discovery requests and motions to enforce discovery requests, along with motions for sanctions, motions for the court to adopt a negative inference against the opposition and motions in limine.
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If small landlords take heed, they can force the situation to tilt in their own favor, pass some of the savings to tenants and come out the other end of this crisis somewhat intact. If they don’t then it is unlikely that many of them will survive after the moratorium ceases unless their tenants have been paying rent in a timely fashion.
DID YOU LIKE THIS ARTICLE?
Nobody paid me to write this. I am self-funded, supported only by donations. My mission is to stop foreclosures and other collection efforts against homeowners and consumers without proof of loss. If you want to support this effort please click on this link and donate as much as you feel you can afford. 

Please Donate to Support Neil Garfield’s Efforts to Stop Foreclosure Fraud.

Click

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Neil F Garfield, MBA, JD, 73, is a Florida licensed trial and appellate attorney since 1977. He has received multiple academic and achievement awards in business and law. He is a former investment banker, securities broker, securities analyst, and financial analyst.
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FREE REVIEW: Don’t wait, Act NOW!

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION FORM. It is free, with no obligation and we keep all information private. The information you provide is not used for any purpose except for providing services you order or request from us. In  the meanwhile you can order any of the following:
CLICK HERE ORDER ADMINISTRATIVE STRATEGY, ANALYSIS AND NARRATIVE. This could be all you need to preserve your objections and defenses to administration, collection or enforcement of your obligation. Suggestions for discovery demands are included.
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CLICK HERE TO ORDER TERA – not necessary if you order PDR PREMIUM.
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CLICK HERE TO ORDER CONSULT (not necessary if you order PDR)
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CLICK HERE TO ORDER PRELIMINARY DOCUMENT REVIEW (PDR) (PDR PLUS or BASIC includes 30 minute recorded CONSULT)
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FORECLOSURE DEFENSE IS NOT SIMPLE. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF A FAVORABLE RESULT. THE FORECLOSURE MILLS WILL DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO WEAR YOU DOWN AND UNDERMINE YOUR CONFIDENCE. ALL EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT NO MEANINGFUL SETTLEMENT OCCURS UNTIL THE 11TH HOUR OF LITIGATION.
  • But challenging the “servicers” and other claimants before they seek enforcement can delay action by them for as much as 12 years or more.
  • Yes you DO need a lawyer.
  • If you wish to retain me as a legal consultant please write to me at neilfgarfield@hotmail.com.
Please visit www.lendinglies.com for more information.

Filed under: foreclosure, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, MODIFICATION, Mortgage, sham transactions, TRIAL OBJECTIONS | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

“Resecuritization”

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Neil Garfield

the basic thrust of the defense is to point out what is absent rather than attack what is not absent.

Get a consult! 202-838-6345

https://www.vcita.com/v/lendinglies to schedule CONSULT, leave message or make payments.
 
THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
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As predicted on my blog back in 2008, we are seeing new names of Trusts emerge in foreclosure cases — involving old loans that were declared in default years ago by parties asserting they represent the alleged servicer of either a named bank or servicer or an old trust. What happened? As our sources had revealed, the alleged trusts had nothing in them and were the source of extreme liability of the Master Servicer acting as underwriter to the investors and third parties who traded in securities based upon the representation that the Trust actually owned the debts of millions of homeowners.
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We have not seen the agreements, but we are told, and our analysis confirms, that the old trusts were “retired” and that new trusts, also empty, are now being used wherein the paperwork for the new “Trusts” is far more complete than what we have previously seen.
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As far as we have determined thus far the mechanics of the change of trust name are along the following lines:
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  1. There is probably a purchase and sale agreement between the old trust and the new trust. Like previous documentation there are no warranties of ownership but ownership of the debts is implied.
  2. Like the old Trusts, foreclosures are brought in the name of the new trusts, using US Bank or other major institution as the “Trustee.”
  3. Investors in the old trusts are given certificates in the new trust as settlement of claims brought by investors for malfeasance in the handling of their money — namely the origination of loans instead of the acquisition of loans and the granting of loans that were far lower in quality than agreed and far higher risks than allowed for stable managed funds.
  4. This “resecuritization” process is a sham just like the original old trust. But it follows the playbook the banks have been using for over a decade. By adding another level of paper to fabricated documents based upon nonexistent transactions, it promotes the illusion of valid transactions and valid documents.
  5. Like all other trusts and hybrid situations in which trusts were involved but not named, the entire scheme is based upon a simple premise. The banks have managed information and data such that there remains a false sense of security that they are still credible sources of information — despite all evidence to the contrary. The additional layer of documents then adds to the illusion because it is counterintuitive to believe that these high level complex documents represent transactions in the real world that don’t exist.
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Defense strategies remain the same, however. The issues in evidence laws and rules are foundation, and hearsay.The basic defects in the bank’s credibility must be revealed even if it does not get to the point where everything is revealed. The rent-a-name practice for appointment of trustees that have no obligations or duties continues. The “apparent authority” of the servicers is based upon a trust document of an entity in which there is no asset. But the website of US Bank and others suggest that they have business records — which in actuality do not exist. Hence, the basic thrust of the defense is to point out what is absent rather than attack what is not absent.
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This takes strict logical analysis by the attorney representing the homeowner — an exercise that in most cases cannot be accomplished by a pro se litigant. It may be beyond the confidence of the lawyer too, but there are many people in the country who provide services that assist with the logical analysis and factual analysis — including but not limited to the team at LivingLies and LendingLies. The analyst should be well-steeped in the three classes of securitization — concept, written documents and actual practice in order to come to conclusions that are not only correct but are likely to give traction in court.
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While tempting, attacking the existing documentation on the basis of authenticity or validity is a rabbit hole. The only parties that actually have the proof as to the fabrication of any one particular transaction are the parties with whom you are in litigation and the parties who created them and use them as sham conduits. They resist by all means available any attempt to provide access tot he real information and the real monetary transactions which look very different from the ones portrayed in court.
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By making an allegation you are now required to prove what you have said by evidence that the other side simply will not give up. This is not to say that there is no value in sending a QWR (Qualified Written Request), (DVL) Debt Validation Letter, or a complaint to the state AG or the CFPB. Much of the inconsistent statements come from those responses and can be used in court. And there is also considerable value in seeking discovery even if we know that in most cases, while it should be allowed, the judge will issue protective orders or sustain objections to requests seeking the identity of the owner of the debt.
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The value of those apparently futile endeavors can be that at trial the foreclosing party will almost certainly rely on legal presumptions that depend upon information contained in your discovery request.
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OBJECTIONS AT TRIAL: This requires research and analysis of potential objections and how they should be used. While a motion in limine before trial would seem to be the better practice, the real traction seems to come at trial when the homeowner raises objections and moves to exclude evidence that relies upon data contained in discovery they refused to answer and which the court ruled was irrelevant. It is of utmost importance, however, that in order to use the discovery exchanges, you must file a motion to compel and set it for hearing and get it heard. The risk of a motion in limine is that the court is more likely to deny it and then when raised at trial in an objection will regard your objection as a second bite an apple that has already been the subject of a dispositive ruling.
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Cross examination of the robo-witness should be aggressive and relentless pointing to the actual lack of knowledge of the witness about anything other than the script from which he was trained to testify.

Filed under: foreclosure | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Livinglies Recalibrates Forensic and Litigation Support Services

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Neil Garfield

Responding to specific requests from lawyers and homeowners, the livinglies store has changed its offering. Www.livingliesstore.com

You can still get the old Combo of just a title and securitization report, but we have added some levels and services to meet the demand for our services. Of course pricing has been adjusted to reflect the increased workload. Actual litigation support is provided throughout the country to any attorney by Garfield, Gwaltney, Kelley and White (GGKW) with offices now in Broward County and Leon County. We will soon have offices in the Florida Panhandle and Dade County. I’ll be posting separately on each office and the attorneys we have selected to litigate in accordance with our requirements.

GGKW represents homeowners throughout the state of Florida. Do not ask us to provide the full range of litigation support if you are a pro se litigant, even if your case is in Florida. You would be asking us to provide services that might be the unauthorized or unethical practice of law in states where we are not licensed. It would also be a bad idea because you cannot expect an attorney from another state to know the laws of your state, how they are applied in your courts, and the differences between individual judges. Sometimes local rules are dispositive of cases. Florida homeowners can get some additional assistance from GGKW or the livinglies store, but there is no good substitute for an attorney who knows and can argue rules of procedure and laws of evidence as they relate to your case.

The first additional the Combo offering is the Qualified Written Request and Debt Validation Letters. These are rising in importance and an increasing number of lawyers are asking us to prepare these. We can’t send them out but we can prepare them for the signature of the homeowner. We ask more pointed questions about whether the originator actually loaned money to the homeowner — that is, whether there was any transaction between the homeowner and the party stated on the note and mortgage (or deed of trust). This has grown in importance because of the absence of a fundamental allegation by the pretender lenders — that someone in their chain of paper actually entered into an actual transaction (offer, acceptance, consideration and execution) with the alleged borrower. It appears in many cases that the actual funding of the loan was a stranger to the paperwork and that the parties on the paperwork are strangers to the actual transaction.

We also are offering affidavits and declarations from the auditors or experts, including myself, together with a consultation to answer questions on the methods used and the conclusions to be drawn. Where an attorney for the homeowner is available during the consult, the homeowner will hear suggestions on specific strategies and tactics for the battle in court.

We are also just now adding to the package, Freedom of Information requests to the FDIC, OTS, OCC and the Federal Reserve, where applicable. In all likelihood the request you make about the results of their investigations against the banks that led to the Consent Orders and any filings after those orders were entered will be met with some sort of stonewalling. After all, the investigator grilled by Senator Warren admitted to finding thousands of wrongful Foreclosures but refused to tell her or anyone else in Congress which mortgages were effected or the names of homeowners who were illegally thrown out of their homes. It is important to note that these investigations, like the San Francisco study, found serious defects in which the foreclosure should never have happened.

The the response to FOIA requests will undoubtedly require you to push the agency in court to make the disclosures. And interrogatories directed at compliance with the Consent Orders may reveal the actual findings and the names of homeowners who are living outside the homes they still should ow and possess.

We recommend that the other companies providing these services follow our lead. We believe it will lead to better results and a more comprehensible presentation in Court.

Of course I need to remind you that nothing in this article nor the services and products on the store are a substitute for a licensed attorney. You should take no action at all without consulting with a licensed attorney, hopefully one that is familiar with the issues of securitized loans. Most of these cases are being resolved on the basis of the the rules of civil procedure and the laws of evidence. This is above the head of most pro se litigants. Failure to at least consult with an attorney licensed interest state in which your property is located could well result in losing a case you could have otherwise won.

Filed under: CORRUPTION, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure, GARFIELD GWALTNEY KELLEY AND WHITE, GTC | Honor, investment banking, Investor, MODIFICATION, Mortgage, Motions, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer, trustee | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 49 Comments »

New Workshop on Motion Practice and Discovery

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Neil Garfield

why-you-should-attend-the-discovery-and-motion-practice-workshop

VISIT LIVINGLIES STORE FOR FREE VIDEOS AND OTHER RESOURCES

START WINNING CASES!!

May 23-24, 2010 2 days. 9am-5pm. Neil F Garfield. CLE credits pending but not promised. Register Now. Seating limited to 18. INCLUDES LUNCH AND EXTENSIVE MANUAL OF FORMS, NARRATIVE AND CASES. An in-depth look at securitized residential mortgages and deeds of trust. Latest cases on standing, nominees, splitting note from security instrument, bankruptcy strategies, expert declarations, forensic analysis reports.

Lawyers, paralegals, experts, forensic analysts will all benefit from this. This workshop includes monthly follow-up teleconferences and continuing on-going support with advance copies of articles, cases and analysis.

  1. STRATEGIC REVIEW: WHY THESE CASES ARE BEING WON AND LOST IN MOTION PRACTICE.
  2. SECURITIZATION REVIEW
  3. USE OF FORENSIC REPORTS AND EXPERT DECLARATIONS
  4. RAISING QUESTIONS OF FACT IN CREDIBLE MANNER
  5. SETTING UP AN EVIDENTIARY HEARING
  6. FOLLOW THE MONEY
  7. OBLIGATION, NOTE, BOND, MORTGAGE, DEED OF TRUST ANALYSIS
  8. TILA, RESPA, QWR, DVL AND RESCISSION — WHY JUDGES DON’T LIKE TILA RESCISSION AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEIR RESISTANCE.
  9. NOTICE OF DEFAULT, TRUSTEE, STANDING, REAL PARTY IN INTEREST EXAMINED AND REVIEWED
  10. INVESTORS, REMICS, TRUSTS, TRUSTEES, BORROWERS, CREDITORS, DEBTORS, HOMEOWNERS
  11. FACT EVIDENCE ON MOTIONS
  12. FORENSIC EVIDENCE ON MOTION
  13. EXPERT EVIDENCE ON MOTION
  14. ORAL ARGUMENT
  15. WHAT TO FILE
  16. WHEN TO FILE
  17. EMERGENCY MOTIONS — MOTION TO LIFT STAY, MOTION TO DISMISS, TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDERS, MOTION TO COMPEL DISCOVERY
  18. DISCOVERY: INTERROGATORIES, WHAT TO ASK FOR, HOW TO ASK FOR IT AND HOW TO ENFORCE IT. REQUESTS TO PRODUCE. REQUESTS FOR ADMISSIONS. DEPOSITIONS UPON WRITTEN QUESTIONS.
  19. FEDERAL PROCEDURE
  20. STATE PROCEDURE
  21. BANKRUPTCY PROCEDURE
  22. ETHICS, BUSINESS PLANS, AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, HERS, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Regulation and Prosecution on Wall Street

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Neil Garfield

In my opinion, the growing anger at Wall Street is giving Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon another chance at misdirection. They are using the current popular angst to steer the debate into whether derivatives and synthetic CDOs should be banned. In the end they will win that debate, and they should win it. What they should lose is their freedom in a judicial forum where they are prosecuted like Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers, and where it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they committed criminal fraud and securities fraud.

The fact that we had a bad experience with derivatives is not a reason to ban them. The fact that they were abused and that people were cheated and that the entire financial system was undermined is another story.

There is nothing wrong with any transaction if the playing field is relatively level and if the imbalances are addressed by law and regulation. That is what the Truth in lending Act is all about and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act is meant to address.

When the big guys use their superior knowledge to trick consumers into deadly transactions, the big guys should pay the price. We have the SEC to take care of that on the other end protecting investors. Licensing laws and administrative sanctions against those licensed by state or federal agencies are well-equipped to step in and deal with these abuses. But they didn’t.

Complaints sent to the Federal Trade Commission, Office of Thrift Supervision and Office of the Controller of the Currency have gone unheeded even to this day. The only answer you get is similar to the answer we get from sending short or long Qualified Written requests or Debt Validation Letters — short shrift of legitimate complaints that by law are required to be investigated, verified (not just restated) and corrected.

The inconvenient truth is that our regulators were not employing the tools given to them. Everyone knew it. In part it was because of undue influence and in part it was because they were deferring to larger “smarter” institutions like the Federal Reserve. But the biggest reason the Federal and state agencies didn’t do their job is that we, as a society, bought into the non-regulation philosophy which has failed so spectacularly. We didn’t support appropriate funding, training and resources for these agencies. If we had done what we should have done — elect people who were committed to government protecting and serving the people — this mess would never have mushroomed to the point where Wall Street issued proprietary currency equal to 12 times times the amount of government currency — all in a span only 25 years.

The simple truth is that there was nothing inherently wrong about securitizing residential mortgages. In theory, spreading the risk out created much greater liquidity for small and large consumers of credit. What was wrong and remains wrong is that the use of these instruments was for an illegal purpose — to defraud investors and borrowers alike. And they did it in an illegal manner — by denying and withholding information essential to the decision-making on both sides of these transactions.

On one side you had a creditor who was willing to loan money for residential mortgages under terms and conditions that were “explained” in mind-numbing prospectuses and guaranteed by “insurance” that wasn’t really insurance and which was appraised by government licensed rating agencies who issued investment grade appraisals that were so wrong that it strains credibility to assume they didn’t know they were part of a larger criminal enterprise. This creditor lent money and received a bond, whose terms referenced other documents in the securitization chain that imposed conditions, co-obligors, and protections to the intermediaries that completely changed the loans that were signed by borrowers far, far away.

On the other side, you had borrowers, homeowners, who put their largest or only investment in the world at risk in a transaction that they could not understand because the information required to understand it was withheld. But even Alan Greenspan admitted he didn’t understand the transactions with the help of 100 PhD’s. These borrowers relied upon the sanctity of an underwriting process that no longer existed. Verification of property value, quality, affordability etc. were no longer in the mix.

These borrowers undertook an obligation to repay and signed a note that was evidence of the obligation but was payable to someone other than the party(ies) who loaned the money. That note was only a tiny part of the obligation to the creditor as evidenced by the mortgage backed bond they received.

The creditor was bilked out of a dollar and contrary to the expectations of the creditor, less than 2/3 of each dollar was actually used to fund mortgages. The creditor never actually received or even saw the note but ownership of the note was conveyed to the investor along with many other terms — terms that were entirely different from the note the borrower signed as to interest payments, principal, fees etc.

In between were the dozens of intermediaries who treated the documentation like a hot potato because nobody wanted to be stuck with it — knowing that misrepresentation and bad appraisals were the root of the instruments signed by creditors and debtors. These intermediaries kept possession of the note, kept the security instrument and kept the money and most of the insurance proceeds, received the federal bailout and now are proceeding to repackage the junk they already sold and through “resecuritization” are selling them again.

In my opinion there is nothing theoretically wrong with anything described above except for one thing — they lied. Fraud is fraud. If they had educated the creditors and debtors, if they had complied with local property and contract law, if they had been transparent disclosing everything much the same way as the prospectus in an IPO, then two things are true: (a) transactions that were completed would have been done because both sides knew the risks and were willing to take the loss and (b) transactions that were NOT completed (which would have been nearly all of them) would been rejected because the costs were too high, the risks were too high, and the consequences too dire.

But none of that happened because we allowed our regulators to be co-opted by the industries they were supposed to regulate. So tell your legislators and government agencies that you’ll allow them the resources to properly regulate and that you expect to hold them and the elected officials who put them there fully accountable.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. It isn’t derivatives that are wrong it is the people who used them and the way they were used that is wrong. Killing derivatives would lead to stagnation of what once was our greatest asset — the engine of liquidity for access to capital that has kept our economy growing.


Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Keiser’s Forensic Analysis Workshop

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Neil Garfield

You must remember the judiciary moves slowly is assimilating new facts or patterns in the marketplace. In order to break through a Judge’s preconception of the mortgage origination process, you need to have something that is clear in is presentation of facts, and obvious in its impact.

The reasons for having analysis performed by an independent third party is that it transforms empty argument into a question of fact. Anything that leads to a questions of fact gives you leverage in and out of court. In court, it allows you to credibly raise the issues so that discovery and an evidentiary hearing will allow your claims to be heard on the merits. No “audit” or analysis is PROOF or EVIDENCE unto itself. What it should do is give you something to hold in your had while talking to the Court, and which clearly contests the “facts” that the pretender lender is trying to have the Court assume (which is why objections, motion practice, discovery and evidentiary hearings are so important).

Lots of mistakes are being made on both sides of the mortgage crisis. Brad, in hosting this new forensic analysis workshop, seeks to help analysts avoid the usual pitfalls, recognize the issues that an expert or lawyer or homeowner may be required to present, and work toward providing the litigation support required to achieve a successful result.

There are a number of good workshops out there that can help forensic auditors, lawyers, experts and even lay people understand how to proceed when they wish to challenge some company that claims to be your lender or servicer. Max Gardner’s boot-camps are very good venues for understanding securitized loans, applying law and procedure to the challenge and coming out with good results. April Charney, who is giving a workshop soon in California is adding non-judicial states to the scope of her workshops for the first time. And Brad Keiser, who has been doing the survey workshops with me for a year and a half is now offering an important, even essential, workshop that drills down on forensic analysis of mortgages and foreclosure proceedings.

Brad, being a former banker himself with one of the nations largest banks, has performed virtually all of the research I use in connection with TILA, RESPA etc. A long-time friend, he has worked with me to bring LivingLies from two dimensional blog postings to three dimensional live presentations.

The output is what is important in any analysis of your mortgage or foreclosure situation. It doesn’t matter what work a company says they will do, even if they completed their engagement. The question is whether it is useful in producing an actual result. That is where the intersection of what is working in court and what is not comes into play. The issue here is knowing what you have, planning your strategy, and choosing the right procedures, lawyers, experts etc. in achieving a well-defined goal. Brad and I have carefully analyzed the forensic process and found a number of things that rise to the level of prime importance:

  1. Finding out whether there are patent violations of existing federal and state lending laws that can be identified for further action by the homeowner or their attorney. This among other things involves an examination of the Annual Percentage rate disclosed on the Good faith estimate, the timing of the good faith estimate, the presence of the traditional (but illegal) yield spread premium), affordability and other factors including discrepancies between the GFE and the HUD settlement statement. A key component of this part of the analysis often overlooked by “TILA Auditors” is an examination of the settlement transaction where the alleged loan was closed revealing discrepancies between the beneficiaries of the mortgage, the note, the title insurance, the mortgage insurance etc. and the use of “nominees” instead of naming the real parties in interest, which is evidence of a table-funded loan.
  2. Revealing the latent violations of lending laws and regulations caused by securitization of loans. Here is where the second and much larger yield spread premium appears and must be estimated by your expert or analyst using tables prepared by an expert. In addition. it reveals discrepancies in signatures, dates and parties in connection with fabricated or forged assignments used to justify the foreclosure by a party not named as lender or beneficiary.
  3. Determining whether there are refunds or rebates due back to the homeowner/borrower either from the original named lender or some other party in a securitization chain.
  4. Discovering facts that show a pattern of deceptive or predatory lending.
  5. Researching the loan to determine the record title chain, the probable securitization of your loan, and providing you with the right questions to ask as tot he identity of the creditor and demanding an accounting from the creditor, as opposed to simply a servicer that serves as a buffer between the debtor (homeowner) and the creditor (Investor owning mortgage backed securities).
  6. Providing adequate information and forms to the lawyer or client on sending out a Qualified Written Request, Debt Validation Letter or Demand Letter.
  7. Highlighting the most significant issues in your loan for the expert to use in preparing a declaration or the lawyer to use in filing a lawsuit, a petition for temporary injunction, or a bankruptcy petition.

As I have repeatedly stated on these pages, a TILA Audit is a start but it usually won’t produce the result of a modified loan that is acceptable tot he homeowner or the nullification of the obligation, note or mortgage.

Before securitization of mortgage loans, the process of examining loan transactions was fairly straight forward and fairly simple. With securitization the analysis requires a much higher level of sophistication that enables the lawyer or homeowner to present or proffer evidence of wrong-doing or improper procedures accounting or disclosure on the part of the securitization chain that produced your loan from the investment in mortgage backed bonds by investors.

Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Some stories don’t end well in this battle for justice — A Smiling Judge Refuses to Get it

Posted on November 26, 2009 by Neil Garfield

WHY WE ARE PLANNING 2-3 DAY BOOT-CAMPS AND MANUALS FOR LAWYERS, BOOT-CAMPS FOR FORENSIC ANALYSTS, AND BOOT-CAMPS FOR LAYMEN. IT’S JUST NOT AS SIMPLE AS YOU MAY WANT IT TO BE.

NOT EVERYTHING ENDS WELL. THE BATTLE IS ON. THIS JUDGE SAID THE ASSIGNMENT DOESN’T NEED TO BE RECORDED TO PROVE OWNERSHIP. HE’S TECHNICALLY RIGHT, BUT HIS CONCLUSION WAS WRONG. THIS IS WHY I KEEP SAYING THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET. The fact that an assignment is not recorded does not mean that it can’t be recorded — unless it is not executed in recordable form. If it isn’t executed in recordable form and it isn’t recorded then it violates the terms of the pooling and service agreement and the prospectus/indentures for the mortgage backed bond sold investors.

If the purported document violates the enabling documents then the assignment has not been accepted. If the assignment has not been accepted then there is no assignment. At best there is a conditional assignment which is clearly in violation of the the express terms of the enabling documents. The existence of the condition creates an issue of fact as to who really has the right to own, enforce and collect on the obligation, note and mortgage.

If there was no consideration for the “transfer? then there isn’t even an equitable argument for why the pretender lender should be allowed to foreclose. They have nothing to lose by the alleged default and obviously don’t even know if there is a default in the OBLIGATION that was FUNDED with ADVANCED MONEY by INVESTORS.

But you see, this Judge was already predisposed to not giving the “borrower” a free house. He/She needs to be coddled and led along the path of education so he/she understands that the “borrower” is actually an investor who purchased a financial loan product subject to terms and duties which were breached by all the people in the securitization chain. The “lender” is the investor who advanced the money and is not in court.

The pretender lender is using bluff and fraud to get their share of the great American pie at the homeowner’s expense, depriving the homeowner of the knowledge of the identity of the true lender, the ability to settle out of court with the true lender, the ability to comply with federal law in seeking modification, short-sale, refinance or even payoff because the pretender lender in Court in Florida doesn’t even have the right, power, authority or justification to execute a satisfaction of mortgage.

If they don’t have the power to execute a satisfaction of mortgage then how could they have the power to foreclose?

The problem with this case is that the homeowners should be aggressive but not to try to convince the Judge why he/she should get a free house. You must align yourself with the Judge’s basic sense of fairness and basic mistrust of legal maneuvering to get out of a legally owed debt. By focusing your aggression on discovery, enforcement of the QWR and/or DVL, asking for the name of the true lender and the production of documents and names, addresses and phone numbers of people who can testify under oath, you present the Judge with something he cannot or should not refuse and that any appellate court would reverse him on. You are asking for discovery to test the merits of the pretender lender’s allegation or position that they have the right to enforce the note, that they are the party to whom the obligation is owed, that they are a creditor in the sense that they advanced money which they will lose if they don’t get to enforce the note and obligation, and that therefore they are the beneficiary of the terms of the the mortgage that secures the alleged debt.

If you go into court spouting securitization theories it is very easy to say you haven’t convinced the Judge. If you go in demanding an evidentiary hearing based upon the rules of evidence and founded on common discovery and enforcement in obtaining relevant information about your loan, and seeking an accounting from those people, entities or parties that were participants in the securitization chain, then you are only asking for a COMPLETE accounting so that you discover what undisclosed fees were paid under TILA and RESPA, and the true identities of the people involved in your table-funded loan.

I’m sorry for your result Mr Fitzgerald, but perhaps with the aid of competent, licensed, local counsel you can move for rehearing, file a bankruptcy that will stay the proceedings, and/or appeal.

Author : L.Fitzgerald
Comment:
” Happy Thanksgiving …give thanks to all the Blessings you have……he said,

and don’t complaint of the things you don’t have..”

“I’ll be eating turkey with my ” kids ” tomorrow “…he happily remarked .

With a smile on his face ..this Orlando 9 th Judicial Circuit

Court .. Judge…denied my motion to vacate judgment , and

allowed my house to be sold on Jan. 2010.

We became a ” potential homelessness couple.”… .the day

before Thanksgiving..

He was very kind to a Wall Street Bankster [ plaintiff ]..he gave away my only home ….

During this hearing ..one of my main arguments ..

was the Plaintiff’s lack of recorded Assignments ..and chain of

Title .. [ The Bankster is not my original lender..].

The smiling Judge made this comment ..that shocked us …

” Florida law does not require Assignments to be recorded…

…to prove the Plaintiff’s ownership…!!.

Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 42 Comments »

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