Please Keep April Charney in Your Prayers

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Editor’s Comment:

Hopefully April will make a full recovery. I had similar problems in 2003 and the pain, I can tell you, was “exquisite.” I hope the doctors have that under control for her. The whole kidney thing is always painful and discouraging. Send April some messages of good will and keep praying for her. We need her. I must say I’m a little weirded out by my open-heart surgery In March, followed by Max Gardner’s fight with cancer and now April ‘s challenge with her kidney.

As it turns out it appears as though my own recovery is going quite smoothly and that I have a new lease on life — so if the banksters think the seminars are over, think again. Max has made it clear that he will keep teaching and I am about to re-start the seminar tour I had to cut short 2 years ago. The real battle is just beginning.

April Charney’s Latest Battle

Most of you are familiar with Boot Camper April Charney and her tireless work on behalf of homeowners in Florida. Now, April is fighting another unexpected battle: she is hospitalized after complications during treatment for a kidney stone. She has been in critical condition for several days, on a respirator and undergoing dialysis. As of this writing, Max has just learned from April’s family that her condition has seemingly improved though still quite serious.  Please send your prayers, good thoughts, positive energy or whatever suits your beliefs to April and her family.


Acknowledgement to Max Gardner and his work

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Editor’s Comment:

The name of Max Gardner has become a trademark for effective confrontation and dissemination of information about the greatest economic crime in human history.  His work includes “Boot Camps” which are composed of small groups of lawyers in training for the purpose of saving the homes and lives of millions of homeowners who were deceived into purchasing corrupt loan products.  Those Boot Camps are about to come to an end although Max will continue to teach in larger forums.  I suggest that any lawyer who was considering attendance at one of Max’s events decide in favor of it and to sign up immediately.  

Max has been quite open about his health conditions and while they are different from my own, I find a number of areas of commonality between us even as we approach the Wall Street monster from different angles.  I know how he feels when he has heard from the physicians that there is, “one more thing” with which he must deal.  Like Max, I am also reconsidering my role as I get older.  

Max has made it clear that he’s not going anywhere just yet but that he considers time with family and his effort in battling the banks and servicers to be his remaining priorities.  I support him in his endeavors and so should we all.

Max Gardner Personal Message to

Bankruptcy Boot Camp Graduates

The following message was sent from Max to his Boot Camp graduates on May 9, 2012.

Dear Boot Campers,

I have always been candid with you about my health issues and I will continue to be candid throughout this very personal process.  I last updated you on my health shortly before the San Antonio NACBA conference when I was suffering from symptoms consistent with previous malignant tumor growth in my lungs and bladder.  Testing did, in fact, confirm a new tumor growth but this time it was in a new organ, my liver.  My medical team has confirmed that it is the same type of tumor in the bladder and lungs, known as a Typical Carcinoid—a relatively non-aggressive cancer. After running more tests, my doctors laid out the different options for me, all with their own advantages and disadvantages.  After much thought and discussing it with Vickie, I have decided that I will not undergo any type of surgical intervention with respect to the liver tumor. Rather than surgery, we will only take the necessary medical steps to deal with the negative symptoms related to this type of cancer.  The doctors can cite national statistics for survival rates with and without the liver surgery, but because the progression of my cancer has been so unusual, they simply have nothing to compare it to and the statistics are meaningless.

I want you to know that despite the above news, I remain very optimistic. And, quite frankly, I feel very good about the decision we have made.  Life is certainly important but the quality of the life we have left may be more important.  I also want you all to know that this is not the end of the road for me.  I have a job to do and I plan on finishing what I started with your help.  Part of my purpose for fully disclosing my health situation to you at this time is to let you know the reasoning behind two decisions I’ve made.

First, I don’t plan on traveling outside of North Carolina to conduct future seminars.  Getting on a plane to travel can only increase my chances of getting sick so I plan on traveling only when necessary.  Second, beginning this fall, I will discontinue holding boot camps at the farm and hold only larger sessions where I can teach more people at a time and also take some burden off of me and Vickie.  The five-day seminars at the Farm are both physically and mentally draining for both of us.  The June 7-11 Boot Camp will go on as planned and then I will hold either one or two more  Boot Camps at the Farm this summer, which can include another re-boot if there is enough interest.  Right now the other possible boot camp dates for Lizmere Farm are July 5-9 and August 2-6.

I’ve made my decisions based on what I believe makes the most sense for me, my family and the goals I want to accomplish and I’d like you to accept these decisions without second guessing or offering advice, no matter how well intentioned.  I received hundreds of emails and calls when my health situation required me to cancel my April appearance in San Antonio and you will never know how much each one of those emails and calls meant to me and to Vickie.  We consider all of you to be a part of our extended family.

Many of you know that the late Marvin R. Wooten was my all-time favorite Judge and person and friend.  Judge Wooten had so many historic quotes that it is hard to know where to start or end with any of them.  However, when he could not grant you the relief you requested, he would always say “I’m sorry but you have come to the Goat Man for Wool.”  Well, I really and truly have goats at the Farm so in fact and in truth I may now qualify as Judge Wooten’s proverbial Goat Man but I want all of you to know that this Goat Man still has a rather large supply of wool and he intends to give it all out before the goats finally go home.

Thank you for all your support and kind words over all of these many years.


Max Gardner’s Top 65 Tips for Spotting Fake Documents

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Source: http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/max-gardners-top-tips-for-fake-mortgage-documents

1.     The Mortgage or Deed of Trust is assigned from the Originator directly to the Trustee for the Securitized Trust.

2.     The Mortgage or Deed of Trust is assigned months and sometimes years after the date of the origination of the underlying mortgage note.

3.     The Mortgage or Deed of Trust is assigned from the initial aggregator directly to the Securitized Trust with no assignments to the Depositor or the Sponsor for the Trust.

4.     The Mortgage or Deed of Trust is executed, dated or assigned in a manner inconsistent with the mandatory governing rules of Section 2.01 of the Pooling and Servicing Agreement.

5.     The assignment of the Mortgage or Deed of Trust is executed by a legal entity that was no longer in existence on the date the document was executed.

6.     The assignment of the mortgage or Deed of Trust is executed by an entity whose name is different than the entity named in the original document (i.e., National City Bank Corporation in lieu of ABC Corporation as a division of National City Bank).

7.     The assignment was executed by a party pursuant to a Power of Attorney but no Power of Attorney is attached to the instrument or filed with the instrument or otherwise recorded with local land registry.

8.     The mortgage note is allegedly transferred in a single document along with the Mortgage or Deed of Trust (i.e., “Assignment of the Note and Mortgage”).  You cannot “assign” a mortgage note.  You can only “negotiate” a mortgage note under Article 3 of the UCC.

9.     The assignment is executed by a party who claims to be an “attorney in fact” for the assignor.

10.    The assignment is notarized by a notary in Dakota County, Minnesota.

11.    The assignment is notarized by a notary in Hennepin County, Minnesota.

12.    The assignment is notarized by a notary in Duval County, Florida.

13.    The assignment is executed by an officer or secretary of MERS.

14.    The assignment is notarized by a secretary or paralegal employed by the attorney for the mortgage servicer.

15.    The assignment is executed or notarized by an employee of MR Default Services, Promiss Solutions LLC, National Default Exchange, LP, LOGS Financial Services, or some similar third-party.

16.    The endorsement on the note is actually on an allonge affixed to the note.  In most states, an allonge cannot be used if there is a sufficient amount of room at the “foot” or the “bottom” of the original note for the endorsement.

17.    The allonge is not “permanently” affixed to the original note.  The term permanent excludes the use of staples and tape and as a result you must use a sold fastener such as glue.  Allonges are commonly referred to “in the business” as “tear-off fraud papers.”

18.    The note proffered in evidence is not the original but a copy of the “certified copy” provided to the debtors at the closing.

19.    The note is endorsed in blank with no transfer and delivery receipts.  It is fine to endorse a note in blank, in which case it becomes “bearer” paper under the UCC.  However, in order to prove a true sale from the Sponsor to the Depositor you must have written delivery and transfer receipts and proof of pay outs and pay in transactions.

20.    The note proffered in evidence is not endorsed at the foot of the note or on an affixed allonge.

21.    The assignment of the mortgage or deed of trust post-dates the filing of the court pleading.

22.    The assignment of the mortgage or deed of trust is executed after the filing of the court pleadings but claims to be “legally effective” before the filing.  For example, the deed of trust is assigned on June 1, 2009, with an effective date of May 1, 2007.

23.    The parties who executed the assignment and who notarized the signature are in fact the same parties.

24.    The signor states that he or she is an “agent” for the executing entity.

25.    The signor states that he or she is an “attorney in fact” for the executing entity.

26.    The signor states that he or she is an employee of the executing entity but claims to have custody and control of the records of the entity.

27.    The signor of the document makes statements about the status of the mortgage debt based on his or her review of the “records of the plaintiff” or the “records of the moving party.”

28.    The proponent of the original note files an Affidavit of Lost Note.

29.    The signor claims that the allegations in the court pleading are correct but the assignment of the mortgage and/or delivery and transfer of the note occurs after the law suit or the motion for relief from stay was filed.

30.    One or more of the operative documents in the case is signed by one of the attorneys for the mortgage servicer.

31.    The default payment history filed in the case is prepared by the attorney for the mortgage servicer or a member of his or her staff.

32.    The affidavit filed in support of legal fees is not signed by an attorney with the firm involved in the case.

33.    The name of one or more of the signors is stamped on the document.

34.    The document is a form with standard “fill-in-the-blanks” for names and amounts.

35.    The signature of one or more parties on the document is not legible and looks like something a three year old might have done.

36.    The document is dated and signed years before the document is actually filed with the register of real estate documents or deeds or mortgages.

37.    The proffered document has the word C O P Y stamped on or embedded in the document.

38.    The document is executed by a notary in Denton County, Texas.

39.    The document is executed by a notary in Collin County, Texas.

40.    The document includes a legend “Hold for” a named law firm after recording.

41.    The document was drafted by a law firm representing the mortgage servicer in the pending case.

42.    The document includes any type of bar code that was not added by the local register or filing clerk for such instruments.

43.    The document includes a reference to an “instrument number.”

44.    The document includes a reference to a “form number.”

45.    The document does not include any reference to a Master Document Custodian.

46.    The document is not authenticated by any officer or authorized agent of a Master Document Custodian.

47.    The paragraph numbers on the document are not consistent (the last paragraph on page one is 7 and the first paragraph on page two starts with number 9).

48.    The endorsement of the note is not at the “foot” or “bottom” of the last page of the note.  For example, a few states allow an endorsement on the back of the last page of the note but the majority requires it at the foot of the note.

49.    The document purports to assign the mortgage or the deed of trust to the Trustee for the Securitized Trust before the Trust was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  This type of registration is normally referred to as a “shelf registration.”

50.    The document purports to transfer the note to the Trustee for the Securitized Trust before the date the Trust provides for the origination date of instruments in the Trust.  The Prospectus, the Prospectus Supplement and the Pooling and Servicing Agreement will clearly state that the pool of notes includes those originated between date X and date Y.

51.    The document purports to transfer the note to the Trustee for the Securitized Trust after the cut-off date for the creating of such instruments for the Trust.

52.    The origination date on the mortgage note is not within the origination and cut-off dates provided for the by terms of the Pooling and Servicing Agreement.

53.    The “Affidavit of a Lost Note” is not filed by the Master Document Custodian for the Trust but by the Servicer or some other third-party.

54.    The document is signed by a “bank officer” without any designation of the office held by the said officer.

55.    The affidavit includes the following language on the bottom of each page:  “This is an attempt to collect a debt.  Any information obtained will be used for that purpose.”

56.    The document is signed by a person who identifies himself or herself as a “media supervisor” for the proponent.

57.    The document is signed by a person who identifies himself or herself as a “media coordinator” for the proponent.

58.    The document is signed by a person who identifies himself or herself as a “legal coordinator” for the movant.

59.    The date of the signature on the document and the date the signature was notarized are not the same.

60.    The parties who signed the assignment and who notarized the signature are located in different states or counties.

61.    The transferor and the transferee have the same physical address including the same street and post office box numbers.

62.    The assignor and the assignee have the same physical address including the same street and post office box numbers.

63.    The signor of the document states that he or she is acting “solely as nominee” for some other party.

64.    The document refers to a power of attorney but no power of attorney is attached.

65.    The document bears the following legend:  “This is not a certified copy.”

 

Max Gardner’s Top Reasons for Wanting a Pooling Servicing Agreement

EDITOR’S NOTE: Lest people think I invented this whole field of law just because I’m loudest about it, here is a post from Max Gardner, who only a few days after I started this blog had already figured out everything I had figured out and was already doing something about it.

Max Gardner’s Top Reasons for Wanting a Pooling Servicing Agreement

Monday, November 5th, 2007

Every time I file a civil action against a mortgage servicer the very first document I want is a copy of the “Pooling and Servicing Agreement.”  This is the legal document that creates the securitized trust of mortgage loans and also strictly provides for the duties of all entities who are assigned the responsiblity of servicing loans for the Trust.

For all “public placements” or “public offerings,”  the Pooling and Servicing Agreement is always filed on Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  All such documents can be found by conducting a search of the SEC’s website through an internal search engine known as “Edgar.”  But, what is a PSA?  Why do I want to see it? What can be found in the PSA?  Kevin Byers, a forensic accountant, who works with me on these cases, has assisted me in developing the following list of reasons why any consumer must have the PSA.  The reasons are as follows:

Pooling and Servicing Agreements (PSA)Top Twenty Reasons to Request ProductionKevin Byers and O. Max Gardner III

In no particular order, these are some of reasons you need to request through formal discovery in any mortgage-related case the PSA Agreement and why it is relevant:

1.     It is a contractual document naming the parties to any given securitization, important for standing issues.  The document will list the Sponsor, the Trustee for the Securitized Trust, the Master Servicer, and all primary and secondary servicers.

2.     It provides address for all necessary parties including “notice” addresses for the service of legal process. 3.     It outlines the specific duties of the Servicer and/or the Master Servicer as well as the Trustee on behalf of a respective trust. 4.     It contains the representations and warranties of all parties to the agreement, including the Servicer and/or Master Servicer.

5.     It includes all representations provided by the Depositor of the loans into the trust as the same relate to important consumer protection issues related to the underwriting and origination of the loan, such as conformity with anti-predatory lending laws, full-file credit reporting, title insurance coverage, and validity and content of individual loan files.

6.     It gives the conditions under which a prepayment penalty may be waived or modified by the Servicer and/or Master Servicer. 7.     It oftentimes will outline specific loss mitigation and foreclosure avoidance measures available to the Servicer, including, for example, forbearance and loan modification, principal reductions, interest reductions and interest changes.

8.     It defines a “defective mortgage loan” and describes the circumstances and process by which the lender must repurchase a loan.

9.     It establishes the rights of the Trustee under the Trust to force the Depositor/Originator of any loan to repurchase a loan under the recourse provisions. 10.    It describes the specific process by which a delinquent loan can be charged off and the subsequent servicing party and procedures that apply to such charged-off loan. 11.    It provides guidelines on loan-level advances that must be paid by the servicer. 12.    It provides details regarding the mechanics of how the Servicer must go about foreclosing on property, what documents need to be requested and/or recorded and what authorizations need to be granted to foreclose, and in whose name the foreclosure must be filed. 13.    It provides guidance on the fees a Servicer may retain as compensation in the administration of the loans, for example, NSF fees, late fees, loan modification or assumption fees.

14.    It will contain the Mortgage Loan Schedule, important to verify the ownership of the loan on behalf of the Trust.

15.    It details the requirements for mortgage assignments and when these will or will not be recorded and the implications of the failure to record such assignments. 16.    It details the specific loan documents contained in each loan file that will be delivered to the Trustee or Document Custodian on behalf of the trust, establishing who holds the original Note and where it may be found.

17.    It describes the credit enhancements that have been deployed to enhance the rating of the most secure certificates of investment in the Trust.

18.    It provides rules and procedures for the rights of the Master Servicer or the Primary Servicer to accept a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or a short sale of the property so as to avoid a foreclosure.

19.    It describes the rights the Originator/Depositor may retain the Residual Value of the Trust and the extent to which the residuals may be used as credit enhancements.

20.    It will name a default servicer and describe when a loan is considered to be in default and outline the process for the transfer of servicing rights.

O. Max Gardner IIIHistoric Webbley House

Keiser’s Forensic Analysis Workshop

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.

MERS AND COUNTRYWIDE V AGIN: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE!

MERS and Countrywide v Agin Trustee D Ct Mass Aff’d B Ct on Avoidance Mtg 20091117

NOTE FROM EDITOR SEEKING HELP: Rumor has it San Diego has stopped all foreclosures. I need this corroborated or debunked quickly. Can I get a little help here?

The case in this POST comes out of Massachusetts where the cases are not quite stopped, but almost so — AND where property title insurance companies are NOT underwriting ANY policy that covers a home whose mortgage was securitized.

Many thanks to MAX GARDNER for this case and best wishes for his speedy recovery. He’s one of the titans of this movement. we want him around!

The primary point that needs emphasis here is that as you read this case you will see that if you give the Court something SOLID to hang its hat on, you can get the results you want.

The mistake being made repeatedly out there is simple: either the homeowner or the lawyer goes in with a legal argument addressing the conclusions of the case instead of directing the Judge’s attention to the beginning of the case — discovery, motions to compel, TRO etc. based upon discovery requirements.

The obvious requirement that you need to know in your mind what you are talking about it so you know the significance of the issue legally seems to  have escaped all but a few lawyers. Many lawyers are taking half baked “audits” going to court and making legal arguments about a report they have not read, do not understand and which does not contains all the elements needed anyway.

You must educate the Judge not lecture him. You must NOT rely on securitization in your preliminary arguments because it sounds like legal maneuvering to get out of a legitimate debt.

Unfortunately these mistakes are being made even by people who have attended our survey courses. So we are expanding our offering by adding DVDs, Boot Camps and home study.

Our own efforts at providing forensic review and expert support to lawyers has been challenged by the growing demand vs manpower limitations. Consequently, we will embark on efforts to increase the bandwith or resources in terms of people through educational programs. We will then start to refer cases to forensic analysts and lawyers.

We  are starting courses to train, and certify forensic analysts who pick up even the most minute flaw in a document — like a document you you know in your heart is fabricated and forged but feel intimidated by the process of proving it.

In conjunction with specific courses on training forensic analysts we will also offer addtional courses on how to be expert witnesses, how to prepare expert declarations and affidavits and how to defend your expert declarations in deposition or in an evidentiary hearing. The course is also for lawyers who feel they could use a little support on direct and cross examination of experts.


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