WHAT IS A SERVICER ADVANCE? According to Ocwen it has zero credit risk and is not really an advance

One place where securitization players and foreclosure players don’t lie is in reports that are formally filed with the SEC. So in my research, I found a document in which Ocwen describes itself and which is subject to judicial notice because it is a government document downloaded from the Sec.gov website. The filing of 8k and other reports required by securities laws and regulations is an official act. It is a sworn representation by the issuer (Ocwen here) that the facts being presented are accurate and true on penalty of going to jail. Here we see a filing that identifies the people who would go to jail if the facts were not at least arguably accurate.

THIS IS ALSO A MENU OF INDIVIDUALS WHO COULD BE SUED INDIVIDUALLY FOR PARTICIPATING IN FRAUDULENT, NEGLIGENT ENTERPRISES AND WRONGFUL FORECLOSURES. 

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NOTE ON JUDICIAL NOTICE AND SEC.GOV

Note my words here. In most court cases, the documents used by foreclosure mills are merely self-serving documents laundered through the SEC website. If you have the credentials you can upload anything including but not limited to porn.

So for court purposes only they upload as much as they can to the SEC.gov website — and then download it with “sec.gov” in the heading. Then they produce it as a governent document (which it isn’t) and ask for judicial notice. Without opposition, the judge grants the motion for judicial notice and that practically means the case is over.

Most pro se litigants don’t know what judiclal notice is and most lawyers and homeowners take it for granted that they can’t oppose judical notice for a government document. they forget to inquire whether that IS a government document and in virtually ALL cases, it is not a govenrment document — and therefore (1) it is not subject to judicial notice and (2) the attempt to use it as such is subject to a motion for contempt and sanctions — if you file the motion. This is another example of how the banks are using pure fabrications and weaponizing civil procedure to support their thieving scheme.

see https://shareholders.ocwen.com/static-files/24390846-8787-4a36-9c30-53b5b5f0a0e5

OCWEN 8K 0001193125-13-015500

Note that this is a “Lender’s Presentation.” That means it is a presentation to prospective lenders. Any lies would be subject to criminal prosecution not only for violations of securities laws but also for bank fraud.

Take a look at this from Ocwen’s 8k report to the SEC in 2013: Note how the filing is devoid of any representation that Ocwen is a lender, successor lender, or attorney in fact for anyone.

Note how Ocwen is basically always teetering close to bankruptcy because it has very few assets and maintains a business plan that is always based entirely on income from “servicing.”

Note how on page 20 they represent Ocwen, BOA servicing, Chase servicing, Saxon Servicing, Litton Servicing, and HomeEq Servicing to all be the same thing. Since 2013 you can add PHH, REZ, and other entities or names that were used ficitiously.

THEN ON PAGE 36 THEY ANSWER THE QUESTION: WHAT IS A SERVICER ADVANCE?

  1. Note that they use the word “advance” in quotes, just like I did here. That is because if they said it was an advance they would be lying. There is no advance. This is a cover-up for the fact that there is no loss to anyone when scheduled payments are not paid by homeowners. So there is no need for any advance, much less by a “servicer”. No company would accept responsibility for making such advances. Imagine if your bookkeeper said “That’s ok, if they don’t pay you, I will.” Imagine the fees that would need to be paid for any company to incur such liability. Imagine insurance and reserve deposits required. None of those things exist.
  2. So the advance does not come from Ocwen’s balance sheet and it actually does not exist. This is cover for the Master servicer putting in a claim for nonexistent advances. All payments to creditors of the securities brokerage firm (i.e., investors who purchased uncertificated certificates) are made from a huge such fund that is referred to in other documents as a reserve pool which consists of (1) proceeds from the sale of the certificates (2) money deposited with permission of the stockbroker who started this scheme including money received from homeowners and (c) proceeds of sales from other similar schemes. It is all commingled and obviously, this has nothing to do with any homeowner (aka “borrower”).
  3. Next, they say that “servicers incur funding costs on these non-interest bearing advances but do not bear credit risk.” Translation: there is no advance.  But we claim funding costs in order to get paid for pretending that servicer advances are real thus justifying fees for nonexistent services.
  4. Next, they say that “Advances are recoverable at the ‘top of the waterfall’ first from proceeds at a loan level, and then if those funds are insufficient, from cash collected from other loans in an RMBS trust.” Translation: Advances are recoverable but not by Ocwen. It never sees that “recovery.” The money is taken first from “a loan level.” which means it could be any loan. That is reinforced by the remaining words which refer to other loans in any RMBS trust. And that is why I say that there is no loss to anyone in any individual loan. It’s impossible. As long as there is money anywhere from investors, homeowners, or insurance for the certificates, everyone gets paid. So far there has always been money available not only to make all payments to everyone but also to for exceedingly high profits like what we saw with Goldman Sachs in 2009 when they forced the AIG bailout not to cover losses, but rather to cover additional profits.
  5. And lastly, they make the silly statement that “A servicer” can ‘stop advance’ if it believes that an advance will not be recoverable from the borrower.” This is silly because first of all there are no advances except from other people’s money with which Ocwen has no control. Second, because recovery from a borrower is irrelevant as described above. This statement is made solely as part of the coordinated illusion created by the stockbroker (aka investment bank) that started the scheme. It is made to reinforce the false representation that there are any loans, that there is any loan receivable account on the ledgers of anyone, and that therefore those accounts need servicing.
P.S. Note the very beginning where is says: “On January 17, 2013, Ocwen Financial Corporation (“Ocwen”) is making a presentation at a meeting among potential lenders for the proposed Senior Secured Term Loan facility. Barclays, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC are acting as Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Bookrunning Managers for the facility. Barclays Bank PLC is acting as Sole Syndication Agent and Administrative Agent for the facility. A copy of Ocwen’s slide presentation for such conference is attached as Exhibit 99.1 hereto. Such slide presentation shall not be deemed to be “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.” This means they are trying to say, unsuccessfully that even though they’re filing it with the SEC it shouldn’t count against them if they’re lying. 
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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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How “Standing” Is Causing the Longest Economic Recovery Since the Great Depression

THE PERFECT CRIME: THE VICTIMS DON’T KNOW ANYTHING

WHY INVESTORS AND BORROWERS SHOULD GET RID OF THE SERVICERS AND REPLACE THEM WITH SERVICING COMPANIES THEY CAN TRUST TO MITIGATE THE LOSSES CAUSED BY INVESTMENT BANKS

HOW? It is simple: since the perpetrators ignored the REMIC trust, didn’t fund them and never intended to actually have the REMIC trusts own the loans, the investors can go directly to homeowners or through their own servicers to settle and modify mortgages. This would leave the investors with claims against the investment banks for the balance of the losses, plus punitive damages, interest and court costs. It is the same logic as piercing the corporate veil — if you pay your grocery bills using the account of your limited liability corporation, the corporate entity is ignored.

Vasquez v Saxon (Arizona supreme Court) revisited

Assume the following facts for purposes of analogy and analysis:

  1. John Jones is a Scammer, previously found to have operated outside the law several times. He conceives of yet another PONZI scheme, but with the help of lawyers he has obscured the true nature of his next scheme. He creates a convoluted scheme that ultimately was never understood by regulators.
  2. The first part of his scheme is to offer shares in a company where the money will be held in trust. The money will be disbursed based upon standards that are promised to incoming investors.
  3. The new company will issue the shares based upon the receipt of money from investors who are buying those shares.
  4. Jones approaches Jason Smartguy, who manages a pension fund for 3,000 employees of ABC Company, a Fortune 500 company.
  5. Jason Smartguy manages the pension funds under strict restrictions. A pension fund is a “stable managed fund” whose investments must be at the lowest risk possible and whose purpose is capital preservation.
  6. John Jones promises Jason Smartguy that the new company will invest in assets that are valuable and stable, and that these investments will pay a return on investment higher than what Jason Smartguy is getting for the pension fund under his management. Jason likes the idea because it gives him employment security and probably bonuses for increasing the rate of return on the funds managed for the pension fund.
  7. The lawyers for John Jones have concealed the PONZI nature of the scheme (paying back investors with their own money and with money from new investors) by disclosing the existing of a reserve fund — consisting entirely of money from Jason Smartguy.
  8. Jason advances $100 Million to John Jones who says he is acting as a broker between the new Company (the one issuing the shares) and the Pension fund managed by Jason Smartguy.
  9. The new Company never receives the money. Instead the money is placed in accounts controlled by people who have no relationship with the new Company.
  10. The new Company never receives title or any documentation showing they own shares of the money pool now controlled by John Jones when it should be controlled by the new Company.
  11. John Jones uses the money to bet against the new Company, insurance on the value of the shares of the new Company, and the proceeds of other convoluted transactions — mostly based on the assumption that John Jones owns the money in the pool and based entirely on the assumption that any assets of the pool therefore belong to John Jones — not the new Company as promised.
  12. John Jones also uses the money to buy assets, so everything looks right as long as you don’t get too close.
  13. The assets Jones buys are designed to look good on paper but are pure trash — which is why John Jones bet against the pool and shares in the pool.
  14. Everyone is fooled. The investors get monthly statements from John Jones along with a check showing that the investment is working just as was planned. They don’t know that the money they are receiving comes entirely from the reserve pool and the meager actual returns from the assets. The insurance company believes that Jones is the owner of the money and the assets purchased with money from the pool created by Jason Smartguy’s advance from the pension fund.
  15. John Jones goes further. He pretends to own the shares of the new Company that actually belong to the pension fund managed by Jason Smartguy. He insures those shares naming himself as the insurance beneficiary and naming himself as the receiver of proceeds from his bets that the shares in the new Company would crash, just as he planned.
  16. While the assets are proving as worthless as John Jones had planned, Jason Smartguy receives payments to the pension fund exactly as outlined in the Prospectus and the Operating Agreement for the New Company. Unknown to Jason, the assets are increasingly proving worthless, as a whole and the income is declining. So Jason buys more shares in the new Company, thus providing Jason with a larger “reserve” fund and more “assets” to bet against and more “shares’ to bet against.
  17. John Jones sets out to “acquire” assets that will fail, so his bets will pay off. He buys assets whose value is low (and getting worse) and he creates fictitious transactions in which it appears as though the new Company has bought the assets at a much higher price than their value. The “sales” to the Company are a sham. The Company has no money because Jason Smartguy’s pension money never was made to the new Company in exchange for the new Company issuing shares of the company to Jason’s pension fund.
  18. The difference between the real value of the assets and the price “sold” to the pool is huge. In some cases it is 2-3 times the actual value of the asset. John Jones treats these sales as “proprietary trading profits” for John Jones,when in fact it is an immediate loss to Jason’s pension fund. The shares of the new Company are worthless because it never received any money nor title to any assets. John Jones as “broker” took all the money and assets.
  19. Meanwhile John Jones continues to pay Jason’s pension fund along with distribution reports showing the assets are in great shape and the income is just fine. In reality the assets are virtually worthless and the income is declining just as John Jones planned. John Jones is taking money hand over fist and calling it his own. His bets on the whole thing crashing are paying off handsomely and he is not reporting to Jason how much he is making by taking Jason’s managed money and calling part of it proprietary profits.
  20. The beauty of John Jones PONZI scheme is in the BIG LIE told not only to Jason Smartguy but also to Henry Homebody, who owns a home in Tucson Arizona. Henry is easier to sell on a stupid scheme than Jason Smartguy because Jason requires proof of independent appraisals (ratings), proof of insurance and various other aspects of the investment. Henry Homebody trusts the “lenders” and considers them to be banks, some with reputations and brands that go back 150 years.
  21. Henry Homebody’s house has been in the family for 6 generations and is fully paid off. He pays only insurance and taxes. Unknown to him, he is a special target for scammers like Merendon Mining, whose operators are now in jail. Merendon got homeowners with unencumbered houses to “invest” in a mirage (gold shares) thus putting the fantastic equity in their homes to work. Henry is flown to Canada, wined and dined, and has a very good time, just before he agrees to take out a loan using his family home as collateral, which will provide an income to him of $16,000 over month (which is about ten times his current income).
  22. Henry is approved for a loan equal to twice the value of the property and in which the mortgage broker (now on the run from the law) used projected income from the speculative investment in Merendon mining. This act by the mortgage broker was illegal but worth the risk because the broker was part of the Merendon Mining scam. (look up Merendon Mining and First Magnus Funding).
  23. Henry makes Payments on the mortgage principal, interest, taxes and insurance (all higher because of the false appraisal that was used for the property). He is able to do this because some of the money from the “loan” was given to him and he was able to make payments until the magnificent returns started to come in from his Merendon Mining shares. But those shares were worded in such a way that they were not exactly the ownership of gold that Henry thought he was getting. In fact, it was another pool with options on gold. And of course the money never materialized and neither did the gold. (Note 1996-2014: more than 50% of all loans were “refi’s” in which the home was fully paid or nearly so).
  24. Henry’s lender turned out to be a party pretending to lend him money, using MERS as a nominee for trading purposes, and naming the originator as lender when in fact they were also just a nominee.
  25. Henry’s mortgage and note recite terms that are impossible to meet unless Merendon Mining pays off.
  26. Henry believes at closing that First Magnus was the lender and that some entity called MERS is hanging in the background. Nobody explains anything to him about the lender or MERS. And of course he was told not to get an attorney because nothing can be changed anyway.
  27. Henry did not know that John Jones had spread out Jason’s money into several entities and then used Jason’s money to fund the origination of Henry’s loan.
  28. Jason does not know that the note and mortgage were never executed in the name of the pension fund or the new Company that was supposed to own the loan as an asset.
  29. Eventually the truth starts coming out, the market crashes and prices of homes return to actual value. Merendon Mining is of course a bankrupt entity as is First Magnus, whose operator appears to be on the run.
  30. Henry can’t make the payments after the extra money they gave him runs out. He has $2 million in loans and the “guaranteed” investment in Merendon Mining has left him penniless.
  31. John Jones fabricates and forges dozens of documents to piece together a narrative wherein an “independent” company would claim ownership of Henry’s loan despite the complete absence of any real transactions between any of the companies because the loan was fully funded using Jason Smartguy’s pension money.
  32. Henry knows nothing about the scam John Jones pulled on Jason Smartguy and certainly doesn’t know that the new Company was involved in his loan (because it wasn’t). Henry doesn’t understand that First Magnus and MERS never loaned him any money and that he never owed them money. And Henry knows nothing about John Jones, whose name appears on nothing.
  33. John Jones, the PONZI operator goes about the business of finishing the deal and making sure that the multiple people who bought into Henry’s loan (without knowing of the other sales and bets placed by John Jones) don’t start asking for refunds.
  34. John Jones MUST get a foreclosure or there will be auditing and reporting requirements that most everyone will overlook as long as this looks like just another loan gone bad. His PONZI scheme will be revealed if the true facts become known so he makes sure that nobody sees the actual money trail except him. He might go to jail if the truth is discovered.
  35. The lawyers for John Jones have told him that even fabricated, forged, non-authentic, falsely signed, and falsely notarized documents carry a presumption of validity. Thus the lawyers and Jones concocted a PONZI scheme that would most likely succeed because even the borrower, Henry, still thinks he owes money to First Magnus or its “successors”, whose identity he doesn’t really care about because he knows he took the loan. He doesn’t know that First Magnus and several other entities were involved in collecting fees and making profits the moment he signed the papers, and possibly before.
  36. Meanwhile Jason Smartguy, manager of the pension fund is starting to get disturbing reports about the assets that were purchased. Jason still doesn’t know that the money he gave John Jones never went into the New Company, that the Company never engaged in any transactions, and that John Jones was claiming “losses” that were really Jason’s losses (the pension fund).
  37. John Jones was collecting money from multiple sources without any of them knowing about each other and that he had no losses, he had only profits, and even got the government to lend him more money so he wouldn’t go out of business which might ruin the economy.
  38. Most of all John Jones never made a loan to Henry Homeowner; but that didn’t stop him from saying he did make the loan, and that the paperwork between John Jones and Jason Smartguy’s pension fund was irrelevant — the borrower got a loan and stopped paying. Thus judicial or non judicial process was available to sell the home that had been in Henry’s family for 6 generations.
  39. But the weakness in John Smith’s PONZI scheme is that his entire strategy is based upon presumptions of validity of his false documentation. If courts start applying normal rules and require Jones to disclose the money trail, he is cooked. There can be no foreclosure if a non-creditor initiates it by simply declaring that they are the creditor and that they have rights to enforce the debt — when the only proof of that is that Jason Smartguy, manager of the pension fund, has not yet put the pieces together and demanded ownership of the loan, settled the cases with modifications and went after John Jones for the balance of the money that was skimmed off the deal.
  40. And since Henry’s house is in Tucson, Az, he is subject to non-judicial foreclosure and he is in big trouble. He has no reason to believe the “servicer” is unauthorized, that the debt that is subject to correspondence and monthly statements does not exist, nor that the mortgage or deed of trust was void for lack of consideration — none of the “lenders” at closing ever loaned him a dime. The money came from Jason but Henry didn’t, and possibly still doesn’t know it.
  41. John Jones files a document called “Substitution of Trustee.” In this false document Jones declares that one of his many entities is the “new beneficiary” (mortgagee). Jones holds his breath. If Henry objects to the substitution of trustee he might have to reveal that the new trustee is not independent, it is a company controlled by John Jones.
  42. John Jones has made himself the new trustee. If the substitution of trustee is nullified in a court proceeding, NOTHING can be done by John Jones or his controlled companies.
  43. If the old trustee realizes that they have received no information on the validity of the claim and might still be the trustee, they might file an “interpleader” action in which they say they have received competing claims, demand attorney fees and costs along with their true statement that as the trustee named on the deed of trust, they have no stake in the outcome.
  44. If that happens Jones is cooked, broiled and boiled. He would be required to allege and prove that the “new beneficiary” is in fact the creditor in the transaction by succession, purchase or otherwise. he can’t because it was Jason who gave the money, it was Jason who was supposed to get evidence of ownership of the loan, and it is Jason who should be deciding between foreclosure (which John Jones MUST have to escape enormous civil and criminal liability).
  45. Jones doesn’t file documents for recording unless and until the case goes into foreclosure. That is because he continuing to trade and make claims of losses on “bad loans.”
  46. In fact, just to be on the safe side, he doesn’t file the fabricated, forged perjurious assignment of the loan at all if nobody makes him. He only files the assignment when he absolutely must do so, because he knows each filing is false and potentially proof of identity theft from the pension fund and from the homeowner.
  47. So it often happens that despite laws in each state requiring the filing of any transfer of an interest in real property for recording, Jones files the assignment when there is the least probability and least likelihood that the PONZI scheme will be revealed. Jones knows the mortgage is void and should never have been recorded, as a matter of law.
  48. Henry brings suit against Jones seeking justice and relief. But he really doesn’t know enough to get traction in court. Jones filed the assignment after the notice of default, after the notice of sale, and after the notice of substitution of trustee.
  49. The Judge who knows nothing about the presence of Jason, who still does not know this is going on, rules for Jones saying that it is irrelevant when the assignment was recorded because it is still a valid assignment between the parties to the assignment.
  50. Jason knows nothing about how the money from his pension fund was handled.
  51. Jason knows nothing about how each foreclosure seals the doom and affirms the illegal windfall to intermediaries who were always playing with OPM (other people’s money).
  52. The Court doesn’t know that that the assignment was just on paper, that there was no business reason for it to be executed, that there was no purchase of the loan from Jason’s pension fund, to whom the actual loan was payable. Thus the Judge sees this as much ado about nothing.
  53. Starting from the premise that Henry owed the money anyway, that there were no real defenses, and that since nobody else was making a claim it was obvious that Jones was the creditor, the Arizona Supreme Court says that anyone can can foreclose on an undated, backdated fabricated assignment forged and robo-signed with no real transaction; and they can execute a substitution of trustee even if they are complete strangers to the loan transaction and once they file that, they can foreclose on property that was never used as collateral for the real loan.

Because there are hundreds of John Jones characters in this tragedy, the entire marketplace has been decimated. The middle class is permanently stalled because their only net worth has been stolen from them The borrowers would gladly execute a real mortgage for real value with real terms that make sense 95% of the time, but they need to do it with the owner of the debt — the pension fund. The pension fund the borrower need to be closely aligned on the premise that the loans can be modified for better terms that forced sales, the housing market could recover, and money would start flowing back to the middle class who drives 70% of our consumer based economy.

They are all wrong and are opening the door for more PONZI schemes and even better ways to steal money and get away with it. The Arizona Supreme Court in Vasquez as well as all other decisions from the trial bench, appellate courts, regulators and law enforcement are all wrong. The burden of proof in due process is on the party seeking affirmative relief. Anyone who wants the death penalty equivalent in civil litigation (forfeiture of homestead), should be required to prove beyond all reasonable doubt or by clear and convincing evidence that the mortgage was valid and should have been recorded.

If they didn’t make the loan they had no right to record the mortgage or do anything with the note or mortgage except give it back to the borrower for destruction. If they didn’t make disclosure of the real nature of the loan and all the profits that would arise from the borrower signing an application and the loan documents, those profits are due back to the borrower.

Each time the assumption is made that there are no valid defenses for the borrower, we are cheating investors and screwing the homeowners. And as for the windfall proposition we know who gets it — the John Jones PONZI operating banks that started all of this. Exactly how can this lead anyway other than a continued drag on our economy?

Vasquez v saxon Az S Ct CV110091CQ

For more information call 954-495-9867 or 520-405-1688

AZ AG File Amicus Brief Favoring Homeowners

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COMBO Title and Securitization Search, Report, Documents, Analysis & Commentary GET COMBO TITLE AND SECURITIZATION ANALYSIS – CLICK HERE

SEE AZ AG Amicus Vasquez 8-2011 (1)

CASE IS SCHEDULED FOR ORAL ARGUMENT ON SEPTEMBER 22, 20011 IN TUCSON, AZ. CONTRARY TO RUMOR, DO NOT EXPECT A RULING FROM THE COURT ON THAT DATE. THE SUPREME COURT OF ARIZONA WILL TAKE AS MUCH TIME AS IT NEEDS TO MAKE THE DECISION.

JUDGE HOLLOWELL HAS CERTIFIED TWO QUESTIONS ESSENTIAL TO THE OUT COME OF HUNDRED OF THOUSANDS OF FORECLOSURE CASES. ATTORNEY GENERAL THOMAS C HORNE HAS SUBMITTED AN AMICUS (FRIEND OF THE COURT) BRIEF ADVOCATING A FAVORABLE RESULT FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE TITLE SYSTEM, THE MARKETPLACE AND BORROWERS.

The case is Julia Vasquez v Deutsch Bank National Trust Company, as Trustee for Saxon Asset Securities Trust 2005-3; Saxon Mortgage, Inc., and Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc. Supreme Court Case No CV 11-0091-CQ, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case No: 4:08-bk-15510-EWH. Assisting in the writing of the Amicus Brief were Carolyn R. Matthews, Esq., Dena R. Epstein, Esq., and Donnelly A. Dybus, Esq..

In a a very well -written and well reasoned brief, the Arizona Attorney general takes and stand and makes a very persuasive case contrary to the tricks and shell games of the pretender lenders. It also addresses head-on the contention that that a negative ruling to the banks will cause financial disaster. Just as we have been saying for years here on these pages, the AG makes short shrift of that argument. And the AG takes the bank to task on their “spin” that stopping the foreclosures will have a chilling effect on the housing market and therefore the economy. The absurdity of both positions is exposed for what they are — naked aggression and greed justifying the means to defraud and corrupt the entire housing market, financial industry and the whole of the consumer buying base in this and other countries.

Of particular note is the detailed discussion in the Amicus Brief regarding the recordation of interests in real property. While the brief does not directly attach perfection of liens that violate the provisions of Arizona Statutes, the implications are clear: If the public record does not contain adequate disclosure as to the identity of the interested parties, the document is neither properly recorded, nor is the party seeking to enforce such a document entitled to use that document as though it had been recorded.

 

The use of a double nominee method of identifying the straw-man beneficiary (usually MERS) and a straw-man “lender” (usually the mortgage originator  that was acting only as a conduit or broker) leaves the public without any knowledge as to the identities of the real parties in interest. In the case of a mortgage lien, if it is impossible to know the identity of the party who can satisfy the lien, then the lien is not perfected. The same reasoning holds true with any other document required to be recorded, to wit:  

PUBLIC POLICY OF ARIZONA AGAINST FORECLOSURES: The AG also meets head on the obvious bias in the courts in which the assumption is made that that it is somehow better for society to speed along the foreclosures. Not so, says the AG:

Mortgage Companies Settle Suits on Military Foreclosures

COMBO Title and Securitization Search, Report, Documents, Analysis & Commentary GET COMBO TITLE AND SECURITIZATION ANALYSIS – CLICK HERE

EDITOR’S NOTE: After years of revealing on this blog the many illegal foreclosures on property owned by service people who were on active duty, putting their lives on the line for their country, and laws that have long been in effect that such actions cannot be taken against military personnel, the banks are going to pay up for the damage they caused to the families of these brave souls. The simple fact is that the banks knew, we know they knew and they did it anyway because they didn’t care and they thought they could get away with it. It’s the same as all the other foreclosures with one important difference: this time they attacked not only the core of American society, they aimed at the core of our defense. To my way of thinking it is as close to treason as you can get without crossing the boundary.

Mortgage Companies Settle Suits on Military Foreclosures

By

Two mortgage servicing companies have agreed to settle federal complaints that they wrongfully foreclosed on the homes of at least 178 military service members and to set aside a minimum of $22 million to compensate those victims.

The Justice Department announced on Thursday that it had simultaneously filed and settled lawsuits against the two companies — a subsidiary of Bank of America formerly known as Countrywide Home Loans Servicing, and Saxon Mortgage Services, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley.

The companies were accused of knowingly and repeatedly violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a federal law that extends an array of financial and legal protections to military personnel. Specifically, the companies were accused of ignoring a provision of the law that required them to get court orders before foreclosing on active-duty service members.

Without admitting wrongdoing, the former Countrywide unit agreed to pay $20 million to approximately 160 victims of illegal foreclosures from January 2006 to May 2009. It also agreed to reimburse victims of any other illegal military foreclosures found to have occurred from May 2009 to the end of last year.

Further, it promised to upgrade its training and report future violations of the civil relief act to the Justice Department.

Although most of the improper foreclosures began before Bank of America acquired Countrywide, “it is our responsibility to make things right,” said Terry Laughlin, an executive vice president at the bank. He added, “These errors are not acceptable, and we certainly regret them.”

According to Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, the Countrywide settlement is “easily the largest amount ever recovered“ by the Justice Department for violations of the civil relief act.

Saxon was accused of illegally foreclosing on approximately 18 service members, “some of whom were severely injured in the line of duty or suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder,“ according to Mr. Perez.

Without admitting wrongdoing, Saxon agreed to pay $2.35 million to victims of those foreclosures, made from January 2006 to May 2009. It also agreed to pay the victims of any subsequent wrongful military foreclosures, through the end of last year, and to upgrade its training programs.

“First and foremost, we want to apologize to those military families that were affected by any mistakes made in the foreclosure process,” said Mark Lake, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley. “Our servicemen and women deserve the highest level of customer service.”

He said that Saxon “has taken meaningful steps to ensure it has appropriate policies and procedures in place to comply fully” with the civil relief act.

Both companies agreed to repair any damage their improper foreclosures had caused to the credit scores of the affected homeowners.

There have been widely publicized violations of the civil relief act since well before January 2006, the starting date for these settlements. Indeed, the Saxon investigation was based on a complaint by Sgt. James B. Hurley, an Iraq veteran who lost his home in western Michigan in an improper foreclosure in 2005. Saxon and its co-defendant in that case, Deutsche Bank, reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the Hurleys early this year.

Mr. Perez said the 2006-9 period was chosen because it encompassed the sharp spike in national foreclosure activity that began in late 2006.

The settlement terms expand that window to the end of 2010.

The two mortgage companies have set up a direct hot line for service personnel who believe they are eligible for relief under the settlements. That number is (800) 896-7743, mailbox 6 for the former Countrywide unit and mailbox 995 for Saxon.

Injured Reservist Hurley Loses Michigan House in Foreclosure While He Was at War

ONE ON ONE WITH NEIL GARFIELD ONE ON ONE WITH NEIL GARFIELD

COMBO ANALYSIS TITLE AND SECURITIZATION

A Reservist in a New War, Against Foreclosure

EDITOR’S NOTE: This case highlights many of the defects that exist, but which are still being ignored in the marketplace, in the courts and in the media.

Start first with the premise that regardless of the facts, if the owner is in active duty his home cannot be foreclosed and that Deutsch, Morgan Stanley and its subsidiary Saxon Mortgage did it anyway. It’s the law and it should be the law. And the pretender lenders admit that the foreclosure was wrong, which is no great admission since a Federal Judge said it anyway. Somehow, they are struggling with the concept that a wrongful foreclosure is somehow made right by selling the property again.

And by the way, that same law CAPS interest at 6%. So if the loan involved something more than an interest rate of 6%, the notice of default would be wrong even if it came from a creditor. I believe the same holds true for other kinds of debt, but I’m not positive of that. If the notice of default was wrong, then the rest of the foreclosure is void or voidable in most states.

There was an auction in which SOMEBODY showed up and bid on the house. They didn’t use money to pay for the house. They merely represented themselves to be the creditor and so they submitted a “credit bid.” This is allowed when, like in the old days, the creditor was readily identified and could hardly be expected to pay cash on a debt that was owed to themselves. But in this case, there was no creditor at the auction and yet the “credit bid” was accepted.

So in a nutshell, someone — not the borrower — got a free house. Despite statutes and rules to the contrary, title was issued in the name of either the bidder or another third party with nothing to do with this transaction, just to obfuscate title even further. Eventually the house was again “sold” for $76,000 no doubt to some friend of a friend of the people involved.

According to most states, the foreclosure of property by the wrong the party is slander of title entitling the owner to damages. Also, if the bidding process was defective then the issuance of title resulting from the “auction” is void or voidable. That means whoever bought the house for $76,000 may have a good cause of action against whoever sold it to him, but it doesn’t mean that he owns the house.

To own a house or any real property, there must be an unbroken chain of title leading to you. Here the chain of title was mangled beyond recognition because of presumptions that the pretender lenders were creditors and because of the presumption that the mortgage was in default, both of which are both untrue and unsupported by any evidence.

An interesting question would be to ask where the the $76,000 went if in fact it was ever paid.

The bottom line, in my opinion is that Sergeant Hurley should get his house back, pure and simple along with money damages and attorney fees, costs and possibly punitive damages.

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NY Times

By DIANA B. HENRIQUES

While Sgt. James B. Hurley was away at war, he lost a heartbreaking battle at home.

In violation of a law intended to protect active military personnel from creditors, agents of Deutsche Bank foreclosed on his small Michigan house, forcing Sergeant Hurley’s wife, Brandie, and her two young children to move out and find shelter elsewhere.

When the sergeant returned in December 2005, he drove past the densely wooded riverfront property outside Hartford, Mich. The peaceful little home was still there — winter birds still darted over the gazebo he had built near the water’s edge — but it almost certainly would never be his again. Less than two months before his return from the war, the bank’s agents sold the property to a buyer in Chicago for $76,000.

Since then, Sergeant Hurley has been on an odyssey through the legal system, with little hope of a happy ending — indeed, the foreclosure that cost him his home may also cost him his marriage. “Brandie took this very badly,” said Sergeant Hurley, 45, a plainspoken man who was disabled in Iraq and is now unemployed. “We’re trying to piece it together.”

In March 2009, a federal judge ruled that the bank’s foreclosure in 2004 violated federal law but the battle did not end there for Sergeant Hurley.

Typically, banks respond quickly to public reports of errors affecting military families. But today, more than six years after the illegal foreclosure, Deutsche Bank Trust Company and its primary co-defendant, a Morgan Stanley subsidiary called Saxon Mortgage Services, are still in court disputing whether Sergeant Hurley is owed significant damages. Exhibits show that at least 100 other military mortgages are being serviced for Deutsche Bank, but it is not clear whether other service members have been affected by the policy that resulted in the Hurley foreclosure.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment, noting that Saxon had handled the litigation on its behalf. A spokesman for Morgan Stanley, which bought Saxon in 2006, said that Saxon had revised its policy to ensure that it complied with the law and was willing to make “reasonable accommodations” to settle disputes, “especially for our servicemen and women.” But the Hurley litigation has continued, he said, because of a “fundamental disagreement between the parties over damages.”

In court papers, lawyers for Saxon and the bank assert the sergeant is entitled to recover no more than the fair market value of his lost home. His lawyers argue that the defendants should pay much more than that — including an award of punitive damages to deter big lenders from future violations of the law. The law is called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and it protects service members on active duty from many of the legal consequences of their forced absence.

Even though some of the nation’s military families have been sending their breadwinners into war zones for almost a decade, some of the nation’s biggest lenders are still fumbling one the basic elements of this law — its foreclosure protections.

Under the law, only a judge can authorize a foreclosure on a protected service member’s home, even in states where court orders are not required for civilian foreclosures, and the judge can act only after a hearing where the military homeowner is represented. The law also caps a protected service member’s mortgage rate at 6 percent.

By 2005, violations of the civil relief act were being reported all across the country, some involving prominent banks like Wells Fargo and Citigroup. Publicity about the violations spared some military families from foreclosure, prompted both banks to promise better compliance and put lenders on notice that service members were entitled to special relief.

But the message apparently did not get through. By 2006, a Marine captain in South Carolina was doing battle with JPMorgan Chase to get the mortgage interest rate reductions the act requires. Chase eventually reviewed its policies and, earlier this month, acknowledged it had overcharged thousands of military families on their mortgages and improperly foreclosed on 14 of them. After a public apology, Chase began mailing out about $2 million in refunds and working to reverse the foreclosures.

For armed forces in a war zone, a foreclosure back home is both a family crisis and a potentially deadly distraction from the military mission, military consumer advocates say.

“It can be devastating,” said Holly Petraeus, the wife of Gen. David Petraeus and the leader of a team that is creating an office to serve military families within a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“It is a terrible situation for the family at home and for the service member abroad, who feels helpless,” Mrs. Petraeus said. “I would hope that the recent problems will be a wake-up call for all banks to review their policies and be sure they comply with the act.”

Chase’s response, however belated, is in sharp contrast to the approach taken by Deutsche Bank and Saxon in the Hurley case.

Sergeant Hurley bought the land in 1994 and “was developing this property into something special,” he said in a court affidavit. He put a double-wide manufactured home on the site and added a deck, hunting blinds, floating docks and storage buildings.

According to his lawyers, his financial troubles began in the summer of 2004, when his National Guard unit sent him to California to be trained to work as a power-generator mechanic in Iraq. Veterans of that duty advised him to buy certain tools not readily available in the war zone, he said in his affidavit. With that expense and his reduced income, he said, he fell behind on his mortgage — a difficulty many part-time soldiers faced when reserve and National Guard units were mobilized.

Believing he was protected by the civil relief act — as, indeed, he was, as of Sept. 11, 2004 — his family repeatedly informed Saxon that Sergeant Hurley had been sent to Iraq. But Saxon refused to grant relief without copies of his individual military orders, which he did not yet have.

Although Saxon’s demand would have been legitimate if Sergeant Hurley had been seeking a lower interest rate, the law did not require him to provide those orders to invoke his foreclosure protections.

Nevertheless, Saxon referred the case to its law firm, Orlans Associates in Troy, Mich., which completed the foreclosure without the court hearing required by law. The law firm filed an affidavit with the local sheriff saying there was no evidence Sergeant Hurley was on military duty. At a sheriff’s sale in October 2004, the bank bought the property for $70,000, less than the $100,000 the sergeant owed on the mortgage.

Orlans acknowledged in a court filing that one of its lawyers learned in April 2005 that Sergeant Hurley had been on active duty since the previous October. Nevertheless, neither Saxon nor the law firm backtracked to ensure the foreclosure had been legal or took steps to prevent the seized property from being sold, according to the court record. Lawyers for Orlans Associates did not respond to a request for comment.

When Sergeant Hurley sued in May 2007, the defendants initially argued that he was not allowed to file a private lawsuit to enforce his rights under the civil relief act. Federal District Judge Gordon J. Quist agreed and threw the case out in the fall of 2008.

That drew a fierce reaction from Col. John S. Odom, Jr., a retired Air Force lawyer in Shreveport, La., who is working with Sergeant Hurley’s local lawyer, Matthew R. Cooper, of Paw Paw, Mich.

Colonel Odom, recognized by Congress and the courts as an expert on the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, knew Judge Quist had missed a decision that overturned the one he had cited in his ruling. In December 2008, Colonel Odom appealed the ruling.

In March 2009, Judge Quist reversed himself, reinstated the Hurley case, ruled that the foreclosure had violated the civil relief act and found that punitive damages would be permitted, if warranted.

Despite that legal setback, the defendants soldiered on. As the court docket grew, they argued against allowing Sergeant Hurley to seek compensatory or punitive damages in the case. Judge Quist ruled last month that punitive damages were not warranted — a ruling Colonel Odom has said he has challenged in court and, if necessary, will appeal.

“Nothing says you screwed up as clearly as a big punitive damages award,” he said. “They are a deterrence that warns others not to do the same thing.”

When the trial on damages begins in early March, Sergeant Hurley will have been fighting for almost four years over the illegal foreclosure, a fight he could not have waged without a legal team that will probably only be paid if the court orders the defendants to cover the legal bills.

Regardless of the trial outcome, Sergeant Hurley’s dream home is likely to remain as far beyond his reach as it was when he was in Iraq. Its new owner has refused to entertain any offers for it and recently bought an adjoining lot.

Sergeant Hurley said he still loved the wooded refuge he drives past almost every day. “I was hoping I could get the property back,” he said. “But they tell me there’s just no way.” [Editor’s Comment: Yes there is]

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