Biloxi Buzz for Saturday

WATCH: GOP Candidates Emphasize Their Poor Backgrounds

Letter Airs Sexual Harassment Claims Against Fired HP CEO

Uninsured Americans Turning To Daily Deals Sites For Healthcare

Massachusetts foreclosures surge 70 percent in November

Foreclosures in Massachusetts rose more than 70 percent in November from the same time last year, a real estate tracker reported today.

A total of 714 foreclosure deeds were recorded last month, up from 418 deeds in November 2010. However, year-to-date foreclosure deeds are down, said The Warren Group of Boston.

A total of 7,685 foreclosure deeds have been completed this year, down nearly 35 percent from 11,752 deeds recorded during the same period last year.

“An increase in foreclosure deeds tells us that the backlog of foreclosures is moving through the process,” Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. “The modest decline in petitions could indicate that an improving employment picture is leading to fewer mortgage delinquencies.”

Read more here

TYT: Feds won’t prosecute banks despite evidence of crimes

Minnesota woman has mortgage reinstated but CitiMortgage wants fees for its attorney fees and foreclosure costs

In a last-minute move, Citi- Mortgage called off the foreclosure sale of a St. Louis Park house whose owner battled to stay in her home with the support of the Minnesota attorney general.

Nancy Gosselin was scheduled to lose her house in a sheriff's auction scheduled for Tuesday, even though an investigation by the attorney general determined that at most, she had missed one payment of $584 more than two years ago.

After Gosselin was featured in a Whistleblower column on Nov. 13, CitiMortgage postponed the foreclosure for a month. Then, this week, Gosselin got the good news.

"It was canceled," Mark Rodgers, director of Citi public affairs, said in an e-mail to the Star Tribune on Thursday. "This matter has been resolved."

A receptionist at Sela Roofing, Gosselin refinanced her house with Bremer Bank for a $84,100, 20-year mortgage in 2005. Then the mortgage was sold to CitiMortgage.

Gosselin said she never missed any payments, and a loan officer at Bremer Bank agreed. Yet CitiMortgage began assessing monthly late fees on the Xenwood Avenue house, which she repeatedly contested, and last spring the company refused to accept Gosselin's monthly payments and took action to sell the house at foreclosure.

In rescinding the foreclosure, CitiMortgage agreed to drop more than $700 in late fees and charges, Gosselin said. In return, she made eight back payments.

Gosselin said she was relieved to know her house will not be sold.

Read on.

Biloxi Buzz for Friday

Cuts To Homeland Security Budget Leaves Cities On Their Own

Dictator Convicted For Secret Hospital Torture Center

U.S. Reportedly Plans To Sell F-15 Fighter Jets To Saudi Arabia

Fannie, Freddie catastrophe began in 1991

Source: NPR

It's been more than three years since the government bailed out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Gretchen Morgenson, of The New York Times, has co-authored a book about Fannie and Freddie called Reckless Endangerment. Morgenson talks to Linda Wertheimer about the taxpayer-owned entities.

Read the full story >>

Wells Fargo – Sand Canyon Fraud, Forgery = Unlawful Foreclosure

On Friday December 23, 2011 at 4:00 P.M., two days before Christmas, the Phillips-Tehiva Family of Hana, Maui, Hawaii, (6 children, mom dad and grandmother) received notification of a “criminal trespass” eviction from their home, located on property which has been in the Phillips Family for more than 100 years.

The action, taken by Wells Fargo Bank, occurred after the Phillips-Tehiva Family filed a motion on Thursday, December 22nd for a hearing to review the court’s eviction order based on fraudulent and forged documents.

“This 60(b) Motion is based on new evidence showing that Wells Fargo’s foreclosure

was void because of an invalid assignment of the mortgage,” according to the attorney for Phillips-Tehiva, Arnold T. Phillips II (no relation). “A major issue is the fact that this was a securitized loan in which Wells Fargo violated the terms of the securitization agreement,” said attorney Phillips.

The Note and the Mortgage on this loan were required to be transferred, assigned and delivered to the securitized trust vehicle by July 10, 2007 when the securitization deal actually closed. However, the attempt to assign the loan occurred on June 24, 2010, which was three years too late.

Read on.

Thousands of CRC "Notice of Trustee's Sale" with forged Deborah Brignac "signatures" recorded in the San Diego County Recorder

Last year, a man named Bjorn Rafto wrote this piece of his investigating findings of fraudulent signatures and documents recorded in various California counties of robo-signer Deborah Brignac of California Reconveyance Company. He wrote:

Greetings people of San Diego County and California generally,

I have collected hundreds of examples of forged signatures of alleged robo forger "VP Deborah Brignac" appearing on California Reconveyance Company's (CRC) "Notice of Trustee's Sale(NoTS)" recorded not only in SD County but in Ventura, Madera, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, Riverside and Montery Counties at least. CRC is the alleged "Trustee" (actually what I suspect is a foreclosure chopshop) for WaMu/FDIC/JPMorgan Chase "foreclosures".

On Friday this past I went to the SD County Recorder's Office and recorded on my cell camera (each pg is 2 bux each if the recorder provides them ;-p) CRC "signatures" of VP Deborah Brignac appearing on ALL CRC recorded NoTSs - ninety (90) total - recorded between Oct 25 through 9 November 2010. I know ALL of these signatures are forged because I have ten (10) VP Deborah Brignac signatures from notarized and recorded CRC "Assignment of Deed of Trust (AoDoT)" and one "Substitution of Trustee and all of those signature exemplars are all consistent and have been notarized by five (5) in house CRC California Notary Publics.

A week and a half ago I traveled to the Ventura County Recorder's Office and, for the week of Oct 25-29, 2010, I dicovered sixteen (16) recorded CRC NoTS with VP Brignac "signatures". Comparing them to my ten notarized control signatures it appears ALL of the 16 are forged. I have writen letters to all in Ventura (I am still working on the 90 in SD) enclosing exemplars with a suggesting each investigate and contact their respective DAs, FBI etc.

Based on this information and random checks of CRC NoTS in San Diego I estimate there are thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of forged VP Brignac signatures on recorded CRC NoTS which have resulted in probably hundreds at least "successful" WaMu/Chase "foreclosures" in SD County.


Interesting enough, in January of this year, then and now fired Florida Attorney General Assistants June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards did a powerpoint presentation of the deceptive acts of foreclosures in Florida. In the presentation, there are exhibits of documents that showed fraudulent and different signatures of Deborah Brignac. The powerpoint presentation was an used as exhibit for California homeowner's case against Chase and California Reconveyance Company. Click here.

If only many in Congress and Senate would get a close how corrupted the recorded documents in counties statewide is an epidemic. Even Rep. Laura Richardson should have checked her own documents on her house to learn that she too is a vicitm of robo-signing. Remember Rep. Laura Richardson? She was accused by the House Ethics Committee of receiving preferential treatment from her lender, Washington Mutual. Check out the House Ethics Committee report. Click here. In the report, the Ethics Committee included copies of county recorded documents of Rep. Richardson's home. Here is one sample of a recorded document of Richardson's home. Check out the signature of the Notice of Rescission:

The person who signed the document was Karime Arias. I noticed in Clarkson and Edwards' powerpoint presentation that Karime Arias's name is named in a list of robo-signers whom banks appointed to execute assignments. See page 18. Click here. We can only hope that California Reconveyance Company itself becomes a topic of criminal investigation.

Biloxi Buzz for Thursday

U.S. Strongly Warns Iran

SHOCK: Middle School Principal Allegedly Recorded Boys Showering

Amazon Sued For Fraud

U.S. Army Sergeant David Brash has won more than $21 million in damages from PHH Mortgage after it falsely claimed he defaulted on his loan

It’s a rare case of the little guy taking on a big corporation – and winning.

U.S. Army sergeant David Brash has won more than $21million in damages from PHH Mortgage after it falsely claimed he defaulted on his loan.

The 29-year-old was awarded the enormous sum by a Columbus jury after he sued the mortgage company – the country’s eight-biggest – for reporting him as ‘seriously delinquent’ to credit rating companies.

PHH claimed he was behind on his mortgage payments, when in fact they had been automatically deducted out of his Army pay cheque every month.

He set up a direct debit in 2007 when he bought the house, in Columbus, Georgia, so he wouldn’t miss any of his instalments while he was on active duty at Fort Benning.

Austin Gower, one of his lawyers, told WTVM: ‘This soldier was never behind on his payments. They were taking his money and not crediting it properly.

‘I think the jury and everybody has had this experience before with the call centre and they’re fed up with it.’

He said the verdict sent an important message to the ‘billion-dollar’ company – and it needed to pay more attention to its customers.

The sergeant, who is married with a baby on the way, had no problems with his $160,000 mortgage until September 2009, when he began to get late notices in the post.

Rest here…

Foreclosure free ride: 3 years, no payments

Source: CNN Money

Delinquent borrowers facing foreclosure are learning that they can stay in their homes for years, as long as they're willing to put up a fight.

Among the tactics: Challenging the bank's actions, waiting to file paperwork right up until the deadline, requesting the lender dig up original paperwork or, in some extreme cases, declaring bankruptcy.

Read the full story >>

NY State Supreme Court justice fined HSBC Bank USA $10,000 in home seizure without proper paperwork

An outspoken State Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn known for taking on banks and throwing out foreclosures has fined HSBC Bank USA $10,000 for “frivolous conduct” in trying to seize a home without proper paperwork.

Justice Arthur M. Schack sanctioned the U. S. subsidiary of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc last week, citing the bank’s “waste of judicial resources” in continuing a foreclosure action “with all of its defects.”

In his ruling, he said the bank’s “use of robosigners” is “completely without merit in law,” and he accused the bank of asserting “material factual statements that are false.”

He also sanctioned HSBC’s legal counsel, the law firm of Shapiro DiCaro & Barak LLC, for the same reasons, putting blame specifically on attorney Frank M. Cassara but imposing a $5,000 fine on the firm instead of the attorney.

The judge did not fine HSBC USA CEO Irene M. Dorner, whom he had ordered to appear in a hearing July 15 to justify why he should not sanction her or the bank. Dorner was out of the country and did not appear at that hearing, but rather sent an attorney as her representative.

That had triggered indignant outrage among a few online pundits and foreclosure victims, but Schack acknowledged in his ruling that, because she had the attorney present, “It’s HSBC that I might be able to sanction, not Ms. Dorner as an individual.”



An HSBC spokesman said the bank should not be blamed because it didn’t handle the loan but was only responsible for administering the mortgage investment trust that included the loan.

“HSBC did not service this loan and neither prepared nor filed any of the underlying legal documents presented to the court,” said spokesman Neil Brazil. “HSBC’s role in this case is limited to that of trustee . . ..We are evaluating the ruling.”

Read on.

California Reconveyance Co. is another robo-signer Co. and no investigation

Click to enlarge.

All over the news and media, we heard of the firms that hired robo-signers or employee with no real estate background who signed foreclosure documents without verifying them and firms that created fraudulents foreclosure documents such as Lender Processing Services' subsidary DocX, Steve J. Baum law firm, David J. Stern law firm, etc. But, we haven't heard much from the media nor news reporting from a foreclosure assistance firm located in California called California Reconveyance Company in which have filed numerous Notice of Defaults in the state of California in which robo-signing have been found in the recorder offices.What you may not know is that California Reconveyance Company operates as a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association which for sure Washington Mutual owned California Reconveyance Company. So, for those that live in California, you may want to check your recorded documents of your home in the county recorders office. I found this piece of information of California Reconveyance Company on this website:

If you live in California here is a company that knows how to get away with Robo-Signing.

If you are a California resident please inform the California Attorney General Kamala Harris to start to Investigate this company.

This Company, California Reconveyance Co. is above the law. They can get away with fraudulent paperwork and fraudulent foreclosures. Unfortunately nobody is investigating this company.

I believe it is an entity of JP Morgan Chase.Chase purchased this co. when they received the bail out from the Federal Government.

In this website you can see how many homeowners filed lawsuit against CA reconveyance Company without any media attention.

Click here to view the homeowners' lawsuit against the company. Oh, and the2010 letter (see above) is a response from the San Diego District Attorney Office of a complaint filed by a homeowner against California Reconveyance Company. Here is the homeowner's exhibits of fraudulent recorded documents from the county recorders office signed by a robosigner from California Reconveyance Company. Click here. We can only hope that Attorney General Kamala Harris will probe this company.

I-Team: Nevada Supreme Court Case Could Impact Homeowners

LAS VEGAS -- A case before the Nevada State Supreme Court next week could have far-reaching impact on Nevadans struggling to stay in their homes. Among the issues before the justices is what proof lenders must provide to show they own the property they seek to foreclose.

This is the first time the state supreme court will consider issues related to the use of MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System. During the housing boom, banks created MERS to serve as the mortgagee of record for lenders which allowed properties to change hands without publicly recording each transfer.

But in order to foreclose, banks must be able to establish the chain of title on a property and often use MERS which has no financial interest in the loan to show ownership. Whether that is legal is among the questions before the court.

The case stems from a foreclosure mediation involving Andrew and Loretta Davis, a Reno couple. According to court records, during the mediation, US Bank used documents listing MERS to show it had the right to foreclose. MERS, according to the bank, assigned the original lenders' interests in the Davis loan to US Bank. The mediator concluded that wasn't enough to establish ownership but the district court disagreed. Attorney Tisha Black-Chernine, who is not involved in the case, says nationwide courts are split with regard to MERS.

Read on.

ONE MAN’S HOME LOAN SIGNATURE WAS TURNED INTO $92 MILLIONIN UNSECURED AND ILLEGAL BONDS FRAUDULENTLY GIVEN TRIPLE ASTATUS RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING

A Paula Gloria banking fraud special with Randy who has had experience with Banking fraud first hand when he was defrauded by a "Bank", lost his home and lived on the E train for years while studying law to fight his case and M. Nawaz Raja who produced 20 boxes of 20 large files (one of which he shows on camera) for his own case where his signature for a half million dollar "loan" produced around $92 million in unsecured and illegal bonds fraudulently given triple A status RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING. Mr. Raja never even defaulted on his loan before his inquiries to restructure lead to aggressive attacks by the "bank" to foreclose.

Biloxi Buzz for Wednesday

Obama to ask for debt limit hike: Treasury official — (Reuters) - The White House plans to ask Congress by the end of the week for an increase in the government's debt ceiling to allow the United States to pay its bills on time, according to a senior Treasury Department official on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Il Funeral Reportedly Begins In North Korea

Federal Judge Takes On Wall Street

Wealth Gap Widens Between Lawmakers, Constituents

Florida Judge: BofA, Debt Collector Harassed Widow

Bank of America Corp. and a debt collector it hired to go after deceased customers' debts violated state law by repeatedly calling a Florida woman about paying the credit-card bill of her late husband, a Florida state-court judge ruled this month.

Judge Keith R. Kyle in Lee County, Fla., found that collection attempts by West Asset Management, an Omaha, Neb.-based firm working on behalf of Bank of America, amounted to harassment.

The ruling clears the way for the plaintiff to get punitive damages from the collector, a unit of West Corp., and Bank of America, which is the second largest U.S. bank by deposits. A civil jury will determine the size of the award next year.

Read on.

580 Morgan Stanley Soon To Be Former-Employees

From WARN:

Date of Notice: 12/27/2011

Control Number: 2011-0193

Rapid Response Specialist: Linda Foehr

Reason Stated for Filing: Plant Layoffs

Company:
Morgan Stanley (Various NYC sites)
1221 Avenue of Americas
New York, NY 10020

County: New York | WIB Name: NEW YORK CITY| Region: New York City

Contact: Eric Kayne, Human Resources

Phone: (212) 762-9804

Business Type: Financial services

Number Affected: 580 in all locations

Total Employees: -----

Layoff Date: Rolling layoffs beginning on 12/15/2011

Closing Date: -----

Reason for Dislocation: Economic

ERNUM: -----

Union: -----

Classification: Plant Layoff

Other Morgan Stanley locations affected:

1 New York Plaza, New York, NY
1585 Broadway, New York, NY
750 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY

Credit Default Swaps---60 Minutes

A great 60 Minutes video in detail on how and who is responsible for the greatest disaster of our time

Biloxi Buzz for Tuesday

Afghanistan Agrees To Peace Talks With Taliban

Nightmare: At Least 1,200 Dead In Horrific Philippines Floods

Apple Rumored To Be Releasing iPad 3 On Steve Jobs' Birthday

Last week's poll had asked:

Are you better off than your parents were when they were your age? JL readers answered no. This week's poll is now up.

Break Up Citi and Prosecute The CEO?

Break up Citigroup and prosecute CEO Vikram Pandit for not disclosing on the bank’s 2008 10-K that the bank had recently received eight-page memo from the Office of the Controller of the Currency laying out in detail the weaknesses and deficiencies in the its risk management?

Mike Mayo in his new book, “Exile on Wall Street,” writes that as the new CEO at Citi, Pandit could have come clean and admitted the bank’s problems.

“But he didn’t. Instead, on February 22, 2008, just eight days after receiving the letter, Pandit signed off on Citi’s 10-K, its annual statement for the prior year, including a statement saying that the company’s internal controls were fine. Pandit knew that, by the standards of a neutral third party, the internal controls were flawed, yet he didn’t disclose it. At best he didn’t know what was going on and signed off anyway; at worst he committed a lie of omission…Pandit’s action in signing the 10-K may have been more than simply dishonest — I believe it was flat-out illegal under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.”

Pandit’s actions didn’t become public until early 2011 when the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released some of its reporting, added Mayo. Citi, he adds, mounted a hyper-technical defense saying the OCC never uttered the key phrase “material weakness.”

Read on.

Whistleblower’s Affidavit Exposing Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud on 195 Grove City Terrace Unit 3 Disappears from Public Records

4closurefraud website:

In the course of our fraudclosure research, we found, recorded in Charlotte County, Florida an affidavit by a notary who attests to the fact that despite a mortgage on the property bearing his notarial stamp and signature, he did not notarize the document. The affiant also clarifies the corporate identity of Shapiro Fishman Gache fraudclosure mill manager, Ilene K. Cooper, who signed as an officer of MERS on an assignment of mortgage for the same property, without disclosing her employment at the fraudclosure mill litigating the fraudclosure action.

We obtained a certified copy, posted below.

We were surprised to find the document has been expunged from public record especially in light of Florida’s high bar to clear before documents can be properly expunged. We wonder under what authority this document was expunged.

Might be a good idea to download and save this document if it is of interest. It has a habit of disappearing.

2011-0912-CertCopyAffidavitPublicRecord

Treasury building a team focused on the implementation of housing-finance policy in 2012

(Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is building a team focused on the implementation of housing-finance policy in 2012, according to a Treasury official.

Michael Stegman, who has been director of policy and housing at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will be joining the Department of the Treasury as a counselor to the secretary in January.

In his new role at Treasury, Stegman will help the administration navigate the development and implementation of housing policy and programs.

Read on.

AZ State Rep.Op-Ed: Protect the people instead of banks

Chad Campbell, a Democrat, and minority leader of the Arizona House of Representatives wrote this piece on AZ Central newspaper:

A record number of foreclosures has affected our friends and neighbors all across our state. And though the market is slowly improving, the housing crisis is far from over. As we head into 2012, the Arizona Legislature should still be working to assist homeowners in holding on to their properties and avoiding foreclosures. It's good for them, it's good for the banks and it's good for our economy.

Instead, we have "tea party" Rep. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, introducing a bill that would require Arizona's middle-class families to bail out the banks, again. It's even more shocking when you consider his hometown is one of those hit the hardest in the housing crisis.

Harper wants to give complete power to banks. He wants to force homeowners to pay banks for any remaining values on foreclosure properties, even if the loans were made under deceptive or illegal conditions.

Harper clearly has his priorities in the wrong place.

No one should walk away from their mortgage, but hard-working families and individuals shouldn't be penalized for being victims of predatory lending practices and tough economic times.

Instead of demonizing our neighbors facing foreclosure, we should be working to help keep people in their houses. Instead of bailing out the banks again, we should be prosecuting those who engaged in fraudulent and predatory lending.

But the tea party, which controls the state Legislature, refuses to work with anyone and risk breaking its rigid ideologies to make improvements for Arizona's families.

Biloxi Buzz for Monday

Apple's Incredible New Plans Revealed

IMF Head: World Economy In 'A Dangerous Situation'

Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo’s 2008 House testimony: Expresses dismay about homeowners' plight. When did Mozilo know about the minority homeowners’ discrimination?

LA Observed:

Former Countrywide CEO testifies before Congress in March 2008, well before all the you-know-what hit the fan (bear with the droning by a congressman for the first minute or two of the clip). Below is a snippet from the Justice Department complaint alleging that Countrywide discriminated against black and Hispanic borrowers during the housing boom.

Countrywide's home mortgage lending policies allowed its employees and mortgage brokers both to set the loan prices charged to borrowers and to place borrowers into loan products in ways that were not connected to a borrower's creditworthiness or other objective criteria related to borrower risk. Countrywide's policies created financial incentives for its employees and mortgage brokers by sharing increased revenues with them. Countrywide knew or had reason to know based on its own internal monitoring and reporting that its policies of giving unguided direction to its own loan officers as well as to brokers was resulting in discrimination.

Inquiring minds are still asking: What did Angelo know and when did he know it?

Take the quiz. Which of the following bills has this session of Congress considered?