Saturday, February 25, 2012
Whistleblower accuses Countrywide of appraisal fraud
(Reuters) - A former Countrywide Financial employee alleges the lender fraudulently inflated appraisals used for government-insured home loans, according to a complaint unsealed on Friday in U.S. District Court in New York.
The whistleblower complaint appears to be related to a $1 billion settlement announced February 9 between Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), which bought Countrywide in June 2008, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York.
Federal prosecutors said they had been investigating Bank of America and Countrywide since 2009 for knowingly making loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration to unqualified borrowers. They also said they probed allegations that the bank and Countrywide defrauded the FHA by originating loans based on inflated appraisals.
Read on.
Wells Fargo suffers setback in force-placed insurance case, federal judge has granted class action status to plaintiffs
A federal judge has granted class action status to plaintiffs in a much-watched force-placed insurance case against Wells Fargo & Co. and QBE Insurance Inc., opening the door to high-stakes litigation over alleged industry kickbacks.
The Tuesday ruling in Williams v. Wells Fargo et al by Judge Robert Scola, Jr. of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida reinforces banks’ vulnerability to legal attacks over their purchase of so-called forced-placed insurance on behalf of borrowers whose homeowner policies have lapsed.
Force-placed hazard insurance is designed to protect creditors in the event that an uninsured borrower’s property is damaged. Mortgage contracts typically entitle banks to purchase such policies on behalf of homeowners who fail to maintain hazard coverage themselves and to pass on to them the cost of the coverage.
The Florida suit does not take issue with the cost of such policies directly but instead accuses Wells and QBE of inflating the cost of such coverage by secretly paying themselves unearned commissions.
Read more here
The Tuesday ruling in Williams v. Wells Fargo et al by Judge Robert Scola, Jr. of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida reinforces banks’ vulnerability to legal attacks over their purchase of so-called forced-placed insurance on behalf of borrowers whose homeowner policies have lapsed.
Force-placed hazard insurance is designed to protect creditors in the event that an uninsured borrower’s property is damaged. Mortgage contracts typically entitle banks to purchase such policies on behalf of homeowners who fail to maintain hazard coverage themselves and to pass on to them the cost of the coverage.
The Florida suit does not take issue with the cost of such policies directly but instead accuses Wells and QBE of inflating the cost of such coverage by secretly paying themselves unearned commissions.
Read more here
Friday, February 24, 2012
What else could possibly banks fail at?...Being a landlord
Across the country, big banks and other large investors are buying up tens of thousands of foreclosed rental properties. They're not always model landlords, according to tenants and regulators. Some banks are failing to follow local and state housing codes, leaving tenants to live in squalor — without even a number to call in the most dire situations.
Pedro Jimenez signed the lease for his second-floor apartment in Oakland, Calif., in 2006. Since then, he says, "Here was leaking water. Part of the ceiling [fell]. See all the windows crack." The panes are completely shattered; vandals broke them, he says.
East Oakland is a rough part of town. It's known for abandoned buildings and a high crime rate. Still, it's home for Jimenez, a single dad with four kids.
His 7-year-old son, David, plays handyman. While his father patches the walls with plywood, David covers holes with sticky notes. There are yellow squares in every room but one: a bathroom that has been nailed shut.
"It's dirty and it's nasty," David warns. That's code for "dangerous." It has broken plumbing, splintered wood and exposed electrical wires. The original landlord was renovating when he lost the place in foreclosure, back in 2007.
Jimenez recalls a real estate agent coming by one day to collect rent for the new owner, Deutsche Bank. Soon after, the water stopped running altogether because no one paid the bill. The utility company wouldn't let Jimenez pay just his part; it accepts only full payment for all units in a building.
Jimenez recalls not knowing whom to call for help. So he lifted a meter from a vacant home and reinstalled it in his. "It was the illegal way," Jimenez admits. "I'm not going to say I was doing it legally."
Managing Banklords
Jimenez doesn't know that Deutsche Bank actually isn't his landlord. It's the trustee representing a pool of investor-owners. JPMorgan Chase, the loan servicer, handles maintenance and tenants. Jimenez has never spoken with bank employees. He and JPMorgan Chase disagree about why repairs haven't happened, and why rent payments stopped last year.
Read on.
Baron and Budd Expands Its Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Mortgage Default Fees
Baron and Budd is expanding its investigation concerning potentially excessive mortgage default fees to other major financial institutions, including Citigroup (CitiMortgage), Ally/GMAC, American Home Mortgage Servicing and Ocwen Loan Servicing. Termed "default fees," these potentially illegal fees are charged when a consumer gets 20 days or more behind on their mortgage payments.
Earlier this month, Baron and Budd attorneys Roland Tellis and Mark Pifko filed a lawsuit against JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, alleging that the banks illegally charged excessive and unnecessary fees. According to the lawsuit, by adding undisclosed markups to default-related fees, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo may have defrauded struggling borrowers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Information obtained by Baron and Budd attorneys since the filing of the lawsuit now suggests that these excessive default-related fee practices may be occurring industry-wide, potentially affecting millions of homeowners throughout the country.
"Our investigation has revealed that banks have designed these practices to profit from the ever-increasing number of loans in default, and as a result, banks frequently make more money from loans that are in default than loans that are current," said Baron and Budd attorney Mark Pifko. "Under the loan agreements, default-related service charges must be reasonable and appropriate. Banks are not permitted to mark up default-related service fees to make a profit, but that is precisely what they are doing."
Thursday, February 23, 2012
New York Courts to Intensify Efforts to Prevent Foreclosures
New York State’s courts, frustrated by delays in thousands of foreclosure cases, are planning to speed them along in a new program that would give judges added control and require banks to send officials who have the power to alter loans to keep people in their homes.
“There will be no more excuses, no more delays,” the state’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, said in announcing the plan last week. “Real negotiations will take place.”
The move is the latest effort to stiffen court foreclosure procedures. In at least 19 states that have such court programs, efforts to settle foreclosure cases have often met with obstacles, including what some judges have found to be bad-faith negotiations by lenders.
The New York plan includes an unusual agreement by four banks to send representatives to court who can approve loan modifications. New York’s mortgage settlement conferences have often been paralyzed by repeated requests for information and the absence of anyone with authority from the banks.
The Rules of the Road for Securitization of Residential Mortgage Loans
The term “Mortgage Note” or “Note” refers to the promise to pay signed by the homeowner or obligor.
The term “Mortgage” refers to the real estate security instrument (mortgage or deed of trust) that must be filed with the local land registry to perfect the rights of the holder of the note and that is subject to the Statute of Frauds.
Note that Standard Fannie and Freddie Uniform Instruments cross-reference the note and the mortgage and provide that a breach of covenants in either document provides right to accelerate balance due and declare a default.
State law determines how mortgages travel—always travel by assignment due to statute of frauds. An assignment is a conveyance of a security interest in real property.
State law governs the necessity to record assignments. Some state laws have been amended to accommodate MERS, but not that many.
NAR Collaborates With U.S. Treasury on Short Sale "Help for Homeowners"
WASHINGTON, DC, Feb 22, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- A new National Association of Realtors(R) collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Treasury will help Realtors(R) better assist homeowners who are struggling to sell their homes in a short sale.
Realtors(R) who attend upcoming Making Home Affordable "Help for Homeowners" outreach events, sponsored by the Treasury Department, will learn insights to help them navigate the short sale process and have the opportunity to meet directly with loan servicers on their clients' behalf for assistance with difficult transactions.
"As the nation's leading advocate for homeownership and housing issues, Realtors(R) are working hard to keep more people in their homes, and when a family is absolutely unable keep their home, Realtors(R) are there to help homeowners by facilitating a loan modification or short sale," said NAR President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc. in Miami. "I encourage our Realtor(R) members to participate in these new events so that they have the tools and information to help distressed homeowners achieve the best possible outcome."
FHFA Demarco wants to name former BofA insider who Mayapoulos was in charge of BofA dept. that committed robo-signing as new Fannie chief
The other day we appeared on Sam Seder’s program,The Majority Report, to discuss the radical-right ideology of Edward DeMarco, a Bush appointee who became Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and continues in that role because Congress won’t confirm President Obama’s nominee.
As we wrote last week, DeMarco is single-handedly blocking relief for millions of struggling homeowners and is using deception to justify his actions. He refuses to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises he now directs, to reduce principal or even interest rates. Some underwater homeowners are paying as much as 7 percent interest, while loans are now available at 4.3 percent.
DeMarco deceived lawmakers by suggesting it would cost $100 billion to write down mortgage principal while, as we wrote last week, his own agency’s estimates show that it would probably save more than $28 billion.
It gets worse. Even in the days since we taped this interview the DeMarco train has continued to ride the housing market off the rails. An academic has studied DeMarco’s insistence on increasing the Fannie/Freddie financial portfolio — which he says has no bearing on his refusal to do more to help homeowners — and has concluded that “there is a very significant conflict of interest” which DeMarco and others have understated.
DeMarco’s team has invested roughly $5 billion of Freddie Mac’s $650 billion in “reverse floaters” which are essentially bets that the homeowners who aren’t being helped by DeMarco’s team will never get helped. That conflict of interest is actually understated, said Christopher Mayer of Columbia Business School, because these “floaters” are derivatives which link back to $26 to $30 billion in mortgages. That makes the amount of mortgage loans subject to this conflict five to six times what was originally believed.
Read more here
As we wrote last week, DeMarco is single-handedly blocking relief for millions of struggling homeowners and is using deception to justify his actions. He refuses to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises he now directs, to reduce principal or even interest rates. Some underwater homeowners are paying as much as 7 percent interest, while loans are now available at 4.3 percent.
DeMarco deceived lawmakers by suggesting it would cost $100 billion to write down mortgage principal while, as we wrote last week, his own agency’s estimates show that it would probably save more than $28 billion.
It gets worse. Even in the days since we taped this interview the DeMarco train has continued to ride the housing market off the rails. An academic has studied DeMarco’s insistence on increasing the Fannie/Freddie financial portfolio — which he says has no bearing on his refusal to do more to help homeowners — and has concluded that “there is a very significant conflict of interest” which DeMarco and others have understated.
DeMarco’s team has invested roughly $5 billion of Freddie Mac’s $650 billion in “reverse floaters” which are essentially bets that the homeowners who aren’t being helped by DeMarco’s team will never get helped. That conflict of interest is actually understated, said Christopher Mayer of Columbia Business School, because these “floaters” are derivatives which link back to $26 to $30 billion in mortgages. That makes the amount of mortgage loans subject to this conflict five to six times what was originally believed.
Read more here
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Banks Collecting Loan Balances After Foreclosure
COLUMBUS, Ohio --
If you think you owe nothing on that home that you surrendered to foreclosure, think again.
Banks are beginning a quiet assault on former borrowers, sending them the bills for balance. It's catching struggling families off guard.
One foreclosure attorney said he's never seen anything like it.
"This is something new," said consumer attorney Troy Doucet. "And it is the federal government like FHA that's coming after these people."
Ohio law allows lenders to get what's called a deficiency judgment against a borrower. They have two years to do so after a foreclosure. But if the home is a short sale, lenders have up to 15 years to collect.
Bank of NY Mellon accused of defrauding foreign exchange clients of $1.5B since 2001
MANHATTAN - The United States claims that Bank of New York Mellon defrauded its "standing instruction" foreign-exchange service clients of $1.5 billion since 2001 by playing games with the spread, in an amended federal complaint
Here is the complaint. Click here.
AG Settlement Gives OCC Foreclosure Reviews New Urgency
In a perfect world, state attorneys general and the U.S. Department of Justice would have worked hand in hand with bank regulators to fix foreclosure wrongs. But that's not how the world works.
I've heard there's a multistate settlement between five large mortgage servicers and state attorneys general, but there's no signed agreement or even a term sheet.
An ideal joint agreement would have not only compensated borrowers for past abuses, but also required servicing standards to prevent those crimes in the future.
It would have been great, too, if neither good-faith investors in mortgage-backed securities nor taxpayers had to provide a backdoor bailout for banks by paying for principal reductions and modifications that should be coming out of the pockets of mortgage servicers.
Joseph Smith, the former banking commissioner for North Carolina who was appointed monitor for the AG settlement, has to deal with reality, however. He should start coordinating with the OCC and Fed on their foreclosure abuse agreements now.
Read on.
Banks face crisis in bungled commercial mortgages
(MoneyWatch)
The nation's banks are looking at a robo-signing problem with commercial real estate which may dwarf the one for home mortgages, according to a new study.
Research by Harbinger Analytics Group shows the widespread use of inaccurate, fraudulent documents for land title underwriting of commercial real estate financing. According to the report:
This fraud is accomplished through inaccurate and incomplete filings of statutorily required records (commercial land title surveys detailing physical boundaries, encumbrances, encroachments, etc.) on commercial properties in California, many other western states and possibly throughout most of the United States
Two Sets of Books | Loan Balance – MBS Report Conflicts with Servicer Affidavits Presented to Courts & Homeowners
Again, these insolvent banks prove that they are all making up these facts, sums, figures, and accounting tricks.
Here is one example from a fraudclosure on Amos Delva’s home. There’s all manner of fraudclosure tactics involved, including unreported modification payments, magically appearing and conflicting endorsements on altered promissory notes, and the usual servicer-driven fraudclosure methods. Occupy Ft. Lauderdale is gearing up for anti-eviction defense to aid Mr. Delva. We know he’s in excellent hands.
For the purposes of this post, we’ll be examining a newly uncovered fraud; the two sets of books variant.
An affidavit (below) by Indymac/Onewest robosigner stating the principal amount due on the note and mortgage as of July 8, 2009 is $188,409.60.
Compare this to the July 2009 investor report which allegedly reports data current as of the end of June 2009. The report to the investors should match what is told to the homeowner and the court, right? But the trustee’s books, US Bank as Trustee for Lehman XS Trust 2005-XM, show the remaining principal amount due as $184,496.15, a four thousand dollar difference.
lxs-2005-5n-investor-report-07-25-2009
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Biloxi Buzz for Tuesday
OUCH: Court Rules Against Apple In iPad Trademark Dispute
Greece To Receive $170 Billion Bailout
Horror: Prison Guards Allegedly Plotted Mass Killings With Drug Cartel
Greece To Receive $170 Billion Bailout
Horror: Prison Guards Allegedly Plotted Mass Killings With Drug Cartel
Voided endorsement?
Interesting story:
The lengths JP Morgan Chase will go to to steal my home amazes me.
Went to mediation on Friday. CHASE was represented by an attorney from Tiffany & Bosco. To satisfy the Nevada requirement of bring certification of original note, deed, assignments, and endorsements they have now decided to VOID the original endorsement from the original lender First Magnus and the Wamu endorsement showing that washington mutual endorsed our note to a MBS trust (name of trust illegible). They now have substituted a new allonge in favor of First Magnus (who has been out of business since 2008) by the Beneficiary MERS which is a blank endorsement. When we questioned the validity of the documents the lawyer became very aggrevated and walked out of the mediation room several times to "consult" with someone on the phone. Has anyone seen a bank trying to void a previously recorded endorsement??
9 Investigates: Bank fees frustrate some customers
CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
Bank of America and Wells Fargo lost nearly $800 billion combined last fiscal quarter. It was due in part to new regulations on debit card fees.
But now banks are trying to recoup that money through other fees.
Many customers are fed up with the fees and asked what can be done about it.
Gary Wright served overseas with the Marines, fighting in Somalia. At a recent job fair, he said he's now fighting a different kind of battle.
“It's just a battle, waiting to get an email or waiting to hear the phone ring,” Wright said.
Wright has been struggling for months to find a full-time job. Without a steady income, he thought it would be best to cancel his automatic debit transactions for things like electricity and cable.
He was slapped with five separate fees for stopping those automatic payments, totaling nearly $250. That's in addition to his $9-a-month account maintenance fee.
MBS Trusts Keeping Assets on the Books Long After they are Liquidated
We are beginning to uncover and expose continuing scams, fraud, and theft (hint: monthly renewing statute of limitations).
The MBS trusts’ accounting is as suspect, invalid, inconsistent, and outright fraudulent as are the real estate documents fabricated by document mills.
All eyes are on the Pino v BoNYM as trustee of CWALT 2008-oc8 (BoA servicer) fraudclosure case. The FHFA, regulator of Freddie Mac which owns class/tranche 1A1, claims all manner of origination, underwriting, appraisal, loan-to-value, and ratings fraud in their suit against Countrywide (here), and also tranche 2A2B was such a “toxic asset” that it was purchased by the Fed at 100 cents on the dollar and dumped into Maiden Lane II.
After Roman Pino’s fraudclosure defense lawyer at Ice Legal uncovered and exposed massive fraud in the lower trial court, Palm Beach County’s 15th Judicial Circuit, Bank of New York Mellon as Trustee and their fraudclosure mill attempted to slink away by voluntarily dismiss the case while they filed a new case with newly fabricated fraudulent documents.
Ice Legal said, “Not so fast! We insist on a hearing to review the evidence so the judge can dismiss this case to avoid the new fraudclosure case from going forward.”But the lower court judge ruled that it is perfectly acceptable for fraud to be perpetrated on the court as long as the fraudster voluntarily dismisses the case once the fraud is exposed. Ice Legal brought this issue up on appeal. The bank friendly puppets in Florida’s 4th district court of appeal didn’t want to touch this case with a ten foot pole. The appellate judges allowed the lower court decision to stand but turfed up the the case to the Florida Supreme Court stating that fraud was rampant and an issue of great public importance.
BoNYM (BoA servicer) freaked out because, unlike Florida’s lower and appellate courts, Florida Supreme Court is not a sure bank puppet operative. So, the case was “settled” with a confidential agreement. Both the fraudclosure mill and Mr. Pino’s lawyer notified the Florida Supreme Court that the case had been settled and both parties were requesting the case to be dismissed.
The Florida Supreme Court Justices, acknowledging the public importance of foreclosure fraud, decided to keep the case alive. (Can you hear BoNYM & BoA howling in protest?)
While the settlement with Mr. Pino is confidential, we do know that a satisfaction of his mortgage was recorded in the public records in July 2011 (below).
Despite the fact that this mortgage “asset” no longer exists, the trust is still claiming this mortgage as an asset as of the Jan 2012 investor report, charging all sorts of fees, including monthly servicing fees, etc.
Our research has uncovered other non-existent “assets” on the books of this trust. To put this in perspective, at the origination of this trust there were 6,734 loans of which 61 were originated in Palm Beach County. As of the Jan 2012 investor report, 29 loans remain on the trusts’ books. Only ONE is performing as originally contracted at closing. Three others have been modified; one has a $39k forbearance, one has a $8k added to principal, one has $16k added to principal. The other 25 loans are non-performing.
Some “non-existent” loan examples from the trust
Roman Pino loan #130133456 – $162,400 – (July 2011 satisfaction – still on the books in Jan 2012 trust report in “foreclosure” status) [3764 Mil Run Court, Greenacres, FL 33463] – BoA monthly servicing fee for non-existent mortgage $50.73
Samantha Woodruff loan #130521936 – $171,940 – (Sept 2011 deed from trust REO to new buyer – still on the books in Jan 2012 trust report in “REO” status) [1497 Lake Crystal Drive D, West Palm Beach, FL 33411] BoA monthly servicing fee for non-existent mortgage $33.70
Robert Rodriguez loan #130450231 – $176,542 – (Sept 2011 short sale deed & Nov 2011 satisfaction – still on the books in Jan 2012 trust report in “REO” status) [1139 Lake Terry Drive 60L, West Palm Beach, FL 33411] WOW – BoA monthly servicing fee for non-existent mortgage $181.69
Elsa Castillo Rivas loan #130445815 – $375,000 – (July 2011 short sale deed) – remained on books through Dec 2011 in “REO” status), finally reported as “liquidated” in Jan 2012 report [13918 Preacher Chapman Place, Centreville, VA]. WOW – BoA monthly servicing fee for non-existent mortgage $328.04
This is just a small example of what we are uncovering. If we learned anything from the robosigning scandal, if there are more than two “irregularities,” there are thousands.
Pino Satisfaction
Other documents:
Republican AGs Collect Big Bank Dollars Prior to Signing Settlement
This is interesting. In December, 2011, the month before signing on to the mortgage fraud settlement, the entity charged with electing Republican Attorneys General called the Republican State Leadership Committee collected a bunch of large checks from big banks.
As this IRS disclosure form shows, on December 19, 2011, it received a $10,000 donation from Wells Fargo. On December 30, 2011, JP Morgan Chase PAC made a $15,000 donation to the committee.
But the biggest donation came from Citigroup, On December 9, 2011, the committee received one donation of $30,000 from Citigroup Management and another for $50,000. This brought Citi’s total giving for the year to $188,597.
Republican State Leadership Committee Disclosure Document for 2011
Monday, February 20, 2012
Foreclosure firm Baum's demise leaves N.Y. homeowners in costly limbo
New York’s largest foreclosure firm, which once handled thousands of cases in the Lower Hudson Valley, will officially close Monday, but it has left a trail of questions and frustrated property owners caught in legal limbo.
The Steven J. Baum PC law firm, based in Amherst, N.Y., originally was retained for more than 600 foreclosure cases that remain active in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. In all, Baum’s firm has handled more than 4,000 cases in the three-county region since 1999, court records show.
But last year, the firm announced its official closing, scheduled for Feb. 20, after it came under scrutiny from state and federal agencies for “robo-signing,” or mass producing foreclosure
documents without verifying whether they were accurate.
“The problems Baum’s firm left this state with are just beginning,” said Susan Chana Lask, a Manhattan attorney. “The new firms taking over his files need to take time to figure out and correct what he did.”
That means homeowners face longer delays and could owe more money in accrued interest, penalties or fines while their cases drag through an already overburdened state and federal court system.
“This is a real problem,” said Derek Tarson, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Rockland. “I’ve really noticed it at the foreclosure settlement conferences where I have clients who show up but there’s no representative from the bank.”
Lenders paying borrowers to do short sales--few people even getting cash
Lenders are allowing more short sales by financially strapped homeowners and a few people are even getting cash to complete the sale.
Short sales are when lenders allow borrowers to sell homes for less than their unpaid mortgages. They are an alternative to foreclosures.
Short sales have been increasing for months, but the financial incentives — which Realtors say are random and infrequent — are a newer wrinkle.
Examples:
•JPMorgan Chase went national with short-sale incentive offers last year, paying up to $35,000 in some cases.
•Bank of America is testing incentives from $5,000 to $25,000 in Florida to see if they should be expanded to more states. The Florida program began last fall, spokesman Richard Simon says.
•Wells Fargo's incentive offers range from less than $3,000 to $20,000, spokesman James Hines says.
Short sales, even with incentive payments to borrowers, can save lenders money compared with the expenses involved in completing foreclosures.
Barry Fagan v Wells Fargo Re: REQUEST for JUDICIAL NOTICE of a RELATED CASE/REPORT Office of the Assessor-Recorder San Francisco Report as Sponsored by Phil Ting
Comes now Plaintiff Barry S. Fagan herewith serves upon Defendants and their Attorneys of record his Request for Judicial Notice of a related case/report issued from the Office of the Assessor-Recorder San Francisco Report as sponsored by Phil Ting Assessor-Recorder for San Francisco entitled FORECLOSURE IN CALIFORNIA A CRISIS OF COMPLIANCE SAN FRANCISCO | FEBRUARY 2012 as prepared by Aequitas Compliance Solutions, Inc.
This is an official act of the Office of the Assessor-Recorder San Francisco Report as sponsored by Phil Ting Assessor-Recorder for San Francisco and Plaintiff hereby requests that the Court take Judicial Notice of the following AEQUITAS REPORT dated February 2012 and attached in its entirety as Exhibit A with this Request For Judicial Notice. That report specifically concludes that an audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation and that in a significant number of cases that 45 percent of the foreclosures, properties were sold at auction to entities improperly claiming to be the beneficiary of the deeds of trust. In other words, the report said, “a ‘stranger’ to the deed of trust,” gained ownership of the property; as a result, the sale may be invalid, it said. In 6 percent of cases, the same deed of trust to a property was assigned to two or more different entities, raising questions about which of them actually had the right to foreclose. Many of the foreclosures that were scrutinized showed gaps in the chain of title, the report said, indicating that written transfers from the original owner to the entity currently claiming to own the deed of trust have disappeared.
The issues and findings are intimately related to the case at bar and is authorized under California Evidence Code § 452.
Barry Fagan v Wells Fargo Bank Re REQUEST for JUDICIAL NOTICE of a RELATED CASE:REPORT Office of the Assess...
This is an official act of the Office of the Assessor-Recorder San Francisco Report as sponsored by Phil Ting Assessor-Recorder for San Francisco and Plaintiff hereby requests that the Court take Judicial Notice of the following AEQUITAS REPORT dated February 2012 and attached in its entirety as Exhibit A with this Request For Judicial Notice. That report specifically concludes that an audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation and that in a significant number of cases that 45 percent of the foreclosures, properties were sold at auction to entities improperly claiming to be the beneficiary of the deeds of trust. In other words, the report said, “a ‘stranger’ to the deed of trust,” gained ownership of the property; as a result, the sale may be invalid, it said. In 6 percent of cases, the same deed of trust to a property was assigned to two or more different entities, raising questions about which of them actually had the right to foreclose. Many of the foreclosures that were scrutinized showed gaps in the chain of title, the report said, indicating that written transfers from the original owner to the entity currently claiming to own the deed of trust have disappeared.
The issues and findings are intimately related to the case at bar and is authorized under California Evidence Code § 452.
Barry Fagan v Wells Fargo Bank Re REQUEST for JUDICIAL NOTICE of a RELATED CASE:REPORT Office of the Assess...
Washington AG Rob McKenna sides with consumers and homeowners vs. MERS foreclosures
Washington Attorney General Rob McKennaweighed in on the side of homeowners this week when he alleged the mortgage industry’s nationwide recording system violates state law and leaves homeowners at risk of fraud and multiple debts.
In a case before the Washington Supreme Court, McKenna said that actions by the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. violate Washington’s deed of trust and consumer protection laws. He said MERS has illegally deceived homeowners about the true owner of their mortgages and about its authority to foreclose and transfer deeds or loans.
“Stated succinctly, the use of MERS … has brought chaos to the mortgage marketplace and stopped the efficient processing of foreclosures,” McKenna said.
Earlier today, The Associated Press reported that McKenna on Feb. 2 returned nearly $14,000 in campaign donations from individuals tied to Routh, Crabtree, Olsen and Northwest Trustee Services, Inc., firms that represent parties foreclosing on homeowners. McKenna, a Republican, is running for governor.
McKenna filed his brief Tuesday in a case scheduled to be heard March 15. Last year, A federal judge asked Washington’s highest court decide whether MERS has standing to foreclose there and whether homeowners have any remedies against it.
Check out the rest here…
Amicus Brief - WA State AG Robert McKenna
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Warren County in KY likely to join class action against banks involved with MERS
While details remain scarce, it is expected that Warren County will enter a class-action lawsuit Monday against several banks involved with Mortgage Electronic Registration System Inc., county officials indicated Thursday.
Warren County Fiscal Court voted unanimously Thursday to grant authority for the county to engage the law firms of Spurgeon & Tinker, Gregory Stumbo, and Whiteford Taylor & Preston, to represent Warren County in a class-action lawsuit.
Last week, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said he subpoenaed MERS, which he believes might have circumvented Kentucky law by failing to properly record mortgage assignments or pay filing fees with county clerks throughout the state.
It's unknown at this point how much money Warren County might have lost.
Court in Iran starts trial in bank fraud, defendants accused of using of forged documents to get credit to purchase assets
TEHRAN (AP) — A Tehran court began hearing the trial of 32 defendants on Saturday in a $2.6 billion bank fraud case described as the biggest financial swindle in the country’s history, state television reported.
The capital’s chief prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, read the text of the indictment against the suspects, who wore prison uniforms at the opening session at the Revolutionary Court, which deals with cases involving security and organized crime.
The charges involve the use of forged documents to get credit at one of Iran’s top financial institutions to purchase assets, including state-owned companies.
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