Balky Banks Gum Up Foreclosure Courts, Benefitting Some Owners

PHOTO CREDIT:
SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN | Times

By Susan Taylor Martin, St. Petersburg Times Senior Correspondent 

With foreclosures, final doesn't always mean final.

Some Tampa Bay residents are still living in their homes long after the final judgment of foreclosure because banks have canceled the public auction two, three, even five times. Others have had their houses sold at auction, only to have the sale reversed later.

Read more: 9/7/2011 Banks Gum Up Courts

Robo-signed Mortgage Docs date back to Late 1990's

PHOTO CREDIT:
Associated Press / Steven Senne

Story By PALLAVI GOGOI

The Associated Press is reporting that counties across the United States are discovering that illegal or questionable mortgage paperwork is far more widespread than thought, dating back to the late 1990s and tainting the deeds of tens of thousands of homes.

One Illinois county, Kankakee, looked at a sample of 60 mortgages filed since 2007, looking for suspect signatures.  All 60 were "signed" by people who have been identified as robo-signers.  The registrars of deeds in at least 12 Illinois counties have forwarded the results of their checking to the Illinois Attorney General.

Read more: 9/1/2011 Robo-Signed Docs go Way Back

Buying Foreclosures at a Bargain Price

This article, and may similar ones in the media, seek to counsel investors and other buyers in making great deals in foreclosures, but most don't tell you everything you need to know.

Michele Lerner, provided by

"If you have the cash, a steady job, and the desire to become a homeowner, you may be tempted by the thought of buying a foreclosure.  While there are some bargains to be found, you do need some education and some professional guidance before you jump into making an offer."

This article has some good information, and I encourage you to read it in full, but there is more that you need to know...

Read more: 8/25/2011 Foreclosures Bargains

You Should Know
Eric Schneiderman

PHOTO CREDIT:
Associated Press

He's the Odd-Man Out in negotiating away the sins of
the Big Banks behind Robo-Signing and the Foreclosure Scandal.

 By ADAM SORENSEN, TIME Swampland

The whole matter is about whether (and how) to settle the many alleged crimes perpetrated by the Too-Big-To-Fail Banks, their attorneys and their default processing companies.  The entire discussion is going on behind closed doors, which is WRONG.  The public should know more about this debate, as our most fundamental interests are affected.

Should this law enforcement group settle for $20 or 25 Billion in fines?  Should the money be applied to helping underwater homeowners?  And should the Banks get a free pass on indictable offenses involving MERS, securitization, and other elements of the scandal?

Read more: 8/26/2011 Eric Schneiderman

Homeowners Need Help

The economy will not recover until housing recovers,
and that won’t happen without principal reductions
and easier refinancings of mortgages.

  A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Neither Congress, nor federal regulators, nor state or federal prosecutors have yet to conduct a thorough investigation into the mortgage bubble and financial bust. We welcomed the news that the Justice Department is investigating allegations that Standard & Poor’s purposely overrated toxic mortgage securities in the years before the bust. We hope the investigative circle will widen.

Read more: 8/22/2011 Homeowners Need Help!

Fla. foreclosure backlog shrinks 43% in a year 

Over Half the Cases were Dismissed

 By KIMBERLY MILLER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Florida's courts cleared 201,524 foreclosure cases since June of 2010, and of the more than half which were dismissed, many were voluntarily dismissed by the banks, often in the face of trial.  Most dismissals are without prejudice, meaning that the bank can re-file the case, if it can produce documents which aren't flawed, which is a rather large "if," as they didn't bother to document their loans as they sold them, which they were clearly supposed to do.

Read more: 8/19/2011 Foreclosure Backlog Shrinks 43%

MERS Order a Step in Right Direction

Stopping banks from foreclosing on homes in MERS name could actually help consumers.

By Mike Colpitts, www.housingpredictor.com

The order by Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) means that they will not even try to foreclose on homeowners in their own name any more.  This is an important development.

Approximately 60 million mortgages have been written on MERS standard-form mortgages, which split the ownership of the loan and mortgage, strictly as a matter of form without substance, in order to (without any government sanction whatsoever), privatize the function of the Clerks of Court.  It also served to hide from homeowners the identities of the real owners of their mortgages.

~~~

Read more: 8/2/11 MERS Going Bye-Bye!

Taxpayers Fund, get Smacked by Bondi's 'Revolving Door'

"The Florida Attorney General's Office was in the midst of a pull-no-punches investigation into foreclosure fraud.
"But then in May, two things happened..."

By SCOTT MAXWELL, ORLANDO SENTINEL

First, Joe Jacquot, the "special counsel" to Attorney General Pam Bondi left to become the Senior Vice President of one of the very companies the office was investigating, Lender Processing Services, a name prominent in any discussion of mortgage abuses and the Robo-Signing scandal.

Second, a mere week later, Assistant Attorneys General Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson (the investigators behind that investigation) were forced out of their jobs, told late on a Friday afternoon that they had 90 minutes to decide whether to resign or be fired.

Read more: 7/31/11 Bondi's Revolving Door

Time to Stop Foreclosure Fraud

"Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main bulwark."
—Walter Lippman

By BILL BULLARD, OAKLAND COUNTY (MICHIGAN) COUNTY CLERK / REGISTER OF DEEDS
From The Detroit News

This article is an editorial by this local Michigan County Clerk.  He correctly points out that MERS and DOCx are private companies set up by the mortgage industry to destroy the integrity of the public records regarding real estate, in order to facilitate mortgage foreclosures.  In their rush to process mortgage paperwork, they hired employees, named them "vice-presidents" (or other officers) of dozens of different banks, and in one case, such an employee admitted to signing over 5,000 documents a day.

Read more: 7/28/11 Time to Stop Foreclosure Fraud

Foreclosure-Deal Releases
 Draw State Resistance
 Amid Probes

Banks demand a blank check for their crimes.

 By David McLaughlin, BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

 Three states that are still investigating the 5 too-big-to-fail lenders are refusing to join the other state Attorneys General in giving the Banks a blanket release as part of a broad settlement of abuses growing out of the foreclosure scandal, because they don't want to release crimes they haven't even discovered yet.  Notably, Florida's AG Pam Bondi (who claims her office is aggressively investigating despite the forced resignation of the two Assistant Attorneys General who were leading the nationwide investigation) is NOT among those unwilling to grant the blanket releases.

Read more: 7/27/2011 Three States Resist Blanket Releases

The Travails
 
of
 
Elizabeth Warren

She took all the flak from Congressional Republicans, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is now a reality.

 By JOE NOCERA, NEW YORK TIMES

Read more: 7/22/2011 The Travails of Elizabeth Warren

Treasury Explores Plan to Help 1 Million
 
U.S. Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure

By Rich Miller, BLOOMBERG

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Treasury department is exploring a plan to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and keep their homes by a variety of means, including principal write-downs.

Read more: 7/21/11 Plan to Help Homeowners

States negotiating immunity for banks
 
over foreclosures

By Scot J. Paltrow, Reuters US Edition

Reuters is reporting that the group of 50 state Attorneys General which had conducted an investigation into lender malfeasance in handling mortgage foreclosure cases is negotiating with the big 5 lenders to give them immunity from state civil lawsuits (and possibly more), in exchange for a reported $25 Billion in fines.  There are reports that some of that money would ultimately be applied to helping homeowners stay in their homes by reducing the principal balances of mortgage loans, a move the banks have fought furiously against.

Read more: 7/21/11 States Negotiating Immunity for Banks

How ‘robo-signing’ occurs in the
 
mortgage industry

A Simple Explanation.

an ASSOCIATED PRESS story published by ABC

This short article lists four common forms of robo-signing.  It is not, of course, an exhustive list, but includes the most frequent forms of the abuse.

Read more: 7/21/11 How Robo-Signing Occurs

 
Letting Bankers Walk

The two principal arguments being made for
letting the banks off easy don’t make much sense.

By PAUL KRUGMAN, NEW YORK TIMES

"Ever since the current economic crisis began, it has seemed that five words
sum up the central principle of United States financial policy: go easy on the
bankers.

Read more: 7/18/11 Letting Bankers Walk

Florida fraud report key to
 
New York foreclosure case

Former Florida investigators findings found
useful elsewhere, if not so much here

By KIMBERLY MILLER, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The Palm Beach Post reports that the work of those two ousted Florida Assistant Attorneys General helped a New York homeowner prevail against her lender in a foreclosure action.

In finding against HSBC Bank on July 1, 2011, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Schack ruled that HSBC lacked standing to file the foreclosure because of a faulty assignment of mortgage.

Read more: 7/17/11 But NY Loves Them!

Foreclosure fraud investigators

forced out of attorney general's office

By Kimberly Miller, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's office has forced out of their jobs the very same two female attorneys who were responsible for winning the $2 Million settlement from the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson for their role in the foreclosure scandal.

Read more: 7/13/2011 The Hero's Get the Boot

The Good Banker

Finally, an insider who’s willing to tell the truth about banking.

 By JOE NOCERA, NEW YORK TIMES

The Good Banker is an op-ed column that Joe Nocera wrote back in March, and is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand American finance today.  It's about Robert G. Wilmers, a successful, respected banker (of the old school, as opposed to the nakedly greedy kind that dominate the industry today), and it makes clear that banking in the new millenium has descended into something much less than the honorable profession it once was.

Read more: 7/8/2011 The Good Banker