Quelle Surprise! San Francisco Assessor Finds Pervasive Fraud in Foreclosure Exam (and Paul Jackson Defends His Meal Tickets Yet Again) « naked capitalism

It is clear that there has been widespread abuse of mortgage recording procedures that are being ignored by everyone because no one is willing to stand up for the homeowners or to stand against the banks. It is tragic that the administration and the politicians of this country are unwilling to do the right thing. They are all turning their backs on the people every time a large dollar figure gets waved in front of their eyes as has been done with the bogus settlement with the banks and states AGs. Look at the information provide here from the New York Times and then commented on by Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism.
"So the latest report from San Francisco county should come as no surprise. From Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times, emphasis ours:

An audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation, according to a report released Wednesday….
The improprieties range from the basic — a failure to warn borrowers that they were in default on their loans as required by law — to the arcane. For example, transfers of many loans in the foreclosure files were made by entities that had no right to assign them and institutions took back properties in auctions even though they had not proved ownership.

Yves here. I wish Morgenson had not deemed the latter abuses as “arcane”. They are actually pretty basic to lawyers – you can’t assign rights you don’t possess or sell what you don’t own. And these are concepts that laypeople can grasp readily. Back to the article, which makes clear the state attorney general Kamala Harris, who was doing a victory lap over the mortgage settlement, had nothing to do with this probe:
read the rest by following the link below Quelle Surprise! San Francisco Assessor Finds Pervasive Fraud in Foreclosure Exam (and Paul Jackson Defends His Meal Tickets Yet Again) « naked capitalism

Credit Slips also has another article on the same story about the abuses found in San Francisco.

Here's a bombshell: the San Francisco City Assessor commissioned a serious audit of foreclosure documentation filed in the past few years. The audit examined 400 foreclosures.  It found problems with 85% of them, often multiple problems. What's more, some of the problems are pretty serious as they implicate not only borrowers' rights, but the integrity of mortgage-backed securities and the property title system.
The San Francisco City Assessor's audit also serves as a benchmark for evaluating the Federal-State servicing settlement.  The San Francisco City Assessor managed to accomplish in a few months what the Federal government and state Attorneys General weren't able to do in nearly a year and a half with far greater resources at their disposal:  perform a credible investigation of foreclosure documentation with serious implications about the securitization process in general.  That's a lot of egg on the face of Shaun Donovan, Eric Holder, Tom Miller, et al.  The SF City Assessor report shows that it really wasn't so hard for a motivated party to undertake a serious investigation. And that raises the question of why the largest consumer fraud settlement in history proceeded with virtually no investigation.

Class Action Lawsuit Alleges JP Morgan Engaged in Systematic Document Fabrication to Move Mortgage Losses from Its Books into Mortgage Backed Securities « naked capitalism

Class Action Lawsuit Alleges JP Morgan Engaged in Systematic Document Fabrication to Move Mortgage Losses from Its Books into Mortgage Backed Securities « naked capitalism

This story of the banking criminal activity just continues to unfold and it is becoming more and more unbelievable as the evidence to support massive bank fraud and criminal activity is finally seeing the light of day.  In that sense the story is playing out just as most people who knew the truth thought it would play out.  What is the truth?  The truth is that banks have egregiously committed fraud and other criminal activity for their own gain and to try and purposefully break the law and beat the system.  The real crazy thing is that the government seems to be okay with the massive lies and law breaking that has been going on by the major bank players.  It is disgusting and appalling to see the government try to brush such a massive abuse of the American taxpayer under the rug for the sake of political gain.  It is becoming more and more clear every day that the banking industry screwed just about every home owner in the country to some degree and they knew they were doing it.  Now we are seeing why they felt no shame in doing so as they have gotten away with what could be seen as the banking industry's rendition of the prefect murder.  However, it is only perfect because the politicians and current administration are in the tank for the too big to fail banks.  It is a shame that the failure of our "democracy" has to be revealed with the systematic wiping out of trillions of dollars of wealth.  

taken from story on Naked Capitalism.com

We’ve reported repeatedly of widespread evidence of grotesque procedural abuses as servicers and foreclosure mill lawyers try to cover up for the fact that in many cases, mortgage notes were not transferred properly to securitization trusts, and the rigid way these deals were structured makes it impossible to remedy those failures at this juncture. Absent creating a time machine, the only fix is to fabricate documents that make it appear than things were done correctly. We’ve seen (as in in person) obvious forgeries submitted to the court (signatures obviously Photoshop shrunk to fit) and servicer personnel caught perjuring themselves, yet judges are remarkably unwilling to issue a ruling that hinges on finding that the plaintiff filed phony documents.
If this case moves forward, that reticence may change. Note that this case, which covers only the Central District of California, alleges that Chase engaged in over 7000 filings of motions of relief of stay in bankruptcy court using fabricated documents. Remember that filing for bankruptcy puts a “stay” or hold, on all creditor claims. They all go wait while the court determines which creditors get what from the under water borrower. A “motion for relief of stay” by a mortgage lender is tantamount to saying, “Judge, let me grab the house.” Motions for relief of stay are typically a costly nuisance for bankruptcy lawyers. It wastes the borrower’s scarce money to shoo them away (and some plaintiffs’ lawyers will take advantage of inexperienced bankruptcy lawyers by getting them to sign a waiver in return for dropping the motion for relief of stay that looks innocuous but has a paragraph in it changes the burden of proof from the bank to the borrower, which almost always puts them at a fatal disadvantage and results in the loss of the home).

The Appellate Division of the State of New Jersey has reversed a summary judgment

Original Article can bee seen here at Foreclosure Defense Nationwide

The Appellate Division of the State of New Jersey has reversed a summary judgment which had been entered in favor of Aurora Loan Services, LLC. The opinion cited decisional law that a party must generally “own or control the underlying debt” in order to foreclose, and if the debt is evidenced by a negotiable instrument such as a promissory note, the determination whether a party owns or controls the underlying debt is governed by Article III of the UCC.
The Court found that Aurora was neither a holder of the note nor a person not in possession who is entitled to enforce, and that the Certification of Aurora’s “Vice President” did not state that she personally confirmed that the copies of the note, mortgage, and assignment were copies of originals in Aurora’s files.
More importantly, the Court found that the assignment, signed by a “Vice President” of MERS as nominee for Lehman Brothers, was ineffective first as there was no Certification by this VP or any other representatiive of MERS regarding the VP’s authority to execute the assignment or circumstances of the assignment. The problem with the assignment was further compounded by the fact that Lehman filed for Bankruptcy in 2008, which was before the date of what the Court termed the “purported assignment” in 2009, and the Court thus questioned whether Lehman’s designation of MERS as nominee remained in effect after Lehman filed BK absent ratification of that designation by the BK Trustee.
This same situation is present is many of our cases: the original lender (e.g. Lehman, WaMu, American Home Mortgage, Accredited Home Lenders, and others) files for BK, and the securitized trustee or servicer then purports to foreclose based on a post-BK filing assignment without any evidence that the assignment was permitted by the BK trustee. This opinion is what we believe to be the first which actually addresses this precise issue which relates directly to the threshold issues in any foreclosure of standing, real party in interest, and the “person entitled to enforce” issue under the UCC.
In Missouri, a probate Judge has dismissed a claim by HSBC Bank USA, N.A. as the claimed trustee of a series of Nomura ”Asset-Backed Certificates”, finding that HSBC is not a “person” under either of the Missouri statutes which permit a “person” to make a claim in a probate proceeding. The Motion which precipitated the dismissal characterized HSBC as Trustee for the certificates as “nothing more than a stack of paper”. Apparently the Court agreed, and found that HSBC had no standing to sue.
This decision is important as it relates directly to who can make a claim relating to a mortgage and note. If a particular state statute provides only that a “person” may institute a foreclosure, and the trustee of a series of MBS does not quality as a “person”, then there should be no standing for that trustee to foreclose. Obviously, the individual state statute must be consulted, but this ruling provides a new avenue of attack on securitized “trustees” seeking to make claims.

Santorum calls 99% the fringe and radicals that have been protesting since the vietnam war

Rick Santorum was on CNBC about 2 minutes ago and stated that the protesters in NY, the Occupy Wall Street Crowd, or 99% were the fringe and far left radicals that have been protesting since the Vietnam War and that the did not represent the American Public.  He also was questioned about getting justice for the public regarding the banks and he backed down and caved by saying that he would not want to go after anyone from the banks as a presidential candidate.

This guy Santorum is completely removed from the American people.  I couldn't believe his ignorance and his complete disregard for the 99%.  He acted as if the protesters were just out of the loony bin and that were complete radicals.  He is wasting money and resources running for president because he has no chance and he will be lucky to get any traction if he keeps saying stupid things like he did on CNBC this morning.