Foreclosure Defense Nationwide - Mortgage Foreclosure Help - Free Advice

Apparently the settlement that has not actually been finalized is a big win for the banks and a no win for homeowners.  This article from Foreclosure Defense Nationwide gives a few of the details as to how the home owners are actually getting shafted again.  The money that will be available is already being ear marked to help fill the holes in state budgets rather than be used to help and protect homeowners.  It is unbelievable what the banks have pulled off again and how they have gotten away with so much criminal activity.  So much for government protection.  

We have been receiving literally dozens of e-mails from homeowners inquiring as to what effect the bank settlements with various attorneys general will have on their foreclosure cases. Answer: NONE, for several reasons.
First, the Attorney General claims were just that: claims by attorneys general against the banks. Private litigants were not parties to the litigation, so they are not parties to any settlement. In fact, it has already been reported that the settlements have no effect on and do not preclude an individual pursuing legal relief against a lender.
Second, the settlements are not even finalized yet. They have to be filed in court, and once they are, the states which filed the lawsuits will be free to enact whatever procedures, processes, requirements, etc. they wish as to whether a homeowner “qualifies” for any settlement proceeds. As we all know from the loan mod scam, this process can take months or even years, and there are a million ways that a homeowner can be found to ultimately not “qualify”.
Third, and perhaps most revolting and insidious, is that several of the states have ALREADY announced that portions of the settlements will be diverted to state budgets. Specific instances include Wisconsin’s announcement that it plans to use $25.6 million of the settlement money to “plug holes in the state’s budget”, while Missouri has announced that it plans to put $40 million of the settlement money into the state’s “general fund”.

So, once again, the homeowners get nothing. In fact, it has been separately announced that because the attorney general lawsuits have been resolved that the banks will be ramping up individual foreclosures, obviously now because they will not have state governments and attorneys general examining what they do. Sad, but unfortunately true.

Foreclosure Defense Nationwide - Mortgage Foreclosure Help - Free Advice

LPS Foreclosure Fraud Whistleblower Found Dead (Updated) « naked capitalism

The story about the robo signing and fraud committed by banks continues to get more and more interesting.  The death of Nevada Notary Tracy Lawrence could be completely innocent and as a result of natural causes but the timing of her death has to make most reasonable people raise an eyebrow.

Here is the original article from Naked Capitalism and written by Yves Smith:  It is a great read as is the chatter to follow from other readers. 

Nevada notary Tracy Lawrence, who was due to be sentenced today to up to a year in jail for a single count of misdemeanor fraud, went missing from her sentencing hearing today and was found dead. Per the Associated Press (hat tip reader Scott):

Las Vegas police say it could be weeks before investigators know how 43-year-old Tracy Lawrence died.

Her body was found about 11:30 a.m. Monday at her Las Vegas apartment.
Police Sgt. Matt Sanford says there’s no apparent sign of foul play, and coroner toxicology tests could take up to eight weeks.
Lawrence would have faced up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine earlier Monday for her guilty plea Nov. 17 to one criminal charge of notarizing the signature of a person not in her presence.
KSNV-TV reports ( http://bit.ly/vWSDtv) that Lawrence admitted notarizing tens of thousands of fraudulent documents as part of a wider foreclosure fraud scheme.

Reader Peter W fills in the blank (pun intended) that Lawrence’s document chicanery involved the staff of Lender Processing Services. The version of the story posted at The Fly on the Wall has as its final sentence:

Lawrence had earlier admitted to notarizing “tens of thousands of fraudulent documents” as part of a wider foreclosure fraud scheme involving employees of Lender Processing Services (LPS).

As sad as this is for Lawrence’s friend and family, the more the foot soliders of foreclosure abuses start to face real costs, meaning jail time, the harder it will become to perpetrate these sorts of frauds. That is the way the law is supposed to work, after all.
Update: Holy moley, the initial press reports omitted the key fact: it was Lawrence who turned Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto on to two mid level LPS employees who face up to 30 years in jail each if found guilty. From MSNBC:

Lawrence came forward earlier this month and blew the whistle on the operation, in which title officers Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Geraldine Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana, Calif. — who worked for a Florida processing company used by most major banks to process repossessions — allegedly forged signatures on tens of thousands of default notices from 2005 to 2008.
Trafford and Sheppard were charged two weeks ago with 606 counts of offering false instruments for recording, false certification on certain instruments and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public. You can read a .pdf version of their indictment here.

Our post on this case, which includes the indictment, is here.
Needless to say, this puts a very different complexion on things..

LPS Foreclosure Fraud Whistleblower Found Dead (Updated) « naked capitalism

The banking system is inherently flawed and it is part of the larger system of government and Wall Street Corruption.  The recession/depression has revealed the truth that our system of capitalism that was meant to be fair for everyone is long gone.  This recent redistribution of wealth from middle class to the wealthy was the biggest push yet for the oligarchs to usurp all the freedom and earning power from the middle class.  The powers that be pushed hard to brain wash everyone that the system was fair and the pie was growing for everyone.  The reality was that they were angling for the take over as they overloaded the system with RMBS that could never be resolved or extracted from a security if there was a default.  They had no interest in what happened after they took their huge fees, sold insurance on policies they knew they could never pay out if the system melted down.  They had complete confidence in the government to bail them out.  They also had complete confidence in the gullibility of Americans to believe their BS that the world would end if any of the banks were allowed to fail. 

The truth was that it wasn't the world that would crumble when a few banks fell, it was that Wall Street and the major players in the CDO markets would vaporize over night.  Wall Street is the king of leverage and always has been while they fain to hedge their risk only to reveal that they had not hedged much of anything once the system collapsed.  Their only hedge is the federal government bailout. 

AIG is perfect example of a company selling Credit Default Swaps that it knew they could never pay if the system came under minor stress.  In the end the federal government came to the rescue.  No one was held accountable or responsible for the trillions of dollars needed for the bailout which in hindsight was a round about bailout of the "gold standard of companies" Goldman Sachs. 

Unless something is done to hold the parties accountable, we will have learned no lessons from the complete decimation of the golden goose of the American economy, the housing market. 

The last hope lies with the AG of the individual states.  The Nevada AG Cortez Masto is showing the courage to press for accountability by filing suit against B of A for making a mockery of a previous settlement that was reached in NV in 2008.  The banks new what was coming if this crisis was strung out too long so they quickly agreed to a settlement that they had no intention of honoring. 

They bought another 3 to 4 years of freedom from criminal activity and the ability to continue to use fraudulent documents and repossess homes when they had no legal authority to do so.  The used this settlement in 2008 as cover to continue criminal activity that become so egregious that over 265000 complaints were made in Nevada alone regarding the banks failure to live up to the terms of the settlement.  It was as if the banks thought if they could cause a large enough mess for long enough time that the government again would be forced to allow them to skirt the rule of law and chain of title precedent.

They may have done just that by capturing property through the foreclosure process and then selling it to a new owner when the bank never had the right to repossess the property in the first place.  What is amazing is that more people throughout the country are not outraged at the turn of events because it put everyone's right of ownership in question.  It doesn't matter if your mortgage is paid off or not, the banks have taken liberty to fraudulently claim ownership with the blessing of the court.  The implications are astounding because it means the foundation of America, the right to own property free from worry of seizure has been trampled. 

The trampling has taken place on a foundation of fraudulent activity.  The case of Bank of America and Country Wide gives a perfect example.  There are court documents of statements made by Country Wide employees saying they never transferred original documents to the proper securitization trust in order to meet the PSA guidelines.  The Pooling Service Agreements have very strict regulations as to when the note and mortgage documents must be delivered and if they deadlines are not met, there is no remedy other than falsifying documents or back dating important papers.  Since these mortgages were to be securitized and sold on Wall Street they also are under the laws of the SEC and every year the trust have to put forth documents stating that all the I' s are dotted and T 's are crossed and if they falsify these reports it is considered securities fraud, something that until now, the SEC did not take kindly to regardless of the reason. 

The potential for the rule of law to be ignored as the crisis become more and more convoluted is very high.  The parties involved seem to know the longer they can kick the can down the road, the more difficult it will be to hold anyone accountable so they are in no hurry to resolve the issues.  Of course the politicians are in no hurry either because they are bought and paid for by the major banks and other Wall Street money.  With the next election always looming over the horizon politicians in Washington never have the fortitude to step up to the major players and risk losing their meal ticket. 

The system has turned into a giant money laundering machine that is endorsed by the government and the current administration.  The fact that Washington government is on board makes it even more difficult for those with the mind to hold someone accountable for the criminal activity.  (Nevada AG and NY AG are the only ones so far to really step up to the plate and speak the truth, as the administration pushes for a "let the banks skate" settlement that screws just about everyone except the banks themselves. ) 

The stimulus is for the benefit of the financial institutions only.  It does nothing to help the economy or the American people.  The continued 0 interest rate policy does nothing except let the banks make risk free money by shuffling funds between the bank and treasuries.  They are charging over close to 5 %  loans that could easily be 3 or 4 % since the banks are getting virtually free money.  I think the economy could do very well if small business or average citizens could get free money also.  Imagine the stimulus boost that would occur if business owners could get 0 % loans or if homeowners could get 0 or 1 to 2 % improvement loans.  It might not be huge due to the high job insecurity but it would do a lot more than what has occurred so far by just handing unlimited funds over to the banks. 

Today the Fed has put forth operation twist that will give more easy money to the banks and to little to help the economy.  It would be nice after 4 years of floating money to the TBTF banks and other Wall Street companies and getting zero results that they would not keep trying the same thing.  However, the influence of the lobbyists and those appointed to the inner circle of the White House are pushing the buttons in Washington and it doesn't look like it will change anytime soon.  It likely will not matter which part is in power or who is the President.  We have seen the result of the new blood from the tea party movement and the influx of independents and republicans to congress.  The result was just more of the same as they all take part in the game that pays themselves first and the people last if ever.  

Nevada Says Bank Broke Mortgage Settlement

 From the New York Times

Nevada Says Bank Broke Mortgage Settlement

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

The attorney general of Nevada is accusing Bank of America of repeatedly violating a broad loan modification agreement it struck with state officials in October 2008 and is seeking to rip up the deal so that the state can proceed with a suit against the bank over allegations of deceptive lending, marketing and loan servicing practices.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in United States District Court in Reno, Catherine Cortez Masto, the Nevada attorney general, asked a judge for permission to end Nevada’s participation in the settlement agreement. This would allow her to sue the bank over what the complaint says were dubious practices uncovered by her office in an investigation that began in 2009.
In her filing, Ms. Masto contends that Bank of America raised interest rates on troubled borrowers when modifying their loans even though the bank had promised in the settlement to lower them. The bank also failed to provide loan modifications to qualified homeowners as required under the deal, improperly proceeded with foreclosures even as borrowers’ modification requests were pending and failed to meet the settlement’s 60-day requirement on granting new loan terms, instead allowing months and in some cases more than a year to go by with no resolution, the filing says.
The complaint says such practices violated an agreement Bank of America reached in the fall of 2008 with several states and later, in 2009, with Nevada, to settle lawsuits that accused its Countrywide unit of predatory lending. As the credit crisis grew, the settlement was heralded as a victory by state offices eager to help keep troubled borrowers in their homes and reduce their costs. Bank of America set aside $8.4 billion in the deal and agreed to help 400,000 troubled borrowers with loan modifications and other financial relief, such as lowering interest rates on mortgages.
But foreclosure problems mounted in Nevada, where Countrywide originated 262,622 loans, and complaints about the bank’s loan servicing practices began flooding into Ms. Masto’s office shortly after the settlement was struck. She found that Bank of America had “materially and almost immediately violated” the terms of the settlement, according to the complaint.
Ms. Masto declined to comment beyond the court filing.
Jumana Bauwens, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, said the bank was reviewing Ms. Masto’s complaint. “We disagree that there has been any material breach of the consent decree and will continue to vigorously defend this action,” she said.
Ms. Masto’s request to terminate the 2008 deal could raise further questions about the extent of its liabilities arising from Countrywide’s lending practices and from the bank’s own loan servicing activities in the foreclosure crisis. The move by the Nevada attorney general could also imperil the already shaky negotiations over improper foreclosure practices being conducted by state attorneys general and the four largest banks, including Bank of America.
Those talks, which also involve federal officials, have stalled over the summer with disagreements over whether the deal would allow state regulators to bring future lawsuits against the institutions for questionable practices. Attorneys general who do not want to give up the right to file additional suits against the banks — including Ms. Masto, Eric Schneiderman of New York and Beau Biden of Delaware — have declined to endorse a proposed settlement.
The breadth of the new Nevada complaint indicates that Bank of America’s problems extend throughout its mortgage operations, including origination, loan servicing and securitization. Nevada officials also found broad problems in the bank’s interactions with imperiled borrowers.
For example, the complaint says the bank advised credit reporting agencies that consumers were in default when they were not, and contends that Bank of America employees deceived borrowers about why their requests to modify loans were denied. In addition, it says, the bank falsely claimed that the actual owners of loans had refused to allow changes to their mortgages, and it incorrectly claimed that borrowers had failed to make payments on trial loan modifications when in fact they had. Bank of America also misled borrowers, the Nevada attorney general’s filing noted, by offering loan modifications with one set of terms only to come back with a substantially different deal.
Among the more troubling findings in the Nevada complaint is the contention by several Bank of America employees that the company imposed strict limits on the amount of time they could spend on the phone assisting troubled borrowers seeking help with their loans.
One worker said in a deposition cited in the complaint that employees were punished if they spent more than seven minutes or 10 minutes with a customer. Even though these limits allowed almost no time for assistance, Bank of America employees who did not curtail their conversations were reprimanded, this employee said.
The Nevada filing also maintains that Countrywide, which Bank of America acquired in 2008, did not deliver necessary loan documentation when it put together mortgage securities and sold them to investors during the boom. Under the typical pooling and servicing agreements struck between Countrywide and investors who bought the securities, the bank was required to endorse the mortgage note and deliver it to the trustee overseeing the pool. Countrywide failed to do so, the complaint notes.
These paperwork failures should have barred the bank from foreclosing on borrowers, the Nevada complaint says, but it went ahead nonetheless. This aspect of Ms. Masto’s complaint echoes a lawsuit filed in early August by Mr. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, to block a settlement between Bank of New York and Bank of America covering 530 Countrywide mortgage pools. In that case, Mr. Schneiderman contends that Countrywide did not deposit loans into the mortgage pools as required and that the bank had no right to bring foreclosure actions against these borrowers.
Ms. Masto’s complaint asks that the court impose civil penalties on Bank of America and order it to cover the costs of caring for foreclosed properties borne by municipalities.

Nevada vs Bank of America. State AG sues too big to fail bank

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Here is information from the Nevada Attorney General regarding the filing against Bank of America.
The Complaint alleges that Bank of America is:


1)Misleading consumers by promising to act upon requests for mortgage modifications within a specific period of time;

2)Misleading consumers with false assurances that their homes would not be foreclosed while their requests for modifications were pending, but sending foreclosure notices, scheduling auction dates, and even selling consumers’ homes while they waited for decisions;

3)Misrepresenting to consumers that they must be in default on their mortgages to be eligible for modifications when, in fact, current borrowers are eligible for assistance;

4)Making false promises to consumers that their modifications would be made permanent if they successfully completed trial modification periods, but then failing to convert these modifications;

5)Misleading consumers with inaccurate and deceptive reasons for denying their requests for modifications;

6)Falsely notifying consumers or credit reporting agencies that consumers are in default when they are not;

7)Misleading consumers with offers of modifications on one set of terms, but then providing them with agreements on different sets of terms, or misrepresenting that consumers have been approved for modifications.

Because of Bank of America’s false promises, many Nevada consumers continued to make mortgage payments they could not afford, running through their savings, their retirement funds or their children’s education funds. Additionally, due to Bank of America’s misleading assurances, consumers deferred short-sales and passed on other attempts to mitigate their losses. And they waited anxiously, month after month, calling Bank of America and submitting their paperwork again and again, not knowing whether or when they would lose their homes. Whatever the consumers’ particular circumstances, they all suffered the stress and frustration of being misled by Bank of America while trying to take responsible action to modify their mortgages so they could continue to make their payments and remain in their homes.

“We are holding Bank of America accountable for misleading and deceiving consumers,” said Attorney General Masto. “Nevadans who were trying desperately to save their homes were unable to get truthful information in order to make critical life decisions."
Bank of America’s misconduct in misrepresenting its mortgage modification program was confirmed in interviews with consumers, former employees and other third parties and through review of relevant documents. Former employees describe an environment in which Bank of America failed to staff its modification functions with employees who had the necessary training, skills and experience. According to employees, the modification process was chaotic, understaffed and not oriented to customers. Employees were even reprimanded for spending too much time with individual consumers.
“Consumers turn to their banking or lending institutions for answers when faced with a life changing decision such as saving their home,” said Attorney General Masto. “Bank of America’s callous disregard for providing timely, correct information to people in their time of need is truly egregious."


Sounds like the Nevada AG is listening to complaints from citizens.  I am sure there have been thousands or they would not be taken B of A to court.  The results of this case may have an impact on the housing crisis across the country.  If the bank is held accountable for their actions real change may come about in the mortgage and banking industry. 
Decision Points

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