you posted this ten posts back, brainiac.
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/show...&postcount=191
Mortgage Settlement Fails to Address Banking Criminal Enterprise
As Dave Dayen has pointed out, it was two county registers of deeds, Jeff Thigpen in Guiford County, North Carolina, and John O’Brien of South Essex County, Massachusettes, who were the first to look at their own records to see how extensive the frauds were. O’Brien has called his office a “crime scene” and refused to register any more fraudulent deeds. He also performed a study of his own, and the results were released in June 2011. As Dayen reported, the study found widespread failures and apparent fraud, just like the later San Francisco exam:
Register John O’Brien revealed the results of an independent audit of his registry. The audit, which is released as a legal affidavit was performed by McDonnell Property Analytics, examined assignments of mortgage recorded in the Essex Southern District Registry of Deeds issued to and from JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and Bank of America during 2010. In total, 565 assignments related to 473 unique mortgages were analyzed.
McDonnell’s Report includes the following key findings:
• Only 16% of assignments of mortgage are valid
• 75% of assignments of mortgage are invalid.
• 9% of assignments of mortgage are questionable
• 27% of the invalid assignments are fraudulent, 35% are “robo-signed” and 10% violate the Massachusetts Mortgage Fraud Statute.
• The iden y of financial ins utions that are current owners of the mortgages could only be determined for 287 out of 473 (60%)
• There are 683 missing assignments for the 287 traced mortgages, representing approximately $180,000 in lost recording fees per 1,000 mortgages whose current ownership can be traced.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/...+capitalism%29
How Citibank Dumped Lousy Mortgages on the Government
Citigroup agreed yesterday to pay $158 million to settle a lawsuit over bad loans that the bank passed on to the Federal Housing Administration to insure. The whistle-blower who originally brought the case, Sherry Hunt, an employee of Citi's mortgage department, said the company actively undermined the process that was supposed to check for fraud in order to push through reckless loans and get higher profits.
The FHA insures one-third of the mortgages loans in the country, taking on the risk of homeowners' default from lenders like Citi. The government requires lenders to certify that insured loans meet FHA standards.
Citi appears to have flouted those standards. According to the lawsuit, the bank passed along subpar loans to the FHA until very recently, making "substantial profits through the sale and/or securitization of FHA-backed insured mortgages" while "it wrongfully endorsed mortgages that were not eligible."
In the settlement, Citi, which was bailed out by taxpayers in 2008 to the tune of $45 billion, "admits, acknowledges, and accepts responsibility" for passing on bad loans.
http://www.propublica.org/article/ho...the-government
boutons_deux-ing what he does best, repeating himself needlessly
Banks Colluding with Insurers to Rip Off Homeowners, Lawsuit Alleges
A class action suit in Florida that moved forward this week highlights a little-appreciated aspect of the housing market—the cozy relationship between banks and insurance companies that often results in overpriced home insurance for already struggling borrowers.
As the American Banker reported, a federal judge in Miami on Tuesday opened the door to a class action against Wells Fargo. More than 20,000 Florida homeowners can now sue Wells Fargo and an insurance company, QBE, for allegedly overcharging for insurance. More than $50 million in insurance premiums are at issue, according to American Banker.
The suit itself, filed last year, is sealed, but the judge, Robert Scola, laid out the allegations against Wells Fargo. The judge didn’t rule on the case itself, but rather allowed it to go forward as a class action. In his decision, the judge cited the plaintiff’s claims that Wells Fargo and QBE “colluded in a scheme to artificially inflate the premiums charged to homeowners.”
The judge also said that Wells Fargo has actually threatened to retaliate against homeowners who join the suit.
A spokesman for Wells Fargo said in an emailed statement that, “the judge’s recent ruling only addresses the certification of the class in this case and not any of the underlying claims. We disagree with a number of the representations made by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.”
They also disputed the judge’s claim that they were threatening retaliation for the suit, saying “we made our argument in a purely procedural context in connection with the class certification motion. Wells Fargo has no intention of taking the actions referenced with regard to our customers.”
http://www.propublica.org/article/ba...awsuit-alleges
=======
Big Boys colluding to screw customers on price of required mortgage insurance?
NEVER!
Quit picking on the defenseless, good-faith UCA boys.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/bu...ure-surge.htmlManagers at major banks ignored widespread errors in the foreclosure process, in some cases instructing employees to adopt make-believe les and speed do ents through the system despite internal objections, according to a wide-ranging review by federal investigators.
http://www.americanbanker.com/issues...1047437-1.htmlJPMorgan Chase & Co. took procedural shortcuts and used faulty account records in suing tens of thousands of delinquent credit card borrowers for at least two years, current and former employees say.
The process flaws sparked a regulatory probe by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and forced the bank to stop suing delinquent borrowers altogether last year.
The bank's errors could call into question the legitimacy of billions of dollars in outstanding claims against debtors and of legal judgments Chase has already won, current and former Chase employees say.
For the banking industry at large, the situation at Chase highlights the risk that shoddy back-office procedures and flawed legal work extends well beyond mortgage servicing.
So what are we looking at? $20 million fine and they're off the hook?
No worries. Uncle Sam got their $25 billion settlement so we can forget about this and move on.
olly olly oxen free
Free Oxen...
Where can I get mine?
a long article, but good background on BofA.Last fall, some of the bank's biggest creditors and counterparties started to get nervous about the mountain of toxic bets still sitting on Merrill Lynch's books – a generation of ill-considered, complex, exotic derivative trades, bets on bets on bets on shaky subprime mortgages, sitting there on the company balance sheet, waiting to explode. Nobody felt good lending Bank of America money with that dangerous pile lying there. So they asked the bank to move a chunk of that mess from Merrill Lynch onto Bank of America's own balance sheet. Why? Because Bank of America is a federally insured depository ins ution. Which means that the FDIC, and by extension you and me, is now on the hook for as much as $55 trillion in potential losses.
Guilford County (NC) Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen sues MERS:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/03/...ix-their-mess/Here’s the complaint, and there’s additional information at this mini-site. A couple things are interesting about the suit. First of all, Thigpen is getting assistance from Talcott Franklin, the law firm which has been rounding up investors to pursue repurchase cases against the banks. So he’s accessing a great deal of knowledge there. Second, among the penalties sought in the suit, Thigpen wants a special master to oversee an audit of mortgage do ents at his office and to correct them.
The suit dates the recording of land les at a public office in North Carolina all the way back to 1664. So we’re talking about banks overturning over 300 years of precedent in the furtherance of avoiding recording fees by creating their own database, which they summarily screwed up. Here’s a list of all the problems with maintaining an inaccurate registry, from the complaint:
a. Without available, orderly, and accurate records, landowners can lose their property as a result of illegal foreclosures.So this is about more than just vengeance or justice, it’s about fixing a broken property system in the United States that puts the entire economy at risk. And the MERS system, which is inherently unreliable and which rests on novel and in many cases unproven legal theories, has broken that system, make no mistake.
b. Without available, orderly, and accurate records, landowners can be deprived of the ability to discover and remedy le defects.
c. Without available, orderly, and accurate records, landowners can be deprived of the ability to buy and sell property.
d. Without available, orderly, and accurate records, mortgage holders’ interests in property can be jeopardized.
e. Without available, orderly, and accurate records, potential purchasers cannot obtain financing to purchase property and/or risk loss of any property purchased.
Thigpen puts the evidence in his office to good use here, and he seeks not just a payout but a remedy. He says in the suit that he cannot perform his duties as register of deeds under the current cir stances. Furthermore, “The cost to Guilford County to identify impaired chains of le and repair those impaired chains of le – even if it were possible without the Defendants’ cooperation – would vastly exceed the budget for the Register of Deeds.” Basically, he wants the banks to create and pay for a Special Master to look through every do ent in his office, and cure all defects. There would be other damages incurred as well, but that’s his main goal.
Not a direct quote, but clearly indicates how 0.1%er Issa and Repugs criminalize borrowers (Human-Americans) while protecting the guilty financial sector (Corporate-Americans).
Rep. Issa Confronted By Protesters At Foreclosure Hearing, Blames Bank Fraud On Homeowners
DarrellIssa also just said that robosigning happened as a result of a swamped agency and was the fault of people who stopped paying.
Issa’s thoughts on foreclosure fraud, unfortunately, aren’t new. Before the GOP took control of the House in 2011, Issa promised not to investigate the fraudulent acts committed by Wall Street banks, instead vowing to focus his attention on home loans made to poor people.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...ud-homeowners/
Wall Street Sees Big Profits In Renting Out Foreclosed Homes
a growing list of big and small investors who see fat profits to be made in renting out foreclosed homes, especially now the U.S. government is moving ahead with a trial project to sell big pools of single-family homes that Fannie Mae currently owns in some of the hardest-hit housing markets.
Investors seeking higher yields are drawn to foreclosures because the rental market is red hot. But the heated compe ion for foreclosed homes is reminiscent of the frothy expectations that seem to accompany each new Wall Street investing craze.
Even proponents of buying foreclosed homes are advising caution about the kind of returns that investors can expect to reap and the potential negative headlines that can come with being a landlord.
Critics, meanwhile, contend the federal government is fostering a transfer of wealth of sorts by selling big pools of foreclosed homes to big fund investors and high-net-worth individuals. There's also concern that some of the players who helped create the housing crisis will now benefit by buying foreclosed homes at a steep discount.
Between them, Fannie and Freddie Mac own more than 200,000 foreclosed homes. The nation's banks own more than 600,000 single-family homes, according to RealtyTrac, a housing tracking service.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...tml?view=print
=============
After the lenders/banks' lending fraud and predations and gambling and selling toxic crap, they now get to profit by renting the real estate they got for next to nothing.
"why do you envy rich people's hard-earned wealth?" - WC
The source for almost all of your dumb is Alternet blogs. You and the other wingnuts are never tolerant of other people quoting sources like that.
This article was by Zach Thomas
I bet Zach is a ing expert on financial systems.
Hold yourself to the same standard as you do everyone else, you damn loon.
Have you read through the thread yet? There's a bit more to it than boutons and Alternet, if you care to read and respond. A variety of sources are cited...
cmon.
FT and American Banker, ok? please read something.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/...apse/?src=recgWhen Lehman Brothers collapsed at the height of the financial crisis, JPMorgan Chase was at the center of the storm. The bank was a major lender to the firm, which filed the biggest bankruptcy in United States history.
Now, more than three years later, regulators have penalized JPMorgan for actions tied to Lehman’s demise.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil case against JPMorgan on Wednesday, the first federal enforcement case to stem from Lehman’s downfall. The bank settled the Lehman matter and agreed to pay a fine of approximately $20 million.
The Lehman action stems from the questionable treatment of customer money — an issue that has been at the forefront of the recent outcry over MF Global. JPMorgan was also intimately involved in the final days of that brokerage firm.
The trading commission accused JPMorgan of overextending credit to Lehman for roughly two years leading up to its bankruptcy in 2008.
JPMorgan extended the credit using an inaccurate evaluation of Lehman’s worth, improperly counting Lehman’s customer money as belonging to the firm. Under federal law, firms are not allowed to use customer money to secure or extend credit.
The arrangement worked well for both parties. Lehman wanted a larger loan, and suggested counting money from the customer account to justify it. JPMorgan complied, counting the money as part of Lehman’s coffers.
“The laws applying to customer segregated accounts impose critical restrictions on how financial ins utions can treat customer funds, and prohibit these ins utions from standing in the way of immediate withdrawal,” David Meister, the agency’s enforcement director, said in a statement. “As should be crystal clear, these laws must be strictly observed at all times, whether the markets are calm or in crisis.”
It is unclear whether JPMorgan knew the money belonged to clients. But in the view of regulators, it should have — the customer funds were kept at a JPMorgan account. The funds belonged to investors trading in the futures market.
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters...n_Countrywide/A federal judge rejected Bank of New York Mellon Corp's bid to dismiss a lawsuit by investors over its role as trustee for mortgage-backed securities that led to an $8.5 billion settlement by Bank of America Corp.
U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan said on Tuesday that bondholders who invested in 26 trusts alleged to have contained risky mortgage loans from the former Countrywide Financial Corp may pursue claims against Bank of New York Mellon. He dismissed a variety of other claims.
The decision relates to a lawsuit challenging Bank of New York Mellon's performance of its day-to-day obligations as a trustee, which includes ensuring that underlying home loans are properly do ented and that bondholders' rights are protected.
Beth Kaswan, a lawyer for four pension funds in Chicago, Michigan and Pennsylvania that brought the case, said the decision leaves intact claims over securities backed by more than $30 billion of loans, and which have suffered more than $9 billion of losses or delinquencies.
She said she believes the decision is the first to let investors in mortgage-backed securities pursue claims against a trustee under the 1939 federal Trust Indenture Act.
"The decision is a watershed," Kaswan said.
Judge Rules Wells Fargo Engages in “Reprehensible,” Systemic Accounting Abuses on Mortgages, Hit with $3.1 Million Punitive Damages for One Loan
In an April 2008 ruling, Elizabeth Magner, a U.S. bankruptcy judge in New Orleans, rejected the two charges [for broker price opinions charged when the parish in which the home was located was evacuated thanks to Hurricane Katrina] as invalid. She also disallowed 43 home inspections, 39 late charges, and thousands of dollars in legal fees charged to the Stewarts’ account.
Almost every disallowed fee was imposed while the Stewarts were making regular monthly payments on their home…
Magner determined that Wells Fargo had been “duplicitous and misleading” and ordered the bank to pay $27,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees. She also took the unusual step of requiring the servicer to audit about 400 home loan files in cases in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Wells fought successfully to keep the results of the audit under seal, and last summer a federal appeals court overturned the part of Magner’s ruling that required the audit. But two people familiar with the results told iWatch News that Wells Fargo’s audit had turned up accounting errors in nearly every loan file it reviewed.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/...=Google+Reader
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1412412.htmlfederal judge who has fiercely criticized how big banks service home loans is fed up with Wells Fargo.
In a scathing opinion issued last week, Elizabeth Magner, a federal bankruptcy judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana, characterized as "highly reprehensible" Wells Fargo's behavior over more than five years of litigation with a single homeowner and ordered the bank to pay the New Orleans man a whopping $3.1 million in punitive damages, one of the biggest fines ever for mortgage servicing misconduct.
"Wells Fargo has taken advantage of borrowers who rely on it to accurately apply payments and calculate the amounts owed," Magner writes. "But perhaps more disturbing is Wells Fargo's refusal to voluntarily correct its errors. It prefers to rely on the ignorance of borrowers or their inability to fund a challenge to its demands, rather than voluntarily relinquish gains obtained through improper accounting methods."
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