Lawyers who defend homeowners against foreclosures, even when their client has a good case, like servicing errors, often run into bank-friendly judges. The plaintiff’s argument typically boils down to, “We’re a bank, they are a deadbeat.” It looks as if banks are increasingly hoist on their own petard. There has been so much coverage of […]
Read more...Wow, this is getting wild. Admittedly, the Cook County sheriff has taken a firm stand in the past on foreclosure evictions, but this is a more sweeping action in the past. Telling the banks that admitted they used improper affidavits but now insist that everything is fine isn’t good enough is a bold more. At […]
Read more...At least some legislators are taking the foreclosure crisis seriously. Representative John Conyers, Marcy Kaptur, Raúl Grijalva, and Alan Grayson wrote to Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to ask that he investigate foreclosure fraud and conduct an audit of GMAC, Fannie, and Freddie. SIGTARP is a full fledged prosecutor, […]
Read more...New fronts are opening in the foreclosure mess. A lot of people have wondered why no one has gone to jail over what by commonsense standards is fraudulent activity. The possibility that the violations were indeed criminal is finally being investigated. From the Washington Post: Federal law enforcement officials are investigating possible criminal violations in […]
Read more...As dramatic as this headline sounds, there is much less here than meets the eye. In addition, either the article that discussed this development is confused, or the underlying legal pressure is not well framed. First, let’s get to the report, which certainly sounds serious. BusinessWeek reports that PIMCO, BlackRock, and the New York Fed […]
Read more...By George Washington Bank of America alleged in a court filing this June: It appears as though many loans and other mortgage-related assets have been double and even triple-pledged to various constituencies . Boa Answer to Freddie Objection in Re Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. April Charney – a consumer lawyer with Jacksonville Area […]
Read more...By MBSGuy, a securitization expert In comments to my post yesterday, “So Why Did the Mortgage Servicers Use ‘Robo Signers’?“, reader Justica pointed out another element of servicer misbehavior, namely, investor lack of confidence in the reports, and therefore the disbursements, that servicers are giving them. From “Investors Grumble Over Flawed Remittances” at Asset-Backed Alert: […]
Read more...I received an e-mail from a correspondent I’ll call MBSGuy and I thought readers would find it informative. He’s been an expert witness in quite a few securitization cases (which is an area with relatively little in the way of case law, in contrast to real estate). And in case it isn’t obvious, to serve […]
Read more...By Russ, aka Attempter, a sustainability activist trying to help figure out solutions to America’s crisis, who blogs at Volatility As Foreclosuregate, the legal crisis, looms ever larger and becomes a major political issue, the banks and government have scrambled to mount a counteroffensive against the consequences of their crimes. We can see how flat-footed […]
Read more...Warning: this is rap by a middle aged white woman, so adjust your expectations accordingly. There have been a number of reports of cases like hers, of borrowers told to become delinquent to qualify for a mod. They often fail to get the mod and lose their homes.
Read more...We’ll see next week whether two articles, one in the Wall Street Journal, the other in the New York Times, are a sign of a sea change in the media posture towards the banking industry’s spin efforts, at least as far as the securitization mess is concerned. Let’s face it, the banks have lied so […]
Read more...By Marshall Auerback, a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and a market analyst and commentator. Crossposted from New Deal 2.0. It’s time to put the perps of this scandal in jail. Yves Smith, Bill Black, and Mike Konczal have already done yeoman’s work in seeking to explain the lender fraud scandal in the securitized […]
Read more...Einhorn is the famous Lehman short of 2008; he got a lot of flak from Clueless Charlie Gasparino for that. I seem to remember our own Lehman bear, Yves, getting snarled at by Charlie G somewhere along the line, too. But of course, Einhorn, via his vehicle Greenlight Capital, had it right; as did Yves […]
Read more...I’m surprised it has taken this long for Mr. Market to wake up and smell the coffee. Major bank suspending foreclosures in a whole passel of states, overwhelming evidence of fraud on courts (commemorated in sworn testimony), and increasing evidence that these developments are mere symptoms of much deeper problems had been spun by the […]
Read more...Bank of America announced a foreclosure halt in all 50 states; JP Morgan and GMAC have stopped in 23 judicial foreclosure states. Or have they? Florida is a judicial foreclosure state, and local reports suggest the banks are still moving forward with foreclosures. Note the inconsistencies between the statements of the bank employees versus the […]
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