Tag: robo-signing

Cloud on title forever post foreclosure {but wait the Banks own the title companies} (via Timothymccandless’s Weblog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a (fairly outraged and rightfully so) discussion of MERS, the electronic system used by the foreclosure industry to prove ownership of homes. Depending on the state, it proves a little or a lot. It appears as time has gone by that the faults of the system have become more and more obvious.

Of course, many who lost their homes to companies using this system never really got a day in court since this weakness in the ownership status has only recently become well known. This was not fair and that it produces strong feelings of rage and hopelessness is not surprising.

I hope the thoughts here can help some people get justice.

James Pilant

Recently Discovered Flaw in Recording System Clouds Titles on Previously Foreclosed Properties   The modern system of mortgage refinancing and assignments created during the housing boom has left behind a wave of title defects on properties that have ever had a foreclosure in their history, due to a loophole in the property records recording system. This has been detected on a number of properties currently in foreclosure, and found to have … Read More

via Timothymccandless's Weblog

Open Letter Re: Withdrawal of Proposed Consent Orders Regarding Mortgage Servicing Illegalities (via Foreclosure Fraud – Fighting Foreclosure Fraud by Sharing the Knowledge)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I strongly support this. The proposed consent orders fall far short of any fair settlement of the crimes committed by mortgage industry. I hope you are willing to join in this effort to find justice for millions of Americans whose property rights have been violated by a rogue industry that directly violated the law hundreds of thousands of times.

James Pilant

Open Letter Re: Withdrawal of Proposed Consent Orders Regarding Mortgage Servicing Illegalities April 6, 2011 Ben Bernanke, Chairman Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System John Walsh, Acting Comptroller Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Sheila Bair, Chairman Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation John Bowman, Acting Director Office of Thrift Supervision Re: Withdrawal of Proposed Consent Orders Regarding Mortgage Servicing Illegalities Dear Federal Regulators of the Financial Institutions of the United States: The undersign … Read More

via Foreclosure Fraud – Fighting Foreclosure Fraud by Sharing the Knowledge

BOA: BAD BANK, BAD BANK, WORSE BANK (via Livinglies’s Weblog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Right!

This is how I feel as well. It’s a good read. Be warned, he’s really upset. But so am I when I’m dealing with this issue.

Here is my writing on the same subject. You can see that I get passionate about foreclosures too.

Robo-Signing Foreclosure Freeze Update (via Foreclosureblues)

Lots of Links on the Foreclosure Fraud Crisis (via Rortybomb)

“We Can Either Have a Rational Resolution to the Foreclosure Crisis or We Can Preserve the Capital Structure of the Banks. We Can’t Do Both” (via Foreclosureblues)

Sheldon Whitehouse Weighs In On The Foreclosure Crisis

Third Way Comments on Foreclosure Fraud Policy in the Post-Ibanez Landscape (via Rortybomb)

Foreclosure Speed Made Loan Modifications Impossible

The Vast Majority Of Foreclosures Were Done Correctly?

In total, I have 46 posts about the mortgage crisis.

James Pilant

BOA: BAD BANK, BAD BANK, WORSE BANK COMBO Title and Securitization Search, Report, Documents, Analysis & Commentary Bank of America to Create Troubled Loans Unit BANK STILL ATTEMPTING TO KEEP FORECLOSURES A POLITICAL ISSUE AS LEGAL OPTIONS RUN OUT EDITOR’S NOTE: As for what this means for homeowners, it is obvious that BOA is trying to come up with some formula that will be politically acceptable the final result of which will still be that they will get hundreds of thousands o … Read More

via Livinglies’s Weblog

Banks Foreclosures In August The Highest Monthly Total EVER!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime2 Comments

From an article by William Alden –

August saw more Americans lose their homes to foreclosure than any other month on record, RealtyTrac reported today. Banks repossessed a total of 95,364 properties in August, a 25 percent increase from the same period in 2009 and a 2 percent increase over this May’s previous record. Foreclosure filings of all types, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions (the three major stages of the foreclosure process), increased to 338,836 in the month, a 4 percent jump from July.

Can there be any better evidence of robo – signing (the practice of mortgage companies simply have attorneys sign off on mortgages as if they had examined the paperwork for accuracy and legality [like whether or not the bank actually owned the property]) than these enormous numbers of foreclosures?

Foreclosing on people’s homes without doing the most minimal required legal work is “highly unethical.” (I don’t really want to use that phrase, but children might be reading my blog.)

Robo signing is profitable. You can see from the numbers just how streamlined the process can be if you avoid following the law.

But isn’t that the current philosophy in the “real” world? Isn’t the money the only thing that matters? And who are these homeowners anyway, just a bunch of dead beats. Why should they have any rights? They signed the note, didn’t they?

Yeah, do you know what note they signed? The actual amount of what they owed? Whether or not the home was actually the property of the foreclosing bank? Whether or not they were even in default?

I guess I’m just a strange person. I think you shouldn’t take people’s home casually. I think it is a very serious matter. Perhaps I don’t live in the real world. Maybe I’m one of those utopian thinkers who have expectations all out of accord with reality.

Or maybe, just maybe, justice is still important in this nation.

James Pilant

Homeowners Betrayed

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic measurement, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime2 Comments

I have been accused of being shrill. Today is the day, I should tear the wallpaper off the walls in hot raging anger. The Senate passed a bill on the last day of the session by unanimous consent that essentially solves the banks’ mortgage foreclosure problems.

Have a read – (from Reuters)

The bill, passed without public debate in a way that even surprised its main sponsor, Republican Representative Robert Aderholt, requires courts to accept as valid document notarizations made out of state, making it harder to challenge the authenticity of foreclosure and other legal documents.

The timing raised eyebrows, coming during a rising furor over improper affidavits and other filings in foreclosure actions by large mortgage processors such as GMAC, JPMorgan and Bank of America.

Questions about improper notarizations have figured prominently in challenges to the validity of these court documents, and led to widespread halts of foreclosure proceedings.

The legislation could protect bank and mortgage processors from liability for false or improperly prepared documents.

Do we live in a nation where citizens matter? Hundreds of thousands of mortgages have been done without actual knowledge of the facts. This is not legal. But here comes Congress just when the crisis is beginning to develop. And Congress like the cavalry rides not to rescue the homeowners but to make it difficult or impossible for them to challenge inaccurate or false documents. It will also make it difficult or impossible to sue for redress by these simple Americans who lived their lives believing falsely they had a government that was concerned in some way about their rights.

It’s not law yet. It awaits that “stalwart defender” of the public, Barack Obama, to sign or veto. What do you bet?

This is incredible. The mortgage companies are caught committing essentially fraud on a massive scale at the very least lying to the court system not once but hundreds of thousands of times(probably several million times) and the government acts to legalize their acts just as the scandal is revealed.

I don’t know what to say. I am well aware that besides this frail web site, I have no influence. I want to go outside and scream. Doesn’t someone, anyone care about the homeowners who have been abused hundreds of thousands of times?

What do these huge accumulations of money have to do to get in trouble? Apparently there is nothing they can’t do. Apparently there is no line they can cross, that will cause our government to act against them.

Will there be any action taken? Will there be any outrage? Will there be any investigations and will they lead to any actual action?

Stay tuned. I’m not finished with this yet.

James Pilant