Tuesday, April 30, 2013

INDEPENDENT FORECLOSURE REVIEW | Payments to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Borrowers Covered by Foreclosure Agreement to Begin May 3


INDEPENDENT FORECLOSURE REVIEW | Payments to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley borrowers covered by foreclosure agreement to begin May 3
For immediate release

Payments to mbegin on Friday, May 3 following an agreement announced earlier this year by the Federal Reserve Board.

Under the agreement, $247 million will be made in direct payments to borrowers whose homes were at any stage of the foreclosure process in 2009 and 2010 with the former subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs (Litton Loan Servicing LP) and Morgan Stanley (Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc.).

Payments will range from $300 to more than $125,000. In most cases, borrowers will receive a letter with an enclosed check sent by the paying agent–Rust Consulting, Inc. Some borrowers may receive letters from Rust requesting additional information needed to process their payments. Previously, Rust sent postcards to borrowers notifying them of their eligibility to receive payment under the agreement.

Read More..

Friday, April 19, 2013

BOFA CEO, EX-CEO MUST FACE MORTGAGE DISCLOSURES LAWSUIT


(Reuters) - A federal judge has revived a securities fraud lawsuit accusing Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Brian Moynihan, his predecessor Kenneth Lewis, and others of misleading shareholders about the risk the bank might have to buy back large amounts of soured mortgages.
U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan in July had dismissed various claims against the executives by shareholders led by the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System, while letting their case against the second-largest U.S. bank proceed.

But Pauley said the new allegations in an amended lawsuit "plausibly establish fraudulent conduct and a culpable state of mind as to all executive defendants" for allegedly concealing the buyback potential when certifying the bank's financials.
[Wekesa note: Investors get court relief for bank fraud; homeowners are thrown to the wolves]
He also said Moynihan could be liable for statements that were inconsistent with a May 13, 2010, letter sent on his behalf to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission regarding the bank's securitization practices.
The other individual defendants include former chief financial officers Joe Price and Charles Noski, and Chief Accounting Officer Neil Cotty.
Jay Kasner, a lawyer for the individual defendants, was not immediately available for comment. Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Grayson declined to comment. Mark Rosen, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, was not immediately available for comment.
The shareholders alleged they had been misled into buying shares of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America in 2009 and 2010.
Wekesa Note:
Many "investors" were you and many
other workers whose retirement and
pensions were raided! 
They claimed that Bank of America knew at the time it faced capital shortfalls and large mortgage buybacks, and that recordkeeping in Merscorp Inc's private Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems registry was so poor that it would not be able to legally foreclose on thousands of delinquent mortgages.
Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and several large banks had established MERS in 1995 to circumvent the often unwieldy process of transferring ownership of mortgages and recording changes with county clerks.
Earlier on Wednesday, Bank of America Corp announced a $500 million settlement with investors who claimed they were misled by its Countrywide unit into buying risky mortgage debt. That settlement was the largest to resolve federal class-action litigation over mortgage-backed securities.
The case is Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System et al v. Bank of America Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-00733.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Mortgage Relief Checks Go Out, Only to Bounce


A $300 relief check that bounced. The name and other information was redacted by
The New York Times for privacy reasons.

When the bank account is running dry and the mortgage payment is coming due, the phrase “insufficient funds” is the last thing you want to hear.
Now imagine hearing those two words when trying to cash a long-awaited check from the same bank that foreclosed on you.
Many struggling homeowners got exactly that this week when they lined up to take their cut of a $3.6 billion settlement with the nation’s largest banks — lenders accused of wrongful evictions and other abuses.
Ronnie Edward, whose home was sold in a... Read More

Monday, April 15, 2013

The Power of Affirmative Defenses: SUMMARY JUDGEMENT REVERSED!


“Here, the bank failed to refute the homeowners’ affirmative defense of lack of notice of accelerationthirty days prior to the filing of the Complaint as required by the mortgage. The letter attached to the Complaint was dated only six days prior to the filing of the Complaint. While the bank argues that section 15 of the mortgage provides that notice is deemed to have been given when mailed by first class mail, the bank failed to prove that any notice was sent by first class mail. For these reasons, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.”
~
DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
FOURTH DISTRICT
January Term 2013
JESSY KURIAN and ANIL THOMAS,
Appellants,
v.
WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION,
Appellee.
No. 4D11-3098
[April 10, 2013]
MAY, C.J.
Homeowners appeal a final summary judgment of foreclosure. They argue the trial court erred in entering summary judgment because the bank failed to refute two of their affirmative defenses. We agree and reverse.
The homeowners executed a note and mortgage with the bank. Section 22 of the mortgage stated, in pertinent part:
Lender shall... Read More on 

Saturday, April 13, 2013

YOU CAN’T TRUST THE MORTGAGE PAPER TRAIL

“You Must Secure The Collateral/Custodial Files & All Electronic Entries In The Lender’s’ Accounting, Financial, & General Ledger Systems & Document Custodian’s Tracking System”
PREFACE
This may be one of the most important papers I have written regarding mortgage foreclosures and the mortgage foreclosure crisis we face in America. Since 2007, our nation has been in the midst of the Great Recession and a fiscal crisis we have not endured since the Great Depression. In order for our nation to prosper and move out of this Great Recession, we must fix our housing, mortgage, and securities markets.
We must clean house, no pun, and take a top to bottom approach in this effort. To do this, we must rid our courts of the backlogs of foreclosure cases and bring homes and properties to the marketplace in as smooth a transition process as possible. To do this, we must reform many industry practices and educate judges and lawyers on how to accomplish this goal in a constitutionally protected manner.
No one and I mean no one should unjustly benefit and be enriched from this morass and the crimes committed. With this paper I am sure to take some shots from many of my advocate and foreclosure defense lawyer colleagues and friends who will not like some of what I write here. However, this is an equal opportunity and critical paper. No one deserves a free house. Any lawyers claiming they will get you a free house need to be reported to the their state bar association.
Servicers and corrupt foreclosure law firms should not get a free house either. They must prove up their rights and claims in a constitutionally protected fashion. Short of the death penalty and incarceration, the taking of a human being’s home or property should take be conducted with the utmost of care and caution in the judicial process. The automated and robotic foreclosure processes that have been engineered over the last two-decades must be reengineered to stop the frauds and abuses that have permeated our legal system.
Read the report below...

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Foreclosure settlement: a nationwide crime scene

                               Foreclosure settlement: a nationwide crime scene
Banks are foreclosing on military members, on people who had been approved for a loan modification, and even on people who were never behind in their payments--all part of an astounding settlement that shortchanged millions of homeowners and left hundreds of thousands wrongfully ejected from their homes.  Former Governor Elliot Spitzer; Alexis Goldstein, former Vice President at Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank, now an Occupy Wall Street activist ; and Faith Bautista, who was the victim of wrongful home foreclosure in 2009, join Chris Hayes and paint a stark picture of what happened, who is responsible and why there isn't more justice from the government.
        
 Visit NBCNews.com for breaking newsworld news, and news about the economy


Monday, April 8, 2013

Servicers Agree to Pay Up $39 Million for Illegal Foreclosures


Servicers Agree to Pay Up $39 Million for Illegal Foreclosures

Foreclosed Home Sign
The U.S. Justice Department announced that under its 2011 settlements with BAC Home Loans Servicing and Saxon Mortgage Servicing Inc., 316 service members whose homes were unlawfully foreclosed upon between 2006 and 2010 are due to receive over $39 million in monetary relief for alleged violations of the Service members (military) Civil Relief Act (SCRA). 
Under the first settlement, Bank of America is required to pay over $36.8 million to service members whose homes were unlawfully foreclosed upon between 2006 and 2010. Each service member will receive a minimum of $116,785, plus compensation for any equity lost with interest.
Bank of America has already begun compensating 142 service members whose homes were illegally foreclosed on between 2006 and the middle of 2009. Under the same agreement, Bank of America agreed to provide information about its foreclosures from mid-2009 through the end of 2010. 
As a result of that review, Bank of America will now pay 155 service members upon whose homes it illegally foreclosed. Borrowers receiving payment under this settlement may receive an additional payment under a settlement between Bank of America and federal banking regulators -- the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System -- if the foreclosure occurred in 2009 or 2010. Payments provided under the federal banking regulators’ settlement will bring the total amount received by eligible borrowers to $125,000 plus equity where applicable.  Read more...

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Williams & Connolly Sues Bank Regulator Over Foreclosure Review Information


Williams & Connolly Sues Bank Regulator Over Foreclosure Review Information



In a bid for more information about how consultants landed lucrative contracts to review bank foreclosures, Williams & Connolly filed a Freedom of Information Act suit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on behalf of an unnamed client.
The suit, brought by partner David Aufhauser in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks documents that detail the OCC’s criteria for hiring "independent" consultants to review bank foreclosures.
The OCC and the Federal Reserve in 2011 directed mortgage servicers including Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs to hire independent consultants to embark on a case-by-case review of hundreds of thousands of foreclosures. The goal: to determine whether borrowers were afforded all of the protections they were entitled to under the law and to provide compensation to homeowners harmed by bank errors.
But the process seemed mainly to benefit the consultants, who raked in nearly $2 billion through November 2012 without a single borrower receiving compensation. As OCC head Thomas Curry put it in a February speech, the independent foreclosure review “proved to be much more complicated than anyone anticipated.”
In January, banking regulators pulled the plug on the program, striking deals with 13 servicers to pay more than $9.3 billion in cash payments and other assistance to help borrowers.
In its FOIA suit, filed on March 27, Williams & Connolly wants to know exactly what guidance OCC provided to mortgage services for hiring the independent consultants. The suit seeks “All documents and/or records relating to the OCC’s definition of independence,” including “Any documents and/or records relating to determining whether any particular independent consultant…was or was not independent.”
Companies including Promontory Financial Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche were hired by mortgage servicers to conduct the reviews.
The OCC initially refused Williams & Connolly’s request in full, citing FOIA subsection (b)(8), which exempts information “contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by… an agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions.”
Williams & Connolly appealed the request to the OCC in September, and “specifically noted that the OCC could not withhold the documents under the stated exemption,” according to the complaint.
The OCC in December released five pages of partially redacted documents related to its definition of independence and provided documents that were publically available on its website. Also, the agency offered new grounds for withholding information, citing subsection (b)(5) which exempts “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency.”
Aufhauser argued in the complaint that Williams & Connolly has a “right of access to the documents requested, and Defendant has no legal basis for its actions in withholding the right of access to such documents.” The suit also seeks attorneys’ fees.
Aufhauser, who did not respond to a request for comment, previously served as general counsel of the Treasury Department.

So called Housing Recovery is Different


This Housing Recovery Is Different:
Investors Are Now Big Buyers


...Unlike past housing recoveries, this one is heavily supported by investors — big and small. They account for about a third of home purchases in the existing housing market, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Among those big investors are the Blackstone Group (BX) which has been buying $100 million worth of single family homes a week since early last year, spending a total $3.5 billion to date, according to the Wall Street Journal. Click picture to learn more.
Related Stories:

Big business bets billions on Atlanta's housing recovery 

Could Wall Street's plan to buy up and rent out foreclosed homes boost hard-hit neighborhoods? Or inflate another housing bubble?

CLEAN CUT: This previously vacant Grant Park home was purchased, renovated, and put up for rent by Invitation Homes, a subsidiary of large investment firm Blackstone Group LP.

One More:



Tuesday, April 2, 2013

J@H Tuesday April 2nd. Education and Awareness Meeting


Please join 
Justice@Home


  • Date and Time:
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  • MeetingID:
  • 2013 07:00 PM - Every week on Tuesday  (US/Eastern)
  • https://www.startmeeting.com/wall/891-519-580
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  • 891-519-580


Problems?                Call: 404.201.2356

AGENDA

  • A Flood of Debt Collection Letters hit the ATL! 
Solution: Applying what you learned from fighting mortgage fraud to the latest in debt collection fraud.
Sign up for the special classes: Pro se Litigants Fight Creditors 
  • The Power of We (Sharing responses to see defense attorney use the same arguments, code, and citations.)
  • News & Resources you can use to fight Re: Mortgage Fraud and Wealth Transfer
  • Fighting is Winning: Success Stories
  • Questions and Answers


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By Phone: At the scheduled date and time of the meeting, dial into the conference line. When prompted, enter the meeting ID, followed by the pound key. 

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Disclaimer: Justice@Home attendees, family, supporters are not lawyers and we don’t give legal advice. Our support and educational information is just that educational information. It is no substitute for legal counsel. We don’t write complaints for you anyone. If you are considering legal action we advise you make one of two choices: seek professional legal assistance from a qualified and experienced lawyer or DECIDE to REPRESENT YOURSELF AS A PRO SE LITIGANT. The latter path is not easy or certain, but neither is the former.  













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