A sweet piece from Fmr. U.S. Senator from Delaware Ted Kaufman-

Here’s the highlight of his HuffPo piece-

Biden, Schneiderman and a few other AGs see it differently. They have been insisting on further investigations before any settlement is reached. The charges in Biden’s suit against MERS include a series of allegations based on his investigations to date. Among them:

• Hiding the true mortgage owner and removing that information from the public land records.

• Creating a systemically important, yet inherently unreliable, database that created confusion and inappropriate assignments and foreclosures of mortgages.

 • Failing to ensure the proper transfer of mortgage loan documentation to the securitization trusts, which may have resulted in the failure of securitizations to own the loans upon which they claimed to foreclose. (This is called “securities fail” and is the theory that allows put backs that crush the bank/originators.)

 • Initiating foreclosures in the name of MERS without authority to do so or without appropriate controls to ensure the actions were being carried out by the actual owner of the mortgage.

 • Allowing the entry and management of data by those MERS members who are identified as owners or servicers in the MERS System, instead of controlling entry and management itself.

 • Initiating foreclosure actions in which the real party in interest was hidden, thus preventing homeowners from ascertaining who owned their mortgage in order to challenge whether or not they had a right to foreclose and limiting their legal defenses.

 Again, stay tuned. Together, Judge Rakoff and Attorney General Biden are finally demanding much of the information we need to truly reform Wall Street.

 

© 2010-12 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.
www.StopForeclosureFraud.com

Ironic, LPS would make a comment on an article and offer stats on overdue defaulted homeowners, when a reason why an estimated 350,000 foreclosures cases continue to be delayed as lenders and bank lawyers sort through last fall’s robo-signing scandal.

Hmmm. They are front and center of the robo-signing scandal and they offer advice?

Palm Beach Post-

More than half of Florida homeowners in foreclosure have not made a mortgage payment in two years or more. That’s higher than the national average and one indication of why banks are paying borrowers up to $20,000 to execute a short sale.

A new report from Jacksonville-based LPS Applied Analytics found that as of September, 56 percent of Florida’s mortgages in foreclosure are 24 months or more behind in payments, compared with 39 percent nationwide.

About 84 percent of Florida foreclosures are more than 18 months in arrears.

[...]

Last month, Bank of America quietly began a Florida-only campaign that gives homeowners up to $20,000 for a short sale rather than letting their homes linger.

Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase have similar short-sale programs, sometimes called “cash for keys.” McCabe said a woman he knows was told by Chase it would give her $35,000 for a short sale after she was only 60 days behind on payments.

[PALM BEACH POST]

But then, the banks are trying to offer cash to homeowners to follow through with a short sale? In case you’re wondering, it takes 501 days to complete a short sale in South Florida.

Does this make any sense? What buyer has the patience to wait this long?

 

© 2010-12 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.
www.StopForeclosureFraud.com

Even those that continue to make payments on a house that no longer exists aren’t immune to foreclosure.

Brad Gana, of Seabrook, Texas is being threatened with foreclosure over a home that hasn’t existed since it was destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008, local Houston 2 News reports. Furthermore, after the hurricane, which cost the Texas shoreline an estimated $11 billion in damages, reduced the property to an empty slab of concrete, Gana alleges he continued to make payments.

In the meantime, Bank of America, the mortgage lender, took out a forced homeowner’s policy on the property and raised monthly payments. Gana, however, says he was never notified of the change since his mailbox was destroyed by what’s come to be known as the third-most destructive hurricane ever to hit the United States.

[HUFFINGTONPOST]

 

 

© 2010-12 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.
www.StopForeclosureFraud.com

“I again want to sincerely apologize for the inappropriate costumes worn by some of our employees at our Halloween Party in 2010. It was in extremely poor taste and I take full responsibility,” Steven J. Baum said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I know people were extremely offended and people have every right to be upset with me and my firm.”

[MSNBC]

I wonder what the theme was this year? I’m sure we’ll find out. But this apology is all PR related and he had to do it as he is being investigated.

 

© 2010-12 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.
www.StopForeclosureFraud.com