MyFoxHouston-

HOUSTON – It was a simpler time when Edward Mahar bought his home in 1980. He has lived there ever since in southwest Houston.

“It was procedurally easy and we had a Realtor involved and basically the process was getting bank approval to buy the property,” says Mahar.

There were no mortgage swaps or complex transactions in the financial market that could leave your head spinning as is the case currently. For years, he knew exactly who held the note on his property.

“Since two years ago, everything is complicated,” says Mahar.

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO

STATE OF OHIO, ex.rel.
DAVID P. JOYCE
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY OF GEAUGA
COUNTY, OHIO
Courthouse Annex, 231 Main St. Suite 3A
Chardon, Ohio 44024

On behalf of Geauga County and all others similarly
situated,

Plaintiff,

v.

MERSCORP, INC.
1818 Library Street, Suite 300
Reston, Virginia 20190

and

MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION
SYSTEMS, INC.
1818 Library Street, Suite 300
Reston, Virginia 20190

[...]

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In case anyone hasn’t noticed but lately there is a PR move supporting MERS…but those moves will not help once every county in the US wakes up and begins to sue the machine.

Bloomberg-

Attorneys for the Texas county that includes Houston will seek permission Tuesday to hire outside counsel to sue Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. over unpaid mortgage-filing fees.

The plan was posted today on the agenda for the Harris County Commissioners Court, the governing body for the county. County attorneys will hire the same law firm, Malouf & Nockels, that handled a similar lawsuit filed by Dallas last month, County Attorney Vince Ryan said in an interview today.

The Dallas County District Attorney’s lawsuit claimed Merscorp Inc.’s MERS, which runs an electronic registry of mortgages, cheated the county out of tens of millions of dollars in uncollected filing fees. MERS tracks servicing rights and ownership interests …

[BLOOMBERG]

Again, this is what I’ve been waiting for. As Professor Peterson says, “This case is scary because if Dallas wins then there are a lot of other counties around the country that are going to follow.” … And follow they will.

I already see them lining up one by one. You see just because you can develop a system and input data, doesn’t mean it relieves you from any responsibility of some 67+ million “errors”. They knew what they had from its inception.

BLOOMBERG-

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is among a group of lenders that may face a wave of new lawsuits claiming the system they’ve used for more than a decade to register mortgages cheated cash-strapped counties out of millions of dollars.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said state attorneys general and county officials across the U.S. have expressed interest in his lawsuit against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. and Bank of America, filed in Texas state court on Sept. 21. Dallas County could be owed as much as $100 million in filing fees, he said.

[BLOOMBERG]

DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS,
PLAINTIFF,

vs.

MERSCORP, INC.; MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC
REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC.; STEWART TITLE
GUARANTY COMPANY; STEWART TITLE
COMPANY; BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION; AND ASPIRE FINANCIAL, INC.
D/B/A TEXASLENDING.COM,
DEFENDANTS

EXCERPTS:

III.
AGENCY AND CORPORATE VEIL/ALTER-EGO
10. At all times material hereto, each Defendant was acting by and through its actual,
apparent, ostensible, or by estoppel agents and/or employees.

11. Plaintiff moves the Court pierce the MERSCORP and MERS corporate veils and
impose liability upon Defendants Stewart and BOA as shareholders in MERSCORP for the
activities of MERSCORP and MERS alleged herein. Recognizing the corporate existence of
MERSCORP and MERS separate from their shareholders, including Stewart and BOA, would
cause an inequitable result or injustice, or would be a cloak for fraud or illegality. MERSCORP
and MERS were undercapitalized in light of the nature and risk of their business. The corporate
fiction is being used to justify wrongs, as a means of perpetrating fraud, as a mere tool or
business conduit for others, as a means of evading existing legal obligations, to perpetrate
monopoly and unlawfully gain monopolistic control over the real property recording system in
the State of Texas, and to circumvent statutory obligations.

[...]

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2 words

“BANKERS TRUST”

Reality Check-

By Abigail Caplovitz Field |

With one court filing, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has transformed the mortgage backed securities liability landscape. By intervening and opposing the Bank of America/BNY global settlement of mortgage backed securities claims, Schneiderman served notice to the big banks that they will not be able to cut self-serving deals to escape liability to investors. By suing Bank of New York for fraud at the same time, he reminded banks that they face liabilities for their actions as trustee (as Yves Smith has been pointing out at Naked Capitalism for some time now.) In fact, given that everything Schneiderman alleged about BNY’s actions as trustee (other than the deal with BofA) could be said about Deustche Bank, US Bank, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase (all as Trustee), are those suits coming?

[REALITY CHECK]

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

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP,
INC., AIG SECURITIES LENDING
CORPORATION, AMERICAN
GENERAL ASSURANCE COMPANY,
AMERICAN GENERAL LIFE AND
ACCIDENT INSURANCE COMPANY,
AMERICAN GENERAL LIFE
INSURANCE COMPANY, AMERICAN
GENERAL LIFE INSURANCE
COMPANY OF DELAWARE,
AMERICAN HOME ASSURANCE
COMPANY, AMERICAN
INTERNATIONAL GROUP
RETIREMENT PLAN, CHARTIS
PROPERTY CASUALTY COMPANY,
CHARTIS SELECT INSURANCE
COMPANY, CHARTIS SPECIALTY
INSURANCE COMPANY, COMMERCE
AND INDUSTRY INSURANCE
COMPANY, FIRST SUNAMERICA LIFE
INSURANCE COMPANY, LEXINGTON
INSURANCE COMPANY, NATIONAL
UNION FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY
OF PITTSBURGH, PA, NEW
HAMPSHIRE INSURANCE COMPANY,
SUNAMERICA ANNUITY AND LIFE
ASSURANCE COMPANY,
SUNAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE
COMPANY, THE INSURANCE
COMPANY OF THE STATE OF
PENNSYLVANIA, THE UNITED STATES
LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY IN THE
CITY OF NEW YORK, THE VARIABLE
ANNUITY LIFE INSURANCE
COMPANY, and WESTERN NATIONAL
LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY,

Plaintiffs,


against-

BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION,
BANC OF AMERICA SECURITIES LLC,
BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION, BANC OF AMERICA
FUNDING CORPORATION, BANC OF
AMERICA MORTGAGE SECURITIES,
INC., ASSET BACKED FUNDING
CORPORATION, NB HOLDINGS
CORPORATION, MERRILL LYNCH &
CO., INC., MERRILL LYNCH
MORTGAGE LENDING, INC., FIRST
FRANKLIN FINANCIAL
CORPORATION, MERRILL LYNCH
MORTGAGE CAPITAL INC., MERRILL
LYNCH CREDIT CORPORATION,
MERRILL LYNCH, PIERCE, FENNER &
SMITH INC., MERRILL LYNCH
MORTGAGE INVESTORS, INC.,
COUNTRYWIDE FINANCIAL
CORPORATION, COUNTRYWIDE
CAPITAL MARKETS LLC,
COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS, INC.,
COUNTRYWIDE SECURITIES
CORPORATION, CWABS, INC.,
CWALT, INC., CWHEQ, INC., and
CWMBS, INC.,

Defendants.

via: ZeroHedge

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

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK

In the matter of the application of
THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON (as Trustee under various Pooling and
Servicing Agreements and Indenture Trustee under various Indentures),
Petitioner Counter-Defendant,

-and-

BlackRock Financial Management Inc. (intervenor), Kore Advisors, L.P.
(intervenor), Maiden Lane, LLC (intervenor), Maiden Lane II, LLC (intervenor),
Maiden Lane III, LLC (intervenor), Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
(intervenor), Trust Company of the West and affiliated companies controlled by
The TCW Group, Inc. (intervenor), Neuberger Berman Europe Limited
(intervenor), Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (intervenor),
Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P. (intervenor), Teachers Insurance and
Annuity Association of America (intervenor), Invesco Advisers, Inc.
(intervenor), Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (intervenor), Landesbank Baden-
Wuerttemberg (intervenor), LBBW Asset Management (Ireland) plc, Dublin
(intervenor), ING Bank fsb (intervenor), ING Capital LLC (intervenor), ING
Investment Management LLC (intervenor), New York Life Investment
Management LLC (intervenor), Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and its
affiliated companies (intervenor), AEGON USA Investment Management LLC,
authorized signatory for Transamerica Life Insurance Company, AEGON
Financial Assurance Ireland Limited, Transamerica Life International (Bermuda)
Ltd., Monumental Life Insurance Company, Transamerica Advisors Life
Insurance Company, AEGON Global Institutional Markets, plc, LIICA Re II,
Inc., Pine Falls Re, Inc., Transamerica Financial Life Insurance Company,
Stonebridge Life Insurance Company, and Western Reserve Life Assurance Co.
of Ohio (intervenor), Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (intervenor),
Bayerische Landesbank (intervenor), Prudential Investment Management, Inc.
(intervenor), and Western Asset Management Company (intervenor),
Petitioners,

-against-

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK by ERIC T.
SCHNEIDERMAN, Attorney General of the State of New York,
Intervenor Counter-Plaintiff,

for an order pursuant to CPLR § 7701 seeking judicial instructions and approval
of a proposed settlement.

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This isn’t the first time. For the first from 2002 go to THE FLORIDA BAR vs. DAVID J. STERN

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA

THE FLORIDA BAR,

Complainant,

v.

DAVID JAMES STERN,

Respondent.
——————–~/

Excerpt:

By the conduct set forth above, respondent violated the following R. Regulating Fla. Bar:

A. Rule 3-4.2 [Violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct as adopted by the rules governing The Florida Bar is a cause for discipline.];

B. Rule 4-3.4(c) [A lawyer shall not knowingly disobey an obligation
under the rules of a tribunal except for an open refusal based on an assertion that no valid obligation exists.]; and

C. Rule 4-8.4(a) [A lawyer shall not violate or attempt to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another.].

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MICHAEL G. BRAUTIGAM,

v.

ROBERT E. RUBIN, C. MICHAEL
ARMSTRONG, JOHN M. DEUTCH,
ANNE M. MULCAHY, VIKRAM PANDIT,
ALAIN J.P BELDA, TIMOTHY C. COLLINS,
JERRY A GRUNDHOFR, ROBERT L. JOSS,
ANDREW N. LIVERIS, MICHAEL E. O’NEILL,
RICHARD D. PARSONS, LAWRENCE R.
RICCIARDI, JUDITH RODIN, ROBERT
L. RYAN, ANTHONY M. SANTOMERO,
DIANA L. TAYLOR, WILLIAM S. THOMPSON,
JR., AND ERNESTO ZEDILLO
~
Excerpts:

I. This is a shareholder derivative action brought on behalf and for the benefit of Citigroup against certain of its current and former directors. Citigroup is a global . financial services company, and provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a range of financial products and services. The recipient of some $45 billion of federal government bail-out monies, Citigroup has suffered, and will continue to suffer, serious financial and reputational impacts from the inadequate servicing of its troubled residential mortgage loans.

2. On April 13, 2011, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) publicized findings from its fourth quarter 2010 investigation into Citigroup’s mortgage servicing and foreclosure processing practices. As a result of that investigation, the OCC concluded that Citigroup (through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Citibank, N.A.): engaged in improper servicing and foreclosure practices; lacked sufficient resources to ensure proper administration of its foreclosure processes; lacked adequate oversight, internal controls, policies, and procedures, compliance risk management, internal audit, third party management; failed to supervise outside counsel and other third parties handling foreclosure-related services; and engaged in unsafe or unsound banking practices. The above findings were made public in the OCC’s formal enforcement agreement with Citibank as set forth in the Consent Order captioned In the Matter of Citibank, NA. Las Vegas, Nevada AA -EC-II-I3 (the “Consent Order”).

<SNIP>

13. Apar from a dismal track record in complying with its obligations under TARP and HAMP, Citigroup also suffered from the effects of a lack of adequate controls over its foreclosure processes. By third and fourth quarters of 20 10, reports had surfàced alleging that companies (including Citigroup) servicing $6.4 trillion in American mortgages may have bypassed legally required steps to foreclose on a home. For example, a New Jersey state cour administrative order specifically implicated Citi Residential Lending, Inc. (“Citi Residential,” a business of Citigroup) in the so-called “robosigning” scandal. Robo-signers, as the court put it, “are mortgage lender/servicer employees who sign hundreds-in some cases thousands-of affidavits submitted in support of foreclosure claims without any personal  knowledge of the information contained in the affidavits. ‘Robo-signing’ may also refer to improper notarizing practices or document backdating.” The administrative order cited devastating evidence of the inadequacies of Citigroup’s internal controls over its loan documentation and foreclosure processes:

An individual employed by Nationwide Title Clearing, Inc., with signing authority for Citi Residential Lending, Inc., testified in a deposition that when he signed documents for Citi, he did not review them for substantive correctness. He could not even explain what precisely an assignment of a mortgage accomplishes. He had no prior background in the mortgage industry.

Further, a second person with signing authority for Citi Residential Lending, Inc. testified that she never reviewed any books, records, or documents before signing affidavits and that she instead trusted the company’s internal policies and procedures to ensure the accuracy of the information she signed. She signed several documents each day (in many instances without knowledge of what she was signing) and indicated that they were often notarized outside of her presence.

14. The deficiencies in Citigroup’s controls over its loan documentation and foreclosure processes have led to tens of thousands of adverse outcomes for the Company throughout the United States. On November 23, 20 i 0, a Managing Director of Citi- Mortgage, in a written statement to the House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, admitted that: (a) the Company was reviewing approximately 10,000 affidavits executed in pending foreclosures initiated before February 2010; (b) affidavits executed before fàll 2009 would need to be refilled;
(c) that the Company was reviewing another approximately 4,000 pending foreclosure affidavits that may not have been properly executed; and (d) it was transferring approximately 8,500 foreclosure files from its former Florida law firm that engaged in robo-signing.

Continue below…

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http://www.scribd.com/full/53708513?access_key=key-1pzxbltfa7cdhtky3rr8

via: Business Insider

Madoff said: “JPMorgan doesn’t have a chance in hell of not coming up with a big settlement.”

“I am not a banker but I know that $100bn going in and out of a bank account is something that should alert you to something.”

“JPMorgan got all the financial statements.”

“There were senior people at the bank who knew what was going on,” he emphasized, without naming anyone. There will be a big interview with Madoff in this weekend’s Financial Times.

continue reading…Business Insider

excerpt:

1. Citi’s “Due Diligence” And Early Discovery Of The Risks Of Possible Fraud

61. During the course of Citi’s 2005 initial “due diligence,” and as part of negotiating the final terms of the Prime Fund loan transaction, Citi learned, among other things, that Tremont received only paper copy trade confirmations approximately five (5) days conducted the alleged trading – a practice rife with the possibility for fraud due to the ability of the brokerage firm to backdate or manufacture trading activity with no ability on the customer’s part to check that the trades actually took place.

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by Allan Dodds Frank

The allegations unveiled Thursday by the trustee amount to accusing the senior management of the bank (without naming anyone) of ignoring the public good to protect profits—and Bernie. Back when the complaint was under seal, Picard’s No. 1 counsel David Sheehan had asserted: “JPMorgan was willfully blind to the fraud, even after learning about numerous red flags surrounding Madoff.” In his statement, Sheehan said: “JPMC was at the very center of that fraud, and thoroughly complicit in it.” At the time, the bank called the trustee “irresponsible” and said the complaint was aimed at “headline-grabbing.”

For its part, JPMorgan Chase said Thursday that the bankruptcy trustee’s complaint is “based on distortions of both the relevant facts and the governing law. Contrary to the trustee’s allegation, JPMorgan did not know about or in any way become a party to the fraud orchestrated by Bernard Madoff.”

The statement continued:

“Madoff’s firm was not an important or significant customer in the context of JPMorgan’s commercial banking business, and the revenues earned from Madoff’s bank account were modest and entirely consistent with conventional market rates and fees.” The statement added that the trustee’s claims that the bank earned big bucks from Madoff “is demonstrably false.”

The bank’s statement made no mention of the supposed First Rule of Banking: “Know Your Customer.”

My simultaneous translation of the JPMorgan statement is this: “We are such a giant global bank that whatever profits we made from Madoff are chump change. A settlement would not affect earnings, even though we have to stipulate that we administered the accounts Bernie used to carry out the largest Ponzi fraud in history, and even though we neither admit nor deny turning a blind eye to his machinations and making hundreds of millions in the process.”

Amended Complaint against all defendants / Complaint against JPMorgan Chase & Co., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd. [Redacted] (related document(s) 1 ) Filed by Deborah H. Renner on behalf of Irving H. Picard, Trustee for the Liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. (Renner, Deborah) (Entered: 02/03/2011)

source: BMI Trustee

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