MERS et al. are probably going after the states that might appear easy.
Ledger-
Every time a mortgage changes hands in Kentucky, the transaction is to be registered at the county clerk’s office and a fee is to be paid.
On Thursday, Mason County joined with several other counties, including Franklin and Warren counties, across the state in a class action lawsuit against a mortgage registration company which has failed to comply with the law, which is regulated under KRS 382.110(1).
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, also known as MERS, is comprised of shareholders of some of the largest mortgage lending institutions in the nation.
While details remain scarce, it is expected that Warren County will enter a class-action lawsuit Monday against several banks involved with Mortgage Electronic Registration System Inc., county officials indicated Thursday.
Warren County Fiscal Court voted unanimously Thursday to grant authority for the county to engage the law firms of Spurgeon & Tinker, Gregory Stumbo, and Whiteford Taylor & Preston, to represent Warren County in a class-action lawsuit.
Last week, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said he subpoenaed MERS, which he believes might have circumvented Kentucky law by failing to properly record mortgage assignments or pay filing fees with county clerks throughout the state.
If you want to be reelected–in those 41 states where voters get to have their say on how well you’re doing your job–you’d better get busy and indict some document fraudsters, or at least sue the big banks for their deceptive and deeply damaging practices. That’s because voters are catching on to just how above the law bankers believe they are. And if you don’t make a real effort to hold the banks accountable–NO, the “50 state” settlement Santa’s supposedly giving to the banks doesn’t count, as I’ll get to–if you don’t make a real effort to hold the banks to account, you’ll get voted out for any candidate that credibly promises accountability.
My mother always said “Don’t have nothing good to say, Don’t say anything at all”
FOX BUSINESS-
The impasse over the nationwide mortgage foreclosure settlement continues, but could a meeting Tuesday provide the much needed breakthrough that brings the California Attorney General into the settlement and paves the way for a deal?
Some people close the negotiations say yes. That is because California Attorney General Kamala Harris will be attending a meeting with Iowa’s Attorney General, Tom Miller, who is leading the negotiations with the banks over faulty mortgage foreclosures and who is likely to press Harris to join the broader group.
Absolutely no respect for the AG’s who are doing their jobs. Absolutely no consideration for the valid reasons why they simply will not settle to the greatest heist in American History.
WSJ-
Bank representatives and government officials are working on a broad settlement of most state and federal foreclosure-practices investigations that could move forward without the participation of California, long considered a key to any deal, people familiar with the negotiations said.
The terms of the deal remain fluid. Banks have proposed a deal excluding California that would carry a value of $18.5 billion, though the final outcome remains uncertain, people familiar with the discussion said.
Negotiators are continuing to make a push to persuade California to join a settlement valued at $25 billion among federal officials, state attorneys general and the …
A recent editorial in the LA Times, “California Should Make that Mortgage Deal,” admonishes California Attorney General Kamala Harris for her insistence on ensuring that the big banks that caused the foreclosure crisis in our state pay their fair share to our homeowners. The editors urge Attorney General Harris to take the deal that’s currently on the table, even though she knows–and California’s homeowners know–that the deal isn’t good enough.
The Times editorial describes why Eric Schneiderman, Beau Biden and Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General of California, have refused to join the 47 other attorneys general who have agreed to the settlement. The Times editorial stated,
The proposed settlement reportedly would prevent the states from pursuing claims against banks relating to fraud or abuse in the origination of loans during the bubble. (In some states, the statute of limitations has expired for bringing challenges for faulty originations but not on all loans in all states.) It would also prevent states from pursuing claims for foreclosure abuses, like improper denial of loan modifications. And it would prevent them from pursuing banks’ misconduct in their dealings with the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems database, or MERS, a land registry system implicated in bubble-era violations of tax, trust and property law. The proposal would not preclude the states from pursuing the banks for wrongdoing in the repackaging and marketing of loans as mortgage-backed securities. But, as a practical matter, the ability to fully press such claims — and to achieve significant redress — could be impeded or blocked by the other constraints. Once one avenue of inquiry is closed off, it can be difficult to ascertain what happened along other points in the mortgage chain. In effect, the legal waivers being contemplated would let the banks pay up to sweep wrongdoing under the rug.
she shares them with President Obama, who endorsed her late in 2010 for the AG office. Her brother-in-law, Tony West, was key fundraiser for Obama in California, having helped raise $65 million for Obama in the state, and he is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. He now works at the DOJ and has expanded the Civil Rights department to take on some elements of mortgage fraud. The DOJ has an internal directive to make mortgage fraud a top priority, but what mortgage fraud means to the DOJ are mortgage modification scams and penny ante borrowers ripping off fly-by-night lenders. West, while not the direct actor in the DOJ’s settlement talks, is in all likelihood involved in pressure on state AGs to sign on to a settlement. And it’s simply inconceivable he hasn’t dealt with his sister-in-law and political ally on the matter. Harris and West are part of a coherent political network, and much of the strength of that network has to do with reinforcing the traditional bank-friendly policies of the Democratic elite and then using that to create political support.
The first indication that as California AG Harris was more sympathetic to the Obama side of the ledger on banking is that one of her first decisions as AG was to let off Angelo Mozilo without admitting to wrong-doing or personally paying a fine (the small money that went to restitution came from Bank of America shareholders). I suspect the issue is actually more personal to her than legal, not because she particularly cares about finance or foreclosures, but because her friends and allies are very concerned about ensuring that the banks get a release. In their view, this will cause the housing market to clear, the economy to recover, and then help reelection chances.
The political problem for Harris is that she was elected by liberal votes, and she’s getting enormous public pressure to resist signing on to a settlement that is perceived as favorable to the banks. While she backed out of an immediate settlement a few weeks ago, she refused to join the joint investigation by Eric Schneiderman and Beau Biden of the foreclosure fraud crisis. She has sat on the sidelines, trying to figure out what to do.
Appeal-Democrat has a different view-
There is no three-strikes law for crooked bankers, not even a law for a fifth strike, as The New York Times reported in the case of Citigroup, cited last month in a $1 billion fraud case. Unlike the California third-striker I once wrote about whom a district attorney wanted banished forever to state prison for stealing a piece of pizza from the plate of a person dining outdoors, Citigroup executives get off with a fine and by offering a promise not to do it again, and again and again.
As the Times reported when Citigroup agreed to settle SEC charges last month: “Citigroup’s main brokerage subsidiary, its predecessors or its parent company agreed to not violate the very same antifraud statue in July 2010. And in May 2006. Also as far back as March 2005 and April 2000.”
Those of you who accept this better save these “pennies” so when they try to come at you with a deficiency!
Start planning ahead because they already are.
HuffPO-
The deal as currently stands would extract $17 billion worth of mortgage modifications and principal reduction for struggling borrowers, among other things, according to a source familiar with the situation. Another $3 billion would be set aside to boost refinancing. And from $5 billion paid directly to state and federal governments, foreclosure victims abused by one of the five banks would be eligible for restitution payments of around $1,500 or $2,000.
Attorney General Martha Coakley,calling the foreclosure crisis a key challenge to the state’s economic recovery, yesterday urged Massachusetts lawmakers to approve legislation meant to push more lenders into helping financially-stressed homeowners save their homes.
Coakley testified before the Joint Committee on Financial Services in favor of a bill that would require lenders to modify certain mortgage loans when such agreements make more economic sense than property seizures.
“The single biggest thing we can do to spur economic recovery is to address the foreclosure crisis,’’ Coakley said. “This bill proposes a reasonable means to achieve large-scale loan modifications for homeowners, allowing people to stay in their homes and avoiding the negative impact of increased abandoned properties in our communities.”
The banks want California, and the Obama administration hopes they can get it.
NYT-
In September, the attorney general of California, Kamala Harris, withdrew from settlement talks between the banks and federal and state officials over mortgage abuses. Ms. Harris said California was being asked to excuse bank conduct that has not been adequately investigated and to grant the banks an unacceptably broad release from legal liability for the mortgage mess.
We undertook such an inquiry, building on the work of many others. And we know time is of the essence. Homeowners and investors are suffering every day, and patterns of abuse and misconduct are continuing. We’re working hard to complete the first — and most critical — phase of our investigation before the end of 2011.
POLITICO –
America’s free markets work only when there is one set of rules for everyone — and everyone plays by those rules.
It is now clear, however, that many in the mortgage finance industry ignored the rules over the past decade. This led to a breakdown in our housing market and in the market for mortgage-backed securities.
I clearly see this as one thing, FHFA’s Ed DeMarco is keeping CA AG Harris from moving forward on the Foreclosure Fraud Settlement. Hmm this is getting interesting.
HuffPO-
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has called on the head of the agency that houses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “step aside” if he continues to refuse to reduce mortgage loans for underwater homeowners.
“It has become clear to me that the only way to keep distressed California homeowners in their homes is through meaningful principal reduction,” Harris said in a statement Thursday.
The lack of meaningful principal reduction is what drove Harris in late September to exit the multistate settlement talks with major banks that are led by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller with the support of the Obama administration. The attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, Minnesota, Delaware and Nevada have also bridled at the settlement efforts, finding the banks’ expected $25 billion write-down to be inadequate to protect their states’ homeowners from losing their property.
Imagine if ever state participated in setting new laws? C’est la vie to fraudulent documents!
Still shocking that there are settlement talks when an investigation NEVER took place. I’m also surprised that the AG’s going after the banks, are getting absolutely no respect from the other AG’s to follow…
Remember that it’s not just a bunch of AGs at the table here. It’s also the Obama Administration. And therein lies the problem…
Credit Slips-
The NY Times had some details today about the multi-state attorney general mortgage servicing settlement in the works. It looks every bit as awful as one might have feared. Here’s the criticial take-away: this is bupkis. It gives meaningless relief to a meaningless number of randomly or adversely selected homeowners. It doesn’t do justice, even by halves.
First, though, there’s a detail reported in Gretchen Morgenson’s otherwise insightful piece that I have on good source is incorrect. The piece states that the banks would be doing principal write-downs on loans they own or service. That’s gotta be incorrect. The banks can do principal write-downs only on loans that they own. They have no legal authority to pledge write-downs on loans that they service on behalf of investors. (Remember the Greenwich Financial suit against Countrywide for doing just that?)
There’s a critical implication here, then about the scope of the multi-state settlement: at best 20% of the population of underwater mortgagees will be helped by this settlement, say 2.2 million homeowners. The other 8.8 million (and probably 10 million by my reckoning) are SOL. How do you think they’re going to feel about their AGs? About their President? Too many times have American homeowners been promised help without receiving any. It’s getting old.
Obama and the AGs still balk at the only solution to the housing-driven recession
Salon-
There is $700 billion in negative equity in the U.S. housing market. That means Americans owe $700 billion more than their homes are worth. Any plan for the housing sector or the U.S. economy, that doesn’t take a serious bite out of negative equity isn’t serious.
Yet un-serious is what we continue to get from elected officials. This week the Obama Administration announced a new plan to help underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages to lower rates. The plan, really an expansion of an existing program, is the latest in a series of programs designed to deal with the moribund housing market. Each has proven a more dismal disappointment than the next.
So too with the latest version of the proposed settlement between the state Attorneys General, led by Iowa’s Tom Miller, and the mortgage servicing industry. Yes, the deal has been sweetened by the addition of some interest rate reductions for underwater homeowners who are current on their payments. But that’s small potatoes.
By now, I hope you fully understand, if your AG has yet to join The State AG’s that are holding the bankers feet to the fire, than they’re working hand by hand with the bankers against you.
AG’s are there to serve the peoples interest not those that commit fraud on a massive level.
NYTimes-
Cutting to the chase: if you thought this was the deal that would hold banks accountable for filing phony documents in courts, foreclosing without showing they had the legal right to do so and generally running roughshod over anyone who opposed them, you are likely to be disappointed.
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden sued the private national mortgage registry MERS, alleging a slew of deceptive trade practices that prevent homeowners from staving off foreclosure.
so they decided to privitize it, on their own. and in doing so, they did two things. they avoided millions upon millions of fees, and are able to more nimbly secure ties to mortgage backed securities. but they forgot to keep track of mortgages. and in Delaware, in 72% of the cases we’ve investigated, and this is just the beginning, they’ve literally foreclosed on behalf of the wrong entity. so they exercise the right to foreclosure on an entity, and in one case in Delaware that we have, they foreclosed on behalf of an entity that no longer existed. so that’s how screwed up this has become. they don’t follow their own rules, and that’s why we think they violated the Delaware deceptive trade practices act.
MERSCORP, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., a Delaware Corporation, Defendants.
VERIFIED COMPLAINT
Excerpt:
17. Since January 1, 2008, MERS has filed over 1,600 foreclosure actions in Delaware. Thousands more foreclosures on MERS-registered mortgages have been filed in Delaware after assignments out of the MERS System that were based on the unreliable data in MERS’ records. Many more thousands of mortgages associated with outstanding loans remain recorded in the Delaware county land records in the name of MERS without appropriate indications or avenues to ascertain the identity of the true mortgagee in interest.
[…]
51. Many foreclosed-upon mortgage loans have previously been securitized and are purportedly owned at the time of foreclosure by a securitization trust. Under the law governing the creation of many securitization trusts, the contractual arrangements setting forth the manner and conditions under which mortgage loans were to be sold into a securitization is crucial to whether the securitization succeeded in owning the mortgages it purportedly bought.
[…]
C. Defendants committed and continue to commit deceptive trade practices by assigning or foreclosing upon mortgages for which MERS did not possess authority to act because the mortgage loan was never properly transferred to the purported beneficial owner.
55. The MERS System is designed to reflect the intended transfer of the beneficial ownership of a mortgage loan, but does not have adequate safeguards to ensure that the transfer recorded in MERS System accurately reflects an actual transfer of ownership. Where MERS seeks to assign a mortgage or foreclose on a mortgage loan on behalf of a securitization trust that, despite being registered as the mortgage owner in the MERS System, does not own the loan, MERS acts without authority. This is a deceptive trade practice within the meaning of 6 Del. C. § 2532(a)(2), (3), (5) and (12).
I think MERS’ Janice Spokeswoman needs to be updated on all that happened from 1998-2002 before she comments.
Just like the others who have resigned when the company is on the brink of exposure. Wait until they get a hold of those who were involved from the beginning (X-CEO and X-VP/Treasurer)… who know what’s up.
But they will be reeled back in because they knew all along this was bound to happen. You ain’t so smart now… are you?
New York’s attorney general has subpoenaed MERS, the electronic registry of mortgages used by the banking industry, seeking information about how it is used by major banks, a person familiar with the matter said.
Delaware also took action by filing a lawsuit on Thursday that accuses MERS of taking unlawful shortcuts in dealing with the foreclosure crisis.
The registry used by the banking industry is “unreliable” and “frequently inaccurate,” Beau Biden, the state’s attorney general said in the lawsuit, which seeks penalties of $10,000 per violation.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a subpoena earlier this week demanding documents from MERS about how it is used by major banks, a source told Reuters.
The subpoena is part of a joint New York-Delaware mortgage probe, the source said.
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