MICHIGAN MESSENGER-

Curtis Hertel Jr., Register of Deeds for Ingham County, says that a discovery he made involving alleged fraudulent mortgage documents is now being investigated by both the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.

“Yes, this is, in my opinion, fraud,” Hertel said. “This is a situation where people were forging someone else’s name to a legal document to take another person’s property. That is fraud.”

New York Post-

The $2 billion battle has begun.

When the Suffolk County Legislature meets again next week, the county’s share of an estimated $2 billion in fees big banks saved with their electronic record-keeping system — bypassing paper mortgage records in county clerks’ offices — will top the agenda for legislator Ed Romaine.

In his previous job as county clerk, Romaine fought in court against the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, for several years in the early 2000s and lost. But he’s taking another run at it now as the firm’s shaky legal foundation is cracking and so many ordinary homeowners are suffering from questionable foreclosure actions involving MERS.

Curtis Hertel: “If you look at the signatures, it’s amazing that they thought they could get away with this.”

Via: Shame The Banks

The registry of deeds is supposed to be a sleepy place where you go to record your mortgage or look up how much your neighbors paid for their homes.

But at the Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds in Salem, haymakers are being thrown in a bare knuckles brawl featuring Register John O’Brien in one corner and Bank of America Corp. and other large banks in the other.

In O’Brien’s mind, big U.S. banks created a bogeyman called the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems to dodge paying recording fees when a mortgage is assigned. Early estimates indicate Massachusetts taxpayers have been deprived of anywhere from $200 million to $400 million-plus in lost revenue. O’Brien says his office alone has lost more than $22 million, but he calls that a conservative estimate.

Via TimesHerald:

COURTHOUSE — Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds Nancy Becker is urging registers of deeds across state and the country to withdraw public money from any banks affiliated with the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS), which she claims is undermining the practice of accurate land recording.

[…]

Since discovering the descrepancies, Becker has pulled the county funds out of Wells Fargo and transferred the money into Univest National Bank and Trust Company, a smaller local bank based in Souderton. The bank had been approached by MERS but decided not to partner with the cyber registry.

For Immediate Release

NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Salem, MA

April 14, 2011

Contact:

John O’Brien, Register of Deeds

978-542-1722

john.obrien@sec.state.ma.us

In light of the action taken by the Department of Treasury, The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Thrift Supervision and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, whereby they issued a Cease and Desist Consent Order against the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. “MERS”; Essex County Register of Deeds, John O’Brien , who has been leading a national effort to ensure that MERS and its member banks including Bank of America, J P Morgan Chase and others, be held accountable for the damage that they have inflicted on the land recordation system and their failure to pay recording fees, said that he is very encouraged that this action has been taken. O’Brien, however, cautioned that this is just the beginning of a very long process to ensure that these banks are held accountable both monetarily and legally for the damage that they have done.

O’Brien, along with Register of Deeds, Jeff Thigpen, of Guilford County, North Carolina, have asked that representatives of the Registers of Deeds across the nation be given a seat at the table during any discussions with MERS, its member banks and any and all government agencies. “It is imperative that we make sure that our voices are heard. As Registers, we have the responsibility to ensure that our records are accurate. We must never lose sight of the fact that millions of homeowners across this country have had their chain of title compromised. This is a very serious issue which needs to be addressed. In addition, MERS must be held accountable for their failure to pay billons of dollars in recording fees. Fees, I might add, that everyone else is required to pay. We will continue to lead this fight to make sure that these issues are not swept under the rug and settled for pennies on the dollar. The taxpayers must be made whole, and the homeowners must be guaranteed that their chain of title is accurate.” said O’Brien.

Norfolk County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell Requests Support on Behalf of Massachusetts Citizens

Norfolk County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell announced today that he has requested Attorney General Martha Coakley to examine the issue of whether the large lending conglomerates have failed to pay the recording fees associated with the sale and assignment of mortgages as mandated by Massachusetts Law.

Register O’Donnell’s request comes on the heels of the recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling U.S. Bank v. Ibanez, in which the Commonwealth’s highest court stated that when a holder of a mortgage seeks to exercise its right to foreclose upon a home that mortgage holder must prove that it is the valid owner of the mortgage at the time of foreclosure. The Ibanez case raises multiple issues concerning the practices of huge lending conglomerates utilizing the Mortgage Electronic Recording System, Inc. or “MERS” to keep track of the numerous and multiple sales and assignments of average homeowners’ mortgages.

Register O’Donnell states that, “Prior to 1995 the sale or assignment of a mortgage was traditionally confirmed by a recording at the Registry of Deeds. The transparency of this practice not only afforded safeguards and protections for homeowners but resulted in revenue to the Commonwealth, the counties, and our local communities.” O’Donnell adds that especially in these tough economic times when, “Local aid is being cut, public safety shortchanged, and drastic adjustments made the revenue loss implication cannot be overstated and warrants inquiry.” Register O’Donnell notes that while local community banks and lenders appeared to have followed long held recording practices the failure of the huge lending conglomerates to follow suit in Norfolk County may have resulted in anywhere from $1.5 to $3.1 million in lost revenue in 2010 alone. “It is a question of fundamental fairness and one to which I will personally support the Attorney General’s efforts at examining,” states O’Donnell.
.

via Gloucester Times

Kevin Harvey, the county’s First Assistant Register, said that it’s not just a matter of unpaid fees at stake.

There are 148,000 mortgages on record at the Southern Essex County Registry of Deeds with cloudy ownwership, Harvey said — in large prt because of the way MERS documented, or failed to document, the transfers.

“We have a forensic mortgage auditor looking at their records,” Harvey said. “Once we have that, we may find that their records aren’t accurate.

“There may be fraudulent assignments, and a significant amount of assignments that are not filed,” Harvey added. “They’d file the original transfer, but after that, they never recorded the assignments because they didn’t want anybody to know what they were doing behind the scenes.”

Continue to… Gloucester Times

Southern Essex County have your umbrellas handy, Storm is coming!

Some just won’t give in to fraud!

An Essex County official is boycotting Bank of America and calling on government agencies across the nation to follow suit to protest the firm’s ties to a controversial mortgage-recording network.

“We want to hit Bank of America in the pocketbook to send a message that’s loud and clear,” said Southern Essex County Register of Deeds John O’Brien, who’s taking his office’s business from Bank of America to locally owned Century Bank.

South Essex Register of Deeds John O’Brien said he has received a green light to withdraw what could be millions of dollars from accounts at Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).

Dear Mr. Thigpen,

We’re seeing great leaders like yourself take a stand against the banks for what they are doing to your counties. It’ was great seeing you join MA Register of Deeds John O’Brien and going after MERS for recording fees. Just this week register O’Brien made a request to Massachusetts State Treasurer Grossman to pull Bank of America Funds. He has asked that the Treasurer change depository banks.

Once again, he’s not alone.

We’re also learning that The village of Hempstead on Long Island is pulling its money from JPMorgan Chase and severing its ties with the bank to protest the bank’s lending and foreclosure policies.

The city’s treasurer, Ray Calame, said the village would soon begin to slowly withdraw the $12.5 million in operating funds and investments it had in Chase, ultimately ending Hempstead’s more than 20-year relationship with the bank.

This is truly a step forward and walking away from Wall Street to move it all back to Main Street where it belongs. Maybe others will consider following…will you?

…To Main Street

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Greensboro, NC
March 2, 2011

Contact:
Jeff Thigpen, Guilford County Register of Deeds
Ph. 336-451-5300
Ph. 336-641-3239
jthigpe@co.guilford.nc.us

THIGPEN WANTS TO TAKE ON MORTGAGE GIANTS:

SEEKS INVESTIGATION OF “MERS” FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF $1.3 MILLION IN LOST REVENUE TO GUILFORD COUNTY

Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen announced today that he will be conferring with County Attorney Mark Payne, NC Attorney General and Secretary of State as to whether the Mortgage Electronic Registration Service (MERS) owes Guilford County fees estimated at $1.3 million in lost revenue from mortgage assignments. Thigpen also wants to review pending legal actions against MERS and consider options to protect the integrity of public land recordation offices.

“As Register of Deeds, I have two primary responsibilities in land records: a sworn duty to protect the chain of title and a fiduciary responsibility to collect recording fees. Quite frankly, MERS has undermined both. Through their own “private for-profit” Register of Deeds mortgage tracking office, MERS has created a dangerous centralization of power whose sole purpose is to protect and serve the interests of major banking conglomerates and undermine public recording offices,” said Thigpen.

“For me, the question is clear. Do we want land records in America to be governed by major banking conglomerates on Wall Street or the people and laws of the United States of America?”

MERS has an electronic registry and database system that tracks more than 65 million mortgages for its paid membership throughout the country and aides the mortgage backed securities trade in the secondary market. MERS is reportedly involved in 60% of US mortgage loans. It was established by some of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States including Wells Fargo, Chase Mortgage, Citi Mortgage, Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. and Bank of America among others in 1997. A number of class action lawsuits and civil racketeering suits have arisen against MERS recently, including a suit alleging its members owe California $60-120 billion for circumventing land recording fees.

MERS has also been at the center of recent foreclosure chaos.

Since the founding of America, counties in the United States have maintained public records of land, mortgages and deeds of trust, by maintaining indexes of grantors and grantees. Register of Deeds offices ensure transparency and an important check and balance in private property ownership. County recording practices have been in place for 300 years. “It is interesting that the first fundamental change in public land title recording systems was not initiated by publicly elected leaders, but a small group of mortgage industry insiders. Now it’s coming back to bite all of us- homeowners and taxpayers. MERS creates a system where only certain eyes see the data and what’s going on. I have a real problem with that as a Recorder.

Thigpen is asking for clarity on the California suit and others surrounding MERS business practices in packaging and repackages home owner loans through securitization. MERS has saved larger financial firms millions of dollars while avoiding recordation and payment of fees related to mortgage transfers.

Since 2005 there were 47,553 deeds of trust that list MERS as a beneficiary filed in the Guilford County Register of Deeds office. Experts have indicated that those kinds of loans are repackaged and sold two and four times on average under the MERS system. “One repackaging of MERS documents would have generated $665,742 if documentation had been filed in our office. Two repackaged loans would have generated $1,331,484. And that’s conservative estimate.”
Thigpen maintains the lost recording fees would help local elected officials reduce budget deficits and maintain core services such as public education and public safety in this time of fiscal crisis.

Thigpen’s primary concern relates to recent court rulings in Arkansas, Kansas, Maine and Missouri questioning MERS legal standing in home foreclosures and suits challenging that MERS filings may be fraudulent. “If MERS filings are false statements, there are laws that say if you decrease the money that you pay for a service through using those false statements then you can get damages. The legal term is “unjust enrichment”. Thigpen wants to explore unjust enrichment and other options related to recovery of lost revenue.

Thigpen acknowledges that NC General Statutes do not currently require assignments to be filed in local Register of Deeds offices which allow the public to know the rightful owner of a mortgage. “That may need to change among other things”, says Thigpen. Thigpen points to a major policy change from MERS in the past two weeks conceding that assignments should be filed in public registries across the country even if the state law does not require it and instructed members not to foreclose in MERS name. “It indicates to me that they know they need to fix this.”
“It used to be that if you bought a house, the mortgage would stay at a single bank until you paid it off. Times have changed. Through securitization, mortgages are all put in a blender and sold off to Wall Street investors and Fannie and Freddie among others. MERS has its finger on the spin button. At the end of the day with MERS, Susie Homeowner can’t keep track of who owns her loan and if she’s going to get hit with new fees or even foreclosure.

“This type of unregulated greed is giving charity to all the people who should be giving it and undermines good business practices.” says Thigpen. Thigpen points out those local credit unions like State Employees Credit Union who didn’t participate in sub-prime lending have avoided legal difficulties.

“This is a mess and the MERS system impacts millions of homeowners across the country in danger of having their homes foreclosed”, said Thigpen. He wants a review of the lawsuits and investigations into MERS by state attorney generals and others and believes it will take a coordinated at the local, state and federal level to resolve it. “To me these issues with MERS are simple. Are major banking conglomerates going to tell the truth or not; and are we going choose to have two standards of justice in America: one for Big Money and the other for the rest of us?

Thigpen will also join Southern Sussex Massachusetts Register of Deeds John O’Brian, Jr. in urging national organizations such as the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers (IACREOT) to address MERS in the coming weeks.

###

[ipaper docId=49905843 access_key=key-1ykglmdpmac8r1usd1c0 height=600 width=600 /]

Excerpt:

In light of these issues, we request that Wells Fargo agree not to institute or complete any foreclosure action in this State, including foreclosure sales and evictions, until it can show that its affidavit procedures have been fully reviewed and reformed to be in compliance with law.

NC Letter

[ipaper docId=43454136 access_key=key-h1u3px2qh0o52yvi29g height=600 width=600 /]

JPMorgan, Bank of America Face `Hydra’ of State Foreclosure Investigations

By Margaret Cronin Fisk – Oct 6, 2010 12:01 AM ET

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Ally Financial Inc., defending allegations of fraudulent home foreclosures from customers and Congress, may face the most financial peril from investigations by state attorneys general.

Authorities in at least seven states are probing whether lenders used false documents and signatures to justify hundreds of thousands of foreclosures, and the number of these inquiries will grow, according to state officials and legal experts.

“You’re going to see a tremendous amount of activity with all the AGs in the U.S.,” Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said in an interview. “We have a high degree of skepticism that the corners that were cut are truly legal.”

JPMorgan, Bank of America and Ally have curtailed foreclosures or evictions in 23 states where courts have jurisdiction over home seizures.

While homeowners in those states and elsewhere must usually show damages to win a lawsuit, “attorneys general can just sue over deceptive sales practices and get penalties,” said Christopher Peterson, a University of Utah law professor who specializes in commercial and contract law.

In Ohio, penalties include fines up to $25,000 per violation, with each false affidavit or document considered a violation, according to state law enforcement officials. In Iowa, fines rise to a maximum of $40,000 for each violation.

Foreclosure Freeze

This penalty would apply to “every instance of an affidavit that was filed improperly or every time facts were attested to that weren’t true,” said Cordray. His counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has called for a freeze on foreclosures and said the submissions are a “possible fraud on the court.”

Officials in Ohio and Connecticut, along with Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Iowa and Illinois, said they are investigating mortgage foreclosure practices.

Continue reading …BLOOMBERG

.

HELLO?? Isn’t this EXACTLY what is happening with these Illegal Foreclosures??

5/10/2010

Imagine leaving your home for a while and coming back to find the locks have been changed, all your stuff is gone and there is a stranger in your house, living there. That’s just what happened to one couple. Matt Meagher has INSIDE EDITION’s investigation.

When Tom Decker and his wife Maria tried to open the door of their weekend home in Northern California, they were horrified to find the locks had been changed, and most surprising of all, a total stranger living inside.

“I was in shock. I was in total shock, ” said Maria MacArther.

It was as if they had stepped into a nightmare. Their home, which they owned for three years, was apparently no longer theirs.

So who was the stranger in their house? It was Daniel Judd.

Tom Decker told INSIDE EDITION, “He said, ‘I live here, what are you doing here?’ and we said ‘we own this house.’ He said, ‘I bought this house, this is my house.’ ”

The first thing Tom and Maria did was call the sheriffs office. But when a deputy arrived, Judd produced a deed with his name on it.

Believe it or not, it was Tom and Maria who were ordered to leave.

Santa Cruz Assistant District Attorney Kelly Walker said, “The people come back from vacation and find someone living in their house, can you imagine what you would feel like if that happened?”

The next day, when Judd left the house, the Deckers broke back into their own home. What they found was disturbing. Their clothing, furniture and appliances packed away in the garage.

They also said they discovered anti-government literature, guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Tom pointed out some of the bullets and said, “These are 45 caliber bullets and you can see that they are hollow point.”

Meagher asked Judd, “Did you steal this person’s home?”

“Absolutely not,” said Judd.

On the surface, Judd seemed to have a case for ownership. He had a deed, with his name on it, which had been filed in the county recorder’s office. He said he paid $14,000 for the Deckers’ home. Yet the house, tucked inside the woods, is worth $500,000.

So who had Judd bought it from? It sure wasn’t the Deckers. It was from 38-year-old Ray Tate, a real estate speculator. Turns out Tate and Judd had been acquaintances and concocted a scheme to grab the Decker’s home out from under them.

So how could someone possibly think they could get away with selling a house that clearly didn’t belong to them?

INSIDE EDITION tried to talk to Tate about the shady deal.

Meagher asked Tate, “How did you think you could take somebody’s home, a home that didn’t belong to you and turn around and sell it?”

He didn’t want to talk, saying, “I have no comment.”

Prosecutor Kelly Walker found that the deed had been forged. Tate and Judd had targeted the Deckers’ home because they thought it had been abandoned. They were busted on conspiracy charges and filing a false deed.

“They’re just manipulating legal documents to try to gain something that they don’t own. It’s stealing something, plain and simple,” said Walker.

The Deckers are now back in possession of their home. But they are still trying to sort out the mess the con-men caused.

Tom said, “The property is still not in our name, it is still owned by Mr. Judd, at least on paper. Everyone knows it’s a fraudelent transaction.”

Daniel Judd, the man who was living in the house, pled guilty and could face a year in jail. Ray Tate, the man who fraudulently sold the house, was found guilty, he faces up to four years behind bars.

According to the AARP, the best way to safeguard from losing your home in a scam like this is to check with the recorder’s office from time to time to make sure that the deed’s still in your name and that all signatures look legitamite. And if something does look a little fishy, it’s important to contact the district attorney’s office immediately.